Here’s Who the Department of Justice is Targeting Now

What Happened?

The Department of Justice (DoJ) is moving closer towards forcing Alphabet Inc [GOOG] to spin off its Chrome browser product.

Alphabet is the parent company of Google. Alphabet as a whole is valued at $2.1 trillion. It’s the fifth biggest company in the world after Nvidia [NVDA], Apple [AAPL], Microsoft [MSFT], and Amazon [AMZN].

The case has been with the DoJ since 2020. But now it appears to be getting closer to making a demand that will — in theory at least — limit the company’s market dominance when it comes to search advertising.

Based on reports, it suggests the judge dealing with the case is likely to make a ruling by August 2025. The question is, what impact will it have?

Why it Matters

If you cast your memory back, you’ll remember this isn’t the first time (and won’t be the last) that the government has tried to break-up a dominant business.

One of the most recent examples was Microsoft back in the late 1990s.

At that time, Microsoft had a dominant position in the personal computer industry — it still has. But the way it packaged its products caused many to accuse the company of misusing its market position.

Although Microsoft wasn’t broken up, it did settle with the DoJ. That resulted in it agreeing to ‘unbundle’ the Internet Explorer browser from the Windows 95 operating system.

Later, in 2009, Microsoft faced similar issues with the European Union (EU). The EU also demanded Microsoft unbundle Internet Explorer from its operating system.

Considering the continued growth of the internet, there were concerns this would have a major negative effect on the company. Not too dissimilar to the concerns investors have about a potential forced break-up of Alphabet/Google today.

But despite that, Microsoft survived. In fact, since 2009 Microsoft’s stock price is up 1,956%. Of course, the stock isn’t up because it unbundled Internet Explorer. It’s up because the business was able to adapt.

And that’s relevant to Alphabet/Google today…

How it Affects You

To be clear, the proposed solution about forcing Google to sell its Chrome browser product isn’t the same as the issue facing Microsoft two decades ago.

That involved simply removing one aspect of the Windows product, meaning buyers would have to download Internet Explorer separately.

In this instance, the DoJ wants Google to completely divest Chrome, so that it will be owned by a separate company. Considering Chrome has helped Google consolidate its search dominance, on the surface it could spell trouble.

Because this isn’t just about using a browser. The Chrome browser allows Google to get a more accurate profile of those that use it, so it can help its advertising customers with better targeting of ads. The Chrome browser of today is a lot more sophisticated than Internet Explorer of nearly 20 years ago.

But as we mentioned above, tech companies can move fast. Which means that often when the Justice Department or other government entities are dealing with them, they’re ‘fighting the last war’.

While Microsoft was fighting off governments in the U.S. and Europe, it was also transitioning its business. The stock price over the past 15 years shows it succeeded in doing that.

Bottom line: We can’t know for sure how Alphabet/Google will deal with being forced to sell-off a key business unit… but we can be almost 100% sure that it has already developed a plan to deal with it.

Don’t be surprised if Google’s stock price over the next 15 years matches Microsoft’s performance of the last 15 years.