Business
Google could be forced to sell Chrome. Here's what you need to know
Google and federal officials are battling it out over a proposal that the tech giant be forced to sell its popular Chrome web browser to restore competition to the online search market.
The proposal, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and several states this week, came after a federal judge ruled that Google maintained an illegal monopoly over internet search.
The landmark decision opened the door to the current showdown over potential remedies that could reshape the tech giant’s multibillion-dollar business. As part of their proposed penalties, Justice Department officials also suggested the judge impose restrictions on Android, Google’s mobile operating system, to prevent it from favoring Google products.
The Department of Justice says forcing Google to divest Chrome would create more competition and stop the search giant’s control over a “browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet.” Google pushed back, calling the request an “unprecedented government overreach” that would harm consumers and U.S. tech leadership.
“This is to some extent a negotiating dance,” said George Hay, a Cornell University law professor and antitrust expert. “The DOJ is probably trying to get Google to be more cooperative in coming up with remedies that will fix the problem.”
Here’s what you need to know:
What are U.S. officials proposing?
The Justice Department outlined for the judge several possible solutions in its 23-page court filing, including forcing Google to sell Chrome and potentially Android as well if the company does not adequately address its practice of requiring smartphone makers to use Google products embedded in Android.
“The playing field is not level because of Google’s conduct, and Google’s quality reflects the ill-gotten gains of an advantage illegally acquired,” the filing says. “The remedy must close this gap and deprive Google of these advantages.”
The Justice Department wants to bar Google from entering into exclusive agreements with content publishers, as well as owning or acquiring any interests in search rivals. Publishers should also be able to opt out of having Google use their content to train artificial intelligence tools, under the proposal. And Justice Department officials want advertisers to have more access to data and control over ads that show up in Google search results.
The Justice Department is trying to make consumers more aware of choices outside of Google, the world’s most popular search engine. Another potential fix includes requiring Google to display a “choice screen” on every Google browser when a user hasn’t selected a default search engine.
What’s Google’s response?
Google thinks the government’s proposal goes too far. Instead, the company thinks the government should focus solutions more narrowly on agreements it has with Apple, Mozilla, smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers that require the companies to favor Google’s search engine over others.
Kent Walker, chief legal officer at Google and its parent company, Alphabet, in a blog post called the government’s proposal a “radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.”
Google opposes the idea that it should install “choice screens” on its browser and alleges that would hinder people’s abilities to use the company’s products.
Will this affect the way I search online?
Because Google’s punishment hasn’t been decided, it is too early to say how internet search could be affected. Antitrust experts said it depends on what remedies the judge in the case decides on and whether they withstand scrutiny by an appeals court. Some experts questioned whether any changes, even a forced sale of Chrome, would be effective in getting people to use other search engines.
“It will still be there in some way, shape or form, but it may be more subtle in terms of the effects on consumers,” said Shubha Ghosh, a law professor at Syracuse University.
It’s unclear who is interested in buying Google Chrome, which Bloomberg reported could be worth up to $20 billion.
Could the Trump administration affect Google’s punishment?
Possibly. President-elect Donald Trump has criticized Google over allegations that the search giant censors conservative speech, which the company has repeatedly denied.
But Trump, who reportedly took a phone call with Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai after he won the U.S. presidential election, has also stopped short of saying he would break up the search giant.
“It’s a very dangerous thing because we want to have great companies,” Trump said in an October interview moderated by Bloomberg News. “We don’t want China to have these companies. Right now, China is afraid of Google.”
Hay said he doesn’t anticipate Trump will pull the plug on the case, but the Justice Department could soften its proposed remedies.
What happens next?
Google said it will file its own proposals next month. Court hearings on Google’s punishment are scheduled to begin in April. Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who is overseeing the case, is expected to make a decision on Google’s punishment by August 2025.
The Associated Press was used in compiling this report.
Walt Disney Co. launched another deep round of layoffs on Monday, notifying several hundred Disney employees in the U.S. and abroad that their jobs were being eliminated amid an increasingly difficult economic environment for traditional television.
People close to the Burbank entertainment giant confirmed the cuts, which are hitting film and television marketing teams, television publicity, casting and development as well as corporate financial operations.
The move comes just three months after the company axed 200 workers, including at ABC News in New York and Disney-owned entertainment networks. At the time, the division said it was trimming its staff by 6% amid shrinking TV ratings and revenue.
Disney declined to specify how many workers were losing their jobs. The cutbacks — the fourth round of layoffs in less than a year — come after Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger acknowledged to Wall Street that Disney had been pumping out too many shows and movies to compete against Netflix.
