DOJ Considers “Splitting Off” Chrome and Android From Google

Google issued a statement last night after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) shared an outline of demands it is considering following a judge finding that Google is a monopolist through how they distribute Google Search. The statement from Google talks through several of the proposals that the DOJ laid out, including what the future of Chrome and Android may end up being.

We’ve linked Google’s full statement below, but the most interesting (and related to us) part is the section titled “Splitting off Chrome or Android would break them — and many other things.” The idea of Chrome and Android no longer being a part of Google is a wild one, but that could be the future.

The DOJ said in a filing that it is considering if “behavioral and structural remedies” are needed that “would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products.” And that could mean forcing Google to sell parts of its business, like Chrome or Android.

Google, as you can imagine, thinks this would be bad. I think the biggest piece of their argument is a line that reads, “Few companies would have the ability or incentive to keep them open source, or to invest in them at the same level we do.” In other words, if they were forced to sell them off, they do not believe that someone will (or can) keep building for either platform the way Google does. They also believe that Chrome and Android as separate businesses would lead to increased costs on devices and allow Apple to further dominate in the US.

It’s such a massive idea to think about that I’m not sure we know how this would truly look or what could happen to Android. Does someone like Microsoft buy Android and maintain it at Google’s level? Does it become an independent entity that needs to find a way to make money? Does it lead to companies like Samsung retreating into a further-closed ecosystem? I don’t know.

And look, the other side of this is that the DOJ focuses on the behavioral remedies over the structural, which means Google keeps Android and Chrome and they need to be less monopolistic.

We’ll keep an eye on this for sure.

// Google