Google May Be Forced To Sell Chrome Browser, Sale Could Be Worth $20 Billion

The latest in a string of bad news for tech giant Google: Department of Justice (DOJ) officials are likely to ask a judge presiding over an antitrust case concerning the company to force the sale of its Chrome browser, as Bloomberg Law reported.

Following an August ruling by federal judge Amit Mehta that declared Google had illegally monopolized the search market, DOJ antitrust officials not only are expected to ask for the forced sale of Chrome but also that Google separate Search and Google Play from its popular Android smartphone operating system, per The Verge.

Chrome Browser Sale Could Be Worth $20 Billion

According to Statista data from August 2023, the Chrome browser represents about 64% of the global web browser market share, making it the most popular browser worldwide. A Bloomberg Intelligence analyst suggested that, if a sale is indeed forced by law, Chrome could be worth “at least $15-$20 billion, given it has over 3 billion monthly active users.”

Several factors play into the current suite of allegations against Google. For one, the massive capture of the majority of the browser market is key to the continued success of Google Ads, a major revenue stream for Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company. Signed-in users provide valuable data to the company via search histories and other activity — data that is innately valuable to advertisers Google serves.

As Bloomberg Law explained, Google is also funneling users into interactions with its own AI model, Gemini, which “has the potential to evolve from an answer-bot to an assistant that follows users around the web.”

Google Responds to Legal Pressure

In response to the recent news, a Google spokesperson made it clear that the company is not pleased with the pressure being exerted by government officials in this case.

“The DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said in a statement, per CNET. “The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed.”

DOJ officials, on the other hand, have so far refused to comment.