


Google Search is considered to be the technology industry’s greatest business. It allows Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to generate more profit than any other U.S. company, including Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and Berkshire Hathaway.
In the wake of Judge Amit P. Mehta’s ruling on Tuesday in an antitrust lawsuit, Google is positioned to keep that business running largely without interruption.
The Silicon Valley giant, which was found in a trial last year to have abused a monopoly over the search industry, has to make only modest changes to correct its behavior. Under Judge Mehta’s ruling, it will have to share more of its data with competitors and create an oversight committee to monitor its business practices. But it can continue many operations that the government challenged in the lawsuit, including its payments to Apple to automatically handle search queries and its control over the Chrome browser.
Google’s share price jumped more than 8 percent in after-hours trading, as investors celebrated the ruling.
Here’s a closer look at what the ruling means for Google’s business, should it be upheld after what is expected to be a lengthy appeals process.
Google must share only certain data.
Under Judge Mehta’s ruling, Google is required to hand over some search results to rival companies. Sharing its data, which has been the backbone of its search engine, could help Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity and others improve their search products.