DOJ proposing to buy Google Chrome for $20B if judge OKs sale: Reports

usatoday.com

10 points·ndesaulniers··11 comments

The article title is “DOJ proposing forced sale of Google Chrome, could fetch $20 billion if judge OKs: Report”

The US department of Justice is not buying google chrome, they are proposing to the courts that google be forced to sell chrome.

They modified the headline since I submitted it.

Wait- why would the DOJ buy Chrome? Is that something that they do, buy things? I don't want the government to own my web browser. That seems worse than a private company monopoly.

I like how it's phrased as though this is a negative from Google's perspective (somehow):

> a potentially huge blow to the world's second-largest technology company.

If Google doesn't have to pay for the development of their browser but also gets to keep AdSense, YouTube and presumably the Apple integration, that's a hugely pro-Google remediation.

i had the impression advertizing was its own monopoly issue apart from the search monopoly,android, was another separate issue as well.

I have never seen DOJ propose to buy an asset of a company to reduce their monopoly; I don't think it's commonly done (or even proposed).

The government owning Chrome is about the worst possible thing I can imagine happening to Chrome. They wouldn't know what to do with it.

> They wouldn't know what to do with it.

I'd be more worried that they do know what to do with it.

Reading the updated article, it looks like DOJ wants to force google to sell chrome, but not the DOJ. Presumably to a competitor?

ok- that was *NOT* what the article said before. That makes a little more sense.

i think if DOJ buys Chrome, they can decimate google and not have to replace chrome, its thiers[ours] now?

The article never actually says that. Bad title.

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