The U.S. Justice Department wants to break up Google and Chrome

Google hopes to delay the case until a business-friendly Trump gets control of the DOJ—but that may not be the blessing the company hopes for.

- MICHAEL CRIDER

One day after Bloomberg's initial report, it's now official (fave. co/3ZFRgo0): The Department of Justice has requested that the judge in the antitrust case order Google to divest itself of the Chrome browser. The prosecutors are also suggesting that Google be forced to offer its search result data to competitors in a syndication model and no longer bundle Search with the Android mobile operating system. The original story continues below.

Back in August a U.S. federal court found Google guilty of violating anti-trust laws (fave. co/3OZIB9P), and the fallout could be the biggest antitrust action since the breakup of AT&T and Bell way back in the 1980s. But exactly what the enforcement action will look like is still very much up in the air. Recent reports indicate that the U.S. Department of Justice is going to suggest that Google be forced to sell the Chrome browser.

That's according to Bloomberg (fave.co/4gkFc0C), which has been rock-solid on this case for years. Previously the DOJ was said to be considering some kind of breakup of Google's big three corporate assets: Search, Chrome, and Android. Some or all of them were on the table, but the DOJ has apparently settled on Chrome as the piece of the monopoly puzzle that has to go.

The federal team will also suggest that Google be forced to refrain from making the kind of exclusivity contracts that have become a staple of its OEM partnerships (fave.co/4gk3BDK) for Android and Chrome devices, according to the report.