Shares in Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) jumped almost 6% in premarket trading after a judge ruled it doesn't have to sell Chrome as an antitrust remedy.
Judge Amit Mehta also allowed Google to keep control of the Android mobile operating system. But in a setback, the tech giant will have to end billion-dollar contracts that fueled its search market dominance.
The DOJ had argued that Google should divest Chrome and Android after a judgment last year that it held an illegal monopoly in search. However, Judge Mehta noted that AI bots now threaten its dominance, and that fed into his ruling.
At the same time, he stopped short of putting an end to Google's distribution search deal with Apple (AAPL). Its payments for making Google Search a default in Safari and Siri have added up to $20 billion per year in revenue for the iPhone maker, whose shares rose almost 3% in premarket.
Reuters reports:
