Prominent venture capitalist David Sacks has predicted a high likelihood of legal action or a breakup of Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL Google in the next U.S. administration under Donald Trump.
What Happened: In an episode of the All-In podcast that was released on Saturday, Sacks stated that Google, which holds monopolies in search, advertising, and YouTube, should be dismantled.
“Google should be broken up,” he said, underscoring the need to address the company’s dominance in these key areas.
Sacks also expressed confidence that the likelihood of a legal challenge or antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant is high, particularly with the prospect of a Trump administration in the future.
"What are the odds that this is pursued in the next administration? I'd say high," he added.
The venture capitalist also said that while Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platforms, Inc. META faces challenges, there is less urgency to break it up.
Instead, Meta's issues are more focused on content moderation, especially its role in censoring free speech during the 2020 election cycle related to Hunter Biden stories.
“But I do think, though, that Congress should investigate or continue investigating what went wrong there and what exactly is the involvement of the intelligence community and the deep state in the censorship request that we saw exposed by the Twitter files,” Sacks said.
Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox.
Why It Matters: Google has been under scrutiny for its monopolistic practices.
On Monday, it was reported that the U.S. Department of Justice prepared to request a court order to force Google to divest its Chrome browser, following a ruling that found Google guilty of illegally monopolizing the search market.
As the DOJ’s final proposed remedies approach on Nov. 20, JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth anticipates potential headline risk but views this as an opportunity for greater clarity.
He continues to hold an Overweight rating on the Alphabet stock, setting a price target of $212, which suggests a 20% upside from its current price.
Last month, Alphabet reported third-quarter revenue of $88.27 billion, marking a 15% year-over-year increase and surpassing the Street consensus estimate of $86.31 billion.
At the time, CEO Sundar Pichai had cautioned that the DOJ's proposals could lead to “unintended consequences.”
Price Action: On Monday, Alphabet’s Class A stock rose 1.63%, closing at $175.30, while Class C stock gained 1.67% to close at $176.80.
However, in pre-market trading on Tuesday, Alphabet’s Class A stock fell 0.63% to $174.20, and Class C stock declined 0.89% to $175.22, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.
Read Next:
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Comments
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