The programming buildup accelerated as the company prepared to launch Disney+ in late 2019, and it bulked up its staff to handle the more robust pipeline.
But the company has since retrenched, recognizing the need to focus on creating high-quality originals that meet Disney’s once lofty standards.
Disney has faced significant budget pressures after promising investors that its direct-to-consumer services — Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ — would achieve profitability last year. The company lost billions of dollars over several years in its strategic shift to streaming, but it reached its goal to make money on streaming last fall.
Still, streaming subscribers can be fickle, creating a daunting new reality for the company that could long count on cable TV subscriptions as one of its most reliable economic pillars. Cord-cutting has taken a heavy toll.
The entertainment giant — one of Southern California’s largest private sector employers — has eliminated more than 7,000 jobs since 2023.
The traditional TV and film units felt the brunt of the downsizing during the last year. In July, the company slashed about 140 workers, primarily in its Disney entertainment unit. The company’s TV stations also lost staff members and ABC News shed about 40 employees last October.
ABC News largely escaped this week’s cuts, according to one knowledgeable person who was not authorized to discuss the internal moves.
ABC News still boasts healthy audiences for its newscasts, but the ABC television network and Disney-owned entertainment channels have seen dramatic viewer defections as consumers switch to streaming services, including Netflix, Paramount+ and Disney+.
ABC’s prime-time schedule has lost considerable steam. For the just-ended broadcast television season, ABC mustered only three shows in Nielsen’s top 20 rankings. “Monday Night Football on ABC” ranked seventh by averaging more than 10 million viewers, “Saturday Night Football” ranked 18th with 7.4 million viewers and freshman drama “High Potential” made the cut at 20th with an average audience of 7.1 million, according to Nielsen.
Monday’s eliminations come three weeks after Disney presented its fall lineup to advertisers, leaning heavily on its sports stars including Peyton and Eli Manning rather than actors from its entertainment programming.
ESPN was spared the ax as the sports unit is preparing for its high-stakes launch this fall of a stand-alone ESPN streaming service, the knowledgeable person said.
The move comes amid a strong run for Disney’s film studio, which has celebrated blockbuster box office results from its live-action “Lilo & Stitch,” which has earned $610 million in ticket sales globally, according to Box Office Mojo.
A month ago, Disney issued strong fiscal second-quarter earnings. The company reported $23.6 billion in revenue for the three months that ended March 29, a 7% increase compared with the same quarter a year earlier. Earnings before taxes totaled $3.1 billion, up $2.4 billion from last year.
Hollywood trade site Deadline first reported the news of the latest Disney cuts.
The landscape has been increasingly challenging for traditional companies. In addition to Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global and even such tech companies as Amazon and Apple have fired workers.
In late May, NBCUniversal cut 54 jobs in Los Angeles, according to state employment records. Six Flags Entertainment Corp. laid off 140 workers.
Disney shares closed down 9 cents to $112.95.
President Trump’s on-and-off tariffs have created deep uncertainty about the cost of imported goods — and it’s not always clear what goods will be most affected with any given country.
The largest U.S. imports from many countries are oil and gas, electronics, cars and pharmaceuticals. But there’s another way to look at what Americans import: trying to measure a country’s distinct contribution to the U.S.’s total needs.
For example, China’s largest exports to the U.S. — by dollar value — are electronics. But the U.S. also imports large quantities of electronics from elsewhere. Nearly 100 percent of imported baby carriages, however, come from China.
Switzerland, meanwhile, is responsible for nearly all of America’s imported precious metal watches. Ethiopia, on the other hand, sends the U.S. around 2 percent of its imported knit babies’ clothes — but that’s a larger share than for any other item it exports to the U.S.
The table below shows the item the U.S. relies on most from each of 140 trading partners. (We took out items that the U.S. also exports in large quantities, such as petroleum.)
