Google’s parent Alphabet might have to split its businesses into different companies, according to sources that spoke to Bloomberg. The United States Department of Justice plans to separate Android and Chrome from Google, and there are talks about AdWords going independent.
These are the harshest propositions discussed, but there are less severe measures to prevent Google from gaining a monopoly, including forcing the company to share more data with competitors and measures to prevent it from abusing its position.
The talks in the DoJ have intensified, following a ruling from earlier this month, when Judge Amit Mehta ruled Google illegally monopolised the search engine market, paying over $2.5 billion to companies like Apple and Samsung to implements its online search and search text ads.
The judge’s decision was historic, as it was the first time an American company was found guilty by an American court in the past 40 years.
The last time something similar happened was in the early 1980s when AT&T was found to be gaining an illegal advantage over competitors in the fixed telephone business. In 1984, it was ordered to split its services into different companies.
The US authorities tried something similar with Microsoft two decades ago and failed, and now time will tell if it will succeed in pushing Google to divest Chrome, Android, and AdWords, its most lucrative businesses.