Both Class A and C shares of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) popped about 8.4%, as of 10:48 a.m. ET today, after a federal judge ruled that the conglomerate will not have to divest its massive Chrome search business.
In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a landmark lawsuit against Google for monopolistic practices in the search engine space, specifically related to its digital advertising practices. Last year, a federal judge sided with the DOJ and found that Google had run an illegal monopoly. The DOJ then requested that a judge require Google to divest its Chrome browser, a big driver of the company’s search business that makes up more than half of the company’s total revenue.
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