When it comes to operating in business on the absolute highest tiers, things aren’t always black and white. Sometimes, a massive company needs to step into a grey area to get things done, and depending on who you are, you might not necessarily hold that against them.
Google donated $1m towards the Trump inauguration, and its CEO, Sundar Pichai, made a personal appearance. It’s not cynical to believe that those moves were made to curry favor with the new presidency. However, Google’s biggest battle at the moment doesn’t seem to have been mitigated by those gestures. It may still need to split from Chrome.
The DOJ’s Proposed Judgement in November Recommended That Chrome Be Split From Google
Google Chrome is the biggest browser in the world, whether you’re exclusively looking at mobile platforms or desktop platforms. It’s a no-brainer for those who have Android phones, as it syncs with numerous other Google services particularly well. It comes installed on Android devices and positions many Google services as the default option when using the app—most notably when it comes to search.
Unfortunately, while Google loves the little Chrome and Search synergy that it has going on, the US Department of Justice doesn’t. The idea is that the massive scale of Google Chrome allows the tech giant to position its search engine with too much of an advantage over competitors and the extent of it ultimately constitutes a monopoly, which the DOJ doesn’t like at all.
One of the remedies that was presented by the DOJ in a proposed judgment was that Google could sell off Chrome. Doing so would put another interest behind the browser instead of Google. That would mean less incentive to promote Google Search in the app, and it would make it easier to embrace competing options in the search engine space. However, that was merely a proposed judgment.
Despite Attempts to Curry Political Favor, Google May Still Lose Its Market-Leading Browser
The proposed judgment made by the Department of Justice in November was under the Biden administration, though it came following the election. With a new president in place, things have switched up in the Department of Justice, with a new Attorney General taking the seat, and quite naturally, that presented the opportunity for the proposed judgment made in November to be revised.
Likely in a move to curry favor with the new administration, Google donated $1m to the Trump inauguration, and its CEO made a personal appearance at the event as a show of support. It doesn’t need to be said explicitly, but one can expect that such a gesture is meant to put the tech giant in the good books of the president.
Unfortunately, it seems that investment might not have paid off in the manner that they would have hoped. Last week, the US Department of Justice filed a revised proposed judgment, and despite the revision, a lot of things remain the same. Google would still need to sell off Chrome. However, it would be able to escape selling off its AI investments and the Android OS if it plays by the rules, so at least there’s that return on investment.
