By Obinna Uballa
Alphabet shares jumped 6% in premarket trading on Wednesday after a United States court rejected the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) push to break up Google in a high-stakes antitrust case.
The DOJ had proposed divesting Google’s Chrome browser and imposing strict restrictions after the company was found last year to hold an illegal monopoly in internet search.
However, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled against the most severe measures, delivering a major win for the tech giant.
Under the ruling, Google will not have to sell Chrome and can continue making payments to companies to preload its products.
However, the company is barred from exclusive contracts that condition payments or licensing. This means Google can still pay Apple billions of dollars to remain the default search engine on iPhones.
Apple shares also rose in premarket trading following the decision.
“This is a monster win for Cupertino and for Google it’s a home run ruling that removes a huge overhang on the stock,” said Daniel Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, in a Tuesday note.
Despite growing competition from rivals such as Perplexity and OpenAI, Google’s advertising business continues to expand. The company is also banking on Gemini, its suite of AI models and chatbot, to strengthen its artificial intelligence position.
“Following today’s announcement, we are increasingly constructive on the longer-term durability of Google’s Search business and are raising our estimates accordingly,” Ives added, setting a new price target of $245 for Alphabet.
The court ruling also ensures Google retains control of Android, which powers roughly 70% of the world’s smartphones—a critical advantage as it seeks to scale its AI offerings to a massive user base.
