Google faces a reckoning

Shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, were down in premarket trading on Wednesday on news that the Justice Department is said to be considering breaking up the technology giant for maintaining an illegal search monopoly.

That would be a devastating blow for the company, but it could also have huge ramifications for the broader tech sector, with Apple, Amazon and Meta all facing their own antitrust battles with the government.

A recap: In a ruling last week, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia agreed with the government and multiple states that Google’s dominance in search was constraining competition. Google said it would appeal.

Mehta has asked both parties to submit suggested remedies by Sept. 4, with a hearing set to take place two days later.

Dismantling Google is one potential remedy the government is discussing, The Times’s David McCabe and Nico Grant report. That could involve forcing the company to break off Chrome, its web browser, or its Android smartphone operating system as a penalty for maintaining an illegal monopoly in search, a business that has generated enormous profits for years. (Bloomberg earlier reported details of the discussions.)

It would be the most significant antitrust ruling against a tech company since a drawn out effort more than two decades ago that targeted Microsoft. That move was ultimately reversed on appeal, but it slowed Microsoft’s dominance enough to open the door to new rivals, including Google.