Google parent Alphabet Inc., Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. tumbled as the companies appear set to undergo U.S. antitrust probes after the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission agreed to split up oversight of technology giants.
“If the DOJ moves ahead, an investigation would likely embolden critics of Facebook, Amazon and other tech giants as well, causing rhetoric to heat up during the 2020 election year,” analysts led by Justin Post at Merrill Lynch wrote in a note to investors. European officials have already been aggressively pursuing antitrust cases against American tech firms, including Google, while so far the U.S. has been mostly hands-off.
Google, with a sprawling empire of businesses that could feasibly be targets, is in the dark about the focus of the investigation and hopes to learn more this week, according to another person familiar with the situation. A Google spokesman declined to comment.
Good, good, good!