Why Google could be forced to sell Chrome as Yahoo 'prepared to buy' search engine
US Attorney General Pam Bondi has described the ruling as a 'landmark victory' for the US
Google is currently on trial in Washington DC having been found guilty by the state of Virginia after it was accused of having violated antitrust laws by monopolizing digital advertising markets.
While discussing means in which Google can mitigate the issue, antitrust enforcers speculated that one way to do that would be for the world's largest search engine to sell Chrome - which Yahoo has responded to by saying it would be 'prepared to buy' the search engine.
If a federal court were to order Google, owned by $1.99 trillion company Alphabet Inc., to divest Chrome, then Yahoo would be open to purchasing it, the rival company's general manager Brian Provost told the court.
Yahoo is owned by Apollo Global Management, whose market cap is valued at $80 billion. Market cap is the total market value of a company's outstanding shares of stock.
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Testifying on Thursday (April 24), Provost estimated that Chrome would have a retail price in the tens of billions of dollars.
"[Chrome is] arguably the most important strategic player on the web,” he told the court. "We would be able to pursue it with Apollo."
However, if Google was forced to sell Chrome, Yahoo would have competition - one of those companies that would be vying for a signature is OpenAI.
Speaking at the trial on Tuesday, ChatGPT chief Nick Turley told judges that his company would be interested in purchasing the browser.
“Yes, we would, as would many other parties,” he said, in response to whether OpenAI would want to buy Chrome.
On Thursday last week, the US Department of Justice announced that the 'Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice prevailed in its second monopolization case against Google'.
That was when the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found that Google 'harmed' its 'publishing customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web'.
Speaking about the case, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said: "This is a landmark victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from monopolizing the digital public square.
"This Department of Justice will continue taking bold legal action to protect the American people from encroachments on free speech and free markets by tech companies."
While Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater, of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, added: "The Court’s ruling is clear: Google is a monopolist and has abused its monopoly power.
"Google’s unlawful dominance allows them to censor and even deplatform American voices. And at the same time, Google destroyed and hid information that exposed its illegal conduct.
"Today’s opinion confirms Google’s controlling hand over online advertising and, increasingly, the internet itself. I am extraordinarily proud of the dedicated public servants whose tireless efforts led to today’s decision."
Joe Yates