US weighing up ordering ‘structural’ changes at Google after search engine monopoly verdict [Video]

THE US DEPARTMENT of Justice has said it will demand that Google make profound changes to how it does business and even consider the possibility of a breakup, after the tech juggernaut was found to be running an illegal monopoly.

Determining how to address Google’s wrongs is the next stage of a landmark antitrust trial that saw the company in August judged a monopolist by US District Court Judge Amit Mehta.

An order to break up Google or require deep changes on how it does business marks a profound change by the US government’s competition enforcers that have largely left tech giants alone since failing to break up Microsoft two decades ago.

Google dismissed the idea as “radical.”

The government told the judge in a court filing that it was considering options that included “structural” changes which could see them asking for a divestment of its smartphone Android operating system or its Chrome browser.

The Department …