What the U.S. is most reliant on from each country
| COUNTRY | ITEM | Pct. of U.S. imports from here |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | Live pigs | >99% | |
| Peru | Calcium phosphates | >99% | |
| South Africa | Chromium ore | 98% | |
| Switzerland | Precious metal watches | 98% | |
| China | Baby carriages | 97% | |
| Mexico | Self-propelled rail transport | 94% | |
| Portugal | Natural cork articles | 93% | |
| India | Synthetic reconstructed jewelry stones | 89% | |
| Italy | Vermouth | 86% | |
| Indonesia | Palm oil | 85% | |
| Madagascar | Vanilla | 80% | |
| Turkey | Retail artificial filament yarn | 79% | |
| Brazil | Semi-finished iron | 76% | |
| Vietnam | Coconuts, brazil nuts, and cashews | 75% | |
| Australia | Sheep and goat meat | 74% | |
| New Zealand | Misc. animal fats | 73% | |
| Gabon | Manganese ore | 71% | |
| Chile | Refined copper | 71% | |
| Netherlands | Bulbs and roots | 70% | |
| Spain | Olive oil | 62% | |
| Taiwan | Tapioca | 62% | |
| Argentina | Groundnut oil | 60% | |
| Colombia | Cut flowers | 60% | |
| Bolivia | Tungsten ore | 59% | |
| Dominican Republic | Rolled tobacco | 59% | |
| Cote d’Ivoire | Cocoa paste | 59% | |
| Germany | Felt machinery | 58% | |
| Finland | Cobalt oxides and hydroxides | 56% | |
| Japan | Pianos | 52% | |
| Israel | Phosphatic fertilizers | 50% | |
| Philippines | Coconut oil | 50% | |
| France | Insect resins | 50% | |
| Thailand | Sugar preserved foods | 47% | |
| Malaysia | Rubber apparel | 46% | |
| Ireland | Sulfonamides | 45% | |
| Pakistan | Light mixed woven cotton | 43% | |
| Singapore | Glass with edge workings | 39% | |
| Guatemala | Bananas | 38% | |
| Ecuador | Cocoa beans | 38% | |
| South Korea | Rubber inner tubes | 33% | |
| Jamaica | Aluminum ore | 33% | |
| Bangladesh | Non-knit babies’ garments | 31% | |
| Austria | Handguns | 29% | |
| United Kingdom | Antiques | 28% | |
| Cambodia | Gum coated textile fabric | 25% | |
| Nicaragua | Rolled tobacco | 24% | |
| Guyana | Aluminum ore | 24% | |
| Ukraine | Seed oils | 24% | |
| Belgium | Flax woven fabric | 22% | |
| Bahrain | Stranded aluminum wire | 22% | |
| Sri Lanka | Coconut and other vegetable fibers | 21% | |
| Morocco | Barium sulphate | 20% | |
| Romania | Steel ingots | 19% | |
| Norway | Carbides | 19% | |
| Sweden | Stainless steel ingots | 17% | |
| Costa Rica | Bananas | 16% | |
| Honduras | Molasses | 16% | |
| Paraguay | Wood charcoal | 16% | |
| Denmark | Casein | 15% | |
| Tunisia | Pure olive oil | 15% | |
| Russia | Phosphatic fertilizers | 15% | |
| Fiji | Water | 15% | |
| Hong Kong | Pearls | 13% | |
| Nepal | Knotted carpets | 13% | |
| Poland | Processed mushrooms | 12% | |
| Lebanon | Phosphatic fertilizers | 12% | |
| Croatia | Handguns | 12% | |
| Bulgaria | Non-retail combed wool yarn | 12% | |
| Laos | Barium sulphate | 12% | |
| Mozambique | Titanium ore | 11% | |
| Ghana | Cocoa beans | 11% | |
| Bahamas | Gravel and crushed stone | 10% | |
| Greece | Dried, salted, smoked or brined fish | 10% | |
| Jordan | Knit men’s coats | 10% | |
| Czech Republic | Rolling machines | 10% | |
| El Salvador | Molasses | 10% | |
| Egypt | Spice seeds | 10% | |
| United Arab Emirates | Raw aluminum | 9% | |
| Uganda | Vanilla | 9% | |
| Nigeria | Raw lead | 9% | |
| Uruguay | Bovine, sheep, and goat fat | 9% | |
| Latvia | Book-binding machines | 9% | |
| Kazakhstan | Ironmaking alloys | 8% | |
| Cameroon | Cocoa paste | 8% | |
| Lithuania | Wheat gluten | 8% | |
| Oman | Metal office supplies | 8% | |
| Hungary | Seed oils | 7% | |
| Belize | Molasses | 7% | |
| Faroe Islands | Non-fillet fresh fish | 6% | |
| Qatar | Pearls | 6% | |
| Myanmar | Misc. knit clothing accessories | 5% | |
| Zambia | Precious stones | 5% | |
| Slovenia | Packaged medications | 5% | |
| Senegal | Titanium ore | 5% | |
| Algeria | Cement | 4% | |
| Haiti | Knit T-shirts | 4% | |
| Kenya | Titanium ore | 4% | |
| Liechtenstein | Iron nails | 4% | |
| Georgia | Ironmaking alloys | 4% | |
| Liberia | Rubber | 4% | |
| Serbia | Rubber inner tubes | 4% | |
| Iceland | Fish fillets | 4% | |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | Refined copper | 3% | |
