The US government had long had the country’s biggest tech giants in its sights, and in 2024 it hit the mark.
The big win came in August when the Justice Department convinced a federal district court judge that Google (GOOG, GOOGL) had abused its search engine dominance and violated antitrust law.
“Google is a monopolist and has acted as such to maintain its monopoly,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
It was the government’s most resounding antitrust victory against any major company since prosecutors pursued AT&T in the 1980s and Microsoft in the 1990s.
Prosecutors then asked the same judge to force Google’s parent company Alphabet to sell parts of its empire, a dramatic request that will take place in a separate phase of the trial in 2025. The end result could be the dismantling of a glittering Silicon Valley empire amassed over more than two decades.
What happened in 2024 could have future implications for some of the other big names in the tech world.
Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META) are all defending themselves against a series of other federal and state-led antitrust lawsuits, some of which make similar claims.
For now, Wall Street doesn’t seem uneasy. The so-called Magnificent Seven stocks of the world’s largest tech companies helped push the market higher in 2024, thanks in part to advances in artificial intelligence.
These include Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet. In fact, Alphabet hit an all-time high this month.
Some legal experts argue that government antitrust gains in 2024 are still too premature to seriously upset the giant tech companies.
“The Biden administration has in some ways taken antitrust law to the next level,” said Maurice Stucke, a law professor at the University of Tennessee. “But are we in the end zone? No.’
The cases alleging that companies have acted illegally to maintain a monopoly take years to penetrate the legal system. The more looming dangers for tech giants, Stucke said, are the chances that the government will try to block newly proposed mergers or that their companies could be overshadowed by AI startups.
“That gives them bigger shivers than any regulator,” Stucke said. “They don’t want to be the next Intel.”
Amy Bos, director of state and federal affairs for the tech sector for NetChoice (which also represents Yahoo Finance), agreed that the government’s merger challenges are the most looming threats.
“It’s on display in the boardrooms,” she said. “I think companies are increasingly hesitant to merge and grow their businesses because they may come under more scrutiny.”
Could that change once President-elect Donald Trump takes office?
There is uncertainty surrounding that question. After all, Trump has made it clear that he has no plans to soften up the country’s tech giants once he’s back in the Oval Office.
“Big Tech has been running amok for years,” Trump said in a statement after nominating Gail Slater, an aide to newly elected Vice President J.D. Vance, to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
The industry, he added, is “stifling competition in our most innovative sector and, as we all know, using its market power to crack down on the rights of so many Americans and those of Little Tech!”
“I was proud to fight these abuses during my first term, and our Justice Department’s antitrust team will continue that work under Gail’s leadership,” he added.
It was the first Trump administration to initially sue Google over antitrust concerns, leading to a district court ruling in August that the tech giant was illegally monopolizing the search engine market.
It was also during Trump’s first administration that the Federal Trade Commission attempted to settle the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp with Meta in a case that would go to trial in April.
The first Trump administration also launched an antitrust investigation into Apple (APPL), leading the Biden administration to sue the iPhone maker earlier this year.
In another ominous sign for Big Tech, Trump last month nominated Brendan Carr to chair the Federal Communications Commission, in addition to Slater’s appointment to the DOJ’s antitrust division.
US President-elect Donald Trump will speak with Brendan Carr, his intended chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, on November 19. Brandon Bell/Pool via REUTERS ·via REUTERS/Reuters
Just days before he was appointed chairman, Carr sent letters to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook predicting “wide-ranging actions to protect America’s First Amendment.” rights’ once Trump comes to power. .
Many of these CEOs have spent time since Trump’s election trying to curry favor with the newly elected president, either by meeting him in person at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort or by donating large sums to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Trump has sent mixed messages about how far he is willing to go to hold tech companies accountable.
During his campaign, he was asked whether he supported breaking up Google as an antidote to unhealthy competition in the search engine market. Trump suggested that Google’s punishment could be carried out without forcing it to sell off parts of its empire.
“What you can do without breaking it up is make it more fair,” Trump said in an Oct. 15 interview. The former president described Google’s search engine as “rigged” and expressed concern that the fallout for Google in the case could favor China.
Google CEO Pichai said of Trump that “in my conversations with him, he is definitely very focused on American competitiveness, especially in technology, including AI.”
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, speaks at the New York Times annual DealBook summit on December 4. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) ·Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images
When asked at a New York Times DealBook summit in New York whether Trump’s election changes the dynamics of Google’s antitrust case, he said, “This is a DOJ case, and the case is already in court,” noting that it started during Trump’s first term. .
“So I don’t have any specific insights into that.” The company, he added, will “defend ourselves there.”
Stucke, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, predicted that antitrust enforcement will remain much more aggressive than under the administrations of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George HW Bush and Ronald Reagan.
“While antitrust law may not be the same under Trump as it was under Biden, it will not go back to the way it was.”
Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on X @alexiskweed.
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