Breaking up is hard to do: why it’s unlikely the DOJ will take apart Google
Bloomberg reported that the Justice Department is considering breaking up Google as a potential solution to the search giant’s monopoly. But while such a remedy is within the court’s purview, it’s incredibly unlikely, as Sherwood previously reported.
Cornell University professor and leading antitrust authority George Hay told us the move probably wouldn’t happen for two reasons:
1) It’s not clear how you would take apart a company that’s so interconnected.
“You don’t have little different factories where you can say, ‘These factories go here, and those factories go there,’” Hay said. “It’s hard to know what it would mean to break Google up.”
2) The courts never do it.
“Historically, there aren’t that many monopoly cases, and courts have very, very rarely ever used an antitrust case to break up a company. It just doesn’t happen.”
Cornell University professor and leading antitrust authority George Hay told us the move probably wouldn’t happen for two reasons:
1) It’s not clear how you would take apart a company that’s so interconnected.
“You don’t have little different factories where you can say, ‘These factories go here, and those factories go there,’” Hay said. “It’s hard to know what it would mean to break Google up.”
2) The courts never do it.
“Historically, there aren’t that many monopoly cases, and courts have very, very rarely ever used an antitrust case to break up a company. It just doesn’t happen.”