| Botswana | Diamonds | 3% | |
| Chad | Insect resins | 3% | |
| Zimbabwe | Leather further prepared after tanning or crusting | 3% | |
| Luxembourg | Polyamide fabric | 3% | |
| Panama | Non-fillet fresh fish | 3% | |
| Albania | Ironmaking alloys | 3% | |
| Estonia | Fishing and hunting equipment | 2% | |
| Ethiopia | Knit babies’ garments | 2% | |
| Namibia | Wood charcoal | 2% | |
| Venezuela | Processed crustaceans | 2% | |
| Slovakia | Rubber tires | 2% | |
| Lesotho | Knit men’s shirts | 2% | |
| Tanzania | Precious stones | 2% | |
| Papua New Guinea | Vanilla | 1% | |
| Mauritius | Processed fish | 1% | |
| Saudi Arabia | Iron nails | 1% | |
| Moldova | Wine | ||
| Suriname | Non-fillet fresh fish | ||
| Angola | Pig iron | ||
| Armenia | Diamonds | ||
| Trinidad and Tobago | Non-fillet fresh fish | ||
| Macau | Knitted hats | ||
| North Macedonia | Curbstones | ||
| Togo | Fake hair | ||
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | Non-knit women’s coats | ||
| Republic of the Congo | Antiques | ||
| Azerbaijan | Ironmaking alloys | ||
| Iraq | Antiques | ||
| Libya | Misc. vegetable products | ||
| Cyprus | Olive oil | ||
| Kuwait | Ironmaking alloys | ||
| Malta | Air conditioners | ||
| British Virgin Islands | Diamonds | ||
| Brunei | Knit T-shirts | ||
| Cayman Islands | Phones | ||
| Equatorial Guinea | Knitted hats | ||
| Sint Maarten | Hard liquor |
Curious where the U.S. imports a particular item from? You can look it up below.
Searchable table
| Computers $138.5 billion in imports | ||
| Mexico | 35% | |
| China | 26% | |
| Taiwan | 19% | |
| Vietnam | 11% | |
| Thailand | 5% | |
| Phones $119 billion | ||
| China | 42% | |
| Vietnam | 17% | |
| Mexico | 9% | |
| India | 7% | |
| Thailand | 7% | |
| Packaged medications $100.4 billion | ||
| Ireland | 16% | |
| Switzerland | 12% | |
| India | 12% | |
| Italy | 7% | |
| China | 6% | |
About the data
We analyzed U.S. International Trade Commission data on goods imported for consumption in 2024. We used product descriptions from the Observatory of Economic Complexity to label the goods, and edited these descriptions lightly.
We grouped goods using the first four digits of their code in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, which lists categories of products.
We excluded goods that are widely produced in the U.S., using export data to remove goods where the U.S. exports at least 25 percent of what it imports by value.
We included only trading partners that export at least $50 million of goods each year to the U.S.
Vanessa Agabo-Davalos has spent hours watching the dystopian drama “Squid Game” on Netflix. But nothing could prepare the 21-year-old college student for seeing one of the show’s actors walk the red carpet a few feet in front of her.
She found herself starstruck in the presence of Kang Ae-sim, who portrays Geum-ja (Player 149) on the South Korean thriller. All the more so when they snapped a photo together.
“You forget everything. You forget how to talk — it’s just like ‘Wow, I saw you on TV,’” said Agabo-Davalos, who traveled an hour from the Inland Empire and can’t wait to see the final season this month. “I feel like it’s a dream come true for the ones that really enjoyed these shows.”
She was among the more than 9,500 Netflix fans who gathered Saturday at the Kia Forum in Inglewood for Netflix‘s Tudum live event, an hours-long extravaganza meant to hype up audiences for upcoming series, movies and returning franchises.
People traveled from all over the world to celebrate their love for shows including “Squid Game,” Addams Family series “Wednesday” and sci-fi show “Stranger Things.”
During Netflix’s variety-show like program onstage at the famed venue, the company showed off how its computer animated version of Tony Tony Chopper, a toddler-sized reindeer-boy character in the live action pirate series “One Piece,” would appear in the upcoming season.
Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro unveiled a new teaser trailer for his November Netflix movie, “Frankenstein,” starring Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth, who both appeared onstage with the filmmaker. Fans also saw the first six minutes of