Google Urges DOJ to Reverse Course on Breaking Up Company

Google is urging officials at President Donald Trump's Justice Department to back away from a push to break up the search engine company, citing national security concerns, according to people familiar with the discussions. 

Representatives for the Alphabet unit asked the government in a meeting last week to take a less aggressive stance as the US looks to end what a judge ruled to be an illegal online search monopoly, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the private deliberations.

The Biden administration in November had called for Google to sell its Chrome web browser and make other changes to its business including an end to billions of dollars in exclusivity payments to companies including Apple Inc. 

Although Google has previously pushed back on the Biden-era plan, the recent discussions may preview aspects of the company's approach to the case as it continues under the Trump administration. A federal judge is set to rule on how Google must change its practices following hearings scheduled for next month. Both sides are due to file their final proposals to the judge on Friday.

“We routinely meet with regulators, including with the DOJ to discuss this case,” Peter Schottenfels, a Google spokesperson, said in a statement. “As we've publicly said, we're concerned the current proposals would harm the American economy and national security.”

A spokesperson for Justice Department declined to comment.

Google's argument isn't new, and it has previously raised these concerns in public in response to antitrust pressure from regulators and lawmakers. But the company is re-upping the issue in discussions with officials at the department under Trump  because the case is in its second stage, known as the “remedy” phase, during which the court can impose sweeping changes on Google's business.

After the Justice Department proposed its remedy in November, Kent Walker, Google's chief legal officer, said in a blog post that the department was pursuing a “radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America's global technology leadership.” In a separate post in January, unrelated to the department's case, Walker highlighted the company's work with the government in using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to police cybersecurity threats.

Illegal Monopoly

In a landmark ruling last August, a federal judge found the company illegally monopolized the search and search advertising markets. The Biden administration move to seek a breakup of the company is Washington's first since unsuccessful efforts to split up Microsoft two decades ago.

During their meeting last week, company representatives argued that Google's critical importance to the US economy and national security requires a softer touch, according to the people. They didn't raise specific threats from the DOJ proposed changes, the people said.

In November, the Justice Department asked US District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington to force Google to sell its popular web browser Chrome and license data to rivals, outlaw payments to Apple Inc. and others for pre-installing its search engine on their devices and curtail investments in AI companies, among other requests.

Google's national security arguments echo recent statements from President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, urging European Union regulators to back off from their approach to US tech giants. In a statement late last month the White House called out two European Union laws, the Europe Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act saying, “America's economy will not be a source of revenue for countries that have failed to cultivate economic success of their own.”

And in 2022 Google and other major tech companies including Meta Platforms, Amazon, and Apple pushed back vociferously against an antitrust bill that would have required them to open up their networks to competitors, by arguing in part that they would cause the US tech sector to cede ground to China.

AI Investments

Acting Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Omeed Assefi will make the final decision on what the Justice Department will recommend later this week. Assefi is running the antitrust division until Trump's nominee Gail Slater is confirmed. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 20-2 last week to send Slater's nomination to the full chamber, but a vote hasn't yet been scheduled.

The changes under consideration by the Justice Department include whether restrictions on Google's AI investments should be retroactive or forward-looking only, the people said. Under the current proposal Google would have to unwind its investments in companies including Anthropic, Bloomberg previously reported. Anthropic recently weighed in “to address the threat to its business and contractual relationships with” Google it says are teed up by the Justice Department's proposal.

Separately, in recent weeks the two sides have been preparing for the April hearings, including a deposition late last week of Google CEO Sundar Pichai by government lawyers. Liz Reid, the company's head of search, is scheduled to be deposed this week. Employees from Microsoft Corp., OpenAI and Perplexity AI have also sat for depositions in the past several weeks, according to the people. 

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