The US government is weighing up the possibility of breaking up Google, but investors seem largely unfazed at the threat to the $2 trillion search giant.
Alphabet shares dipped but only slightly after the US Department of Justice said it was considering “behavioural and structural remedies” to prevent Google using products such as Chrome and Android to monopolise online search.
Behavioural remedies seeking specific commitments from Google are one thing, but the reference to “structural” remedies might have sounded ominous to Alphabet investors.
Instead, investors were nonplussed, suggesting an end to Google’s search dominance “remains the stuff of fantasy”, as the Financial Times’ Lex column put it.
Investors recognise the notoriously slow pace of regulatory legal action. The department’s complaint against Google was initially filed in 2020, and the case will likely drag on for many more years. Commentators also note that the last big tech antitrust case, against Microsoft in 2001, didn’t result in a break-up of the company.
Nevertheless, Bill Gates has since said there is “no doubt” that the antitrust lawsuit was “bad for Microsoft”, saying Windows could have become the world’s dominant mobile operating system were it not for the distraction of the case. Google, faced with AI rivals hoping to finally end its search dominance, can’t afford to be similarly distracted.
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