The DOJ is asking the court to force Google to promptly and fully divest itself of Chrome, along with any data or other assets required for its continued operation. It is essentially aiming to take the Chrome user base—consisting of some 3.4 billion people—away from Google and hand it to a competitor. The government will vet any potential buyers to ensure the sale does not pose a national security threat. During the term of the judgment, Google would not be allowed to release any new browsers. However, it may continue to contribute to the open source Chromium project.
I wonder who will buy it if this happens. Tencent and the like are probably not allowed. Amazon doesn’t really need it. Broadcom and Oracle could make an offer. Netflix might be interested. Apple is probably not. Microsoft would face extreme scrutiny. Meta is probably a front runner, but most likely, if the rulling stands and the current administration does not writhdraw, a back room deal was already made to hand it over to X…