Google won't be forced to sell Chrome after judge rules divestment a 'poor fit' in landmark antitrust case
Alexis Keenan and Daniel HowleyWed, September 3, 2025 at 12:02 AM Google ( GOOG , GOOGL ) won't be forced to sell Chrome after a federal district judge ruled divestment a "poor fit" in a landmark antitrust case, but it will have to share data that helped it hold onto its search monopoly. The ruling from District of Columbia judge Amit Mehta sent Google's stock soaring by more than 8% in after-hours trading. As part of the decision Mehta ruled that Google can continue to make payments to "distribution partners for preloading or placement of Google Search, Chrome, or GenAI products." That allows for Google to continue to make its $20 billion per year payments to Apple in exchange for the iPhone maker using Google Search as the default search engine in its Safari browser and Siri. Shares of Apple rose more than 3%. The Justice Department had pushed for a forced sale of the company's search business, and for the judge to order an end multi-billion dollar...