4 Details That Could Complicate Chrome's Forced $50B Sale
A forced sale of Google Chrome might sound like a clean fix for the Big Tech firm's search monopoly, but a closer look shows that it's far more complicated.
As part of its proposed remedies in the ongoing search monopoly case against Google, the Justice Department is angling to force a sale of Chrome and its open-source technology Chromium-one that insiders say would be as technically fraught as it is historically unprecedented. Other remedies include requiring Google to share data, offer greater transparency to advertisers, and unwind exclusive $20 billion deals with phone makers.
Even critics of Google's market dominance admit Chrome's scale-installed on more than 4 billion devices-and its integration with Google's tech stack, make it uniquely difficult to disentangle. With near-total reliance on Google's infrastructure, any sale could trigger new antitrust concerns, fracture the user experience, and threaten a key part of the web.
"It's definitely a complicated and unprecedented [remedy]," said Vidushi Dyall, director of legal analysis, Chamber of Progress, who attended the ongoing trial.
Companies like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Yahoo have reportedly expressed interest in buying Chrome. Meanwhile the DOJ appears determined to move forward, but here's what complicates the potential sale.
1. Trading one monopoly for another
If the DOJ forces Chrome to market, any buyer big enough to afford it could face immediate antitrust scrutiny, sources said. With 4 billion users, acquiring Chrome would give one company control over nearly 67% of global internet browsing.
"Anyone big enough to acquire [Chrome] is going to come up with their own antitrust issues," said Andrew Buckman, vice president of marketing and investor relations at Azerion.
While Microsoft hasn't officially pitched to buy Chrome, its size, financial muscle, and existing search engine business make it a top contender-one that Judge Amit Mehta has acknowledged could be the only company capable of buying Chrome, according to Dyall.
However, Microsoft already has exclusive syndication deals with smaller search engines like DuckDuckGo. If it acquired Chrome, it could gain access to default search traffic and block rivals from leveraging the browser's scale, defying the very purpose of the existing search trial.
"Microsoft isn't beholden to any of these constraints, so they can take full advantage of the remedies without fear of recourse," Dyall said.
2. 75% Chrome users could flee
Chrome has been developed in-house since day one. "Chrome today represents 17 years of collaboration between the Chrome people and the rest of Google," Parisa Tabriz, the browser's general manager, testified in court last week.
Some of Chrome's core features, like safe browsing and password breach alerts, rely on Google-wide systems, which Tabriz said, "I don't think could be recreated."
According to Dyall, this deep integration gives Google a clear advantage. "To split it apart doesn't make sense because it's so deeply embedded in their infrastructure," she said.
But as David Locala, former head of global technology M&A at Citi, testified, a Chrome sale could result in significant user attrition. Even a 75% drop in users would still leave 1 billion monthly active users, he said.
However, stripping Chrome of its Google integrations could diminish its value and alienate users accustomed to a seamless Google experience. As Dyall put it, "What [Locala] didn't answer is: What does a divested Chrome look like if it loses 75% of its user base?"
3. The Chromium cliff
At least 25 browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Opera, Brave, DuckDuckGo are supported by Chromium. Tabriz said in court that Google has contributed more than 90% of the code for Chromium since 2015 and invested hundreds of millions of dollars, while 1,000 engineers within her division have contributed to the project.
While Chromium is technically free for anyone to use, such evidences indicate that Google does the heavy lifting when it comes to maintaining it, said Dyall.
"If Chromium is divested from Google, the tech giant has no incentive to continue contributing to it," she said. "The business model of all of these projects will come into question."
4. The monetization squeeze
The price tag for Chrome is steep-estimated at over $50 billion, according to DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg, who testified in court.
Any buyer willing to make that kind of investment would likely seek to recoup it, possibly at the expense of user experience, said Ameet Shah, partner and svp of publisher operations at Prohaska Consulting. This could involve more aggressive ad placements, fundamentally changing how people experience Chrome.
"Chrome is a tough sale because there's no money in Chrome itself," said Shah. "The new owner can change things like run ads and then Chrome becomes something different to what it is today."
This shift could also bring new privacy concerns. Monetizing Chrome through ads could impact how user data is handled.
"Privacy becomes a much bigger issue and depends on who will try to sell that inventory,' Shah added.
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