The U.S. Department of Justice is pushing for a mandatory sale of Google Chrome browser, which could command a price tag of up to $20 billion pending approval from a federal judge, according to recent reports.
The proposed forced divestiture comes after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta's August ruling that Google illegally monopolized the search market. The judge determined that Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, paid $26 billion in 2021 to make Chrome the default browser across smartphones and computers, effectively blocking competition.
"Google's dominance has gone unchallenged for well over a decade," Mehta stated in his memorandum opinion. "Google's distribution agreements foreclose a substantial portion of the general search services market and impair rivals' opportunities to compete."
The DOJ is preparing to establish new requirements regarding Google's artificial intelligence capabilities and Android operating system. Multiple states have joined the antitrust lawsuit, including Tennessee, Texas, California, Florida, and others.
Chrome currently dominates the U.S. browser market with a 61% share, according to StatCounter. The browser serves as a gateway to Google's various services, including its new AI chatbot Gemini.
Industry analysts estimate Chrome's value between $15-20 billion, based on its massive user base of over 3 billion monthly active users. However, measuring Chrome's true value presents challenges since it primarily serves as an access point to other Google services rather than generating direct revenue.
Google strongly opposes the DOJ's proposal. Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president of regulatory affairs, stated that the Justice Department "continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case" and warned that government intervention could harm American technological leadership.
The case's next status conference is scheduled for November 26 in the District of Columbia court. Any forced sale of Chrome would likely impact Google's highly profitable advertising business, which has helped drive Alphabet's market value to over $2 trillion.