Google may be broken up by US Department of Justice

Google’s parent company Alphabet may have to transform its different units into independent companies. While the US Department of Justice plans to separate Android and Chrome with Google; It is among the rumors that AdWords may also gain independence.

It should be noted that these are the harshest solution suggestions. There are also lighter measures that can be implemented to prevent Google from becoming a monopolist. These include forcing the company to share more data with rivals and measures to prevent it from abusing its position.

Deliberations at the U.S. Department of Justice led Judge Amit Mehta to conclude that Google had illegally established a monopoly on the search engine market; It intensified after it was found to have paid companies such as Apple and Samsung over $2.5 billion to implement online search and search text advertising. The decision was announced earlier this month.

It is worth noting that this decision has a historical nature. This is the first time in the last 40 years that an American company has been found guilty by an American court.

The last time something similar happened was in the early 1980s, when it was revealed that AT&T had gained an illegal advantage over rivals in the landline phone business. In 1984 it was ordered to split its services into different companies.

Before Google, Microsoft also faced a similar threat

The US tried something similar with Microsoft twenty years ago and failed. Time will tell whether the pressure to divest Google’s most lucrative businesses, Chrome, Android and AdWords, will yield results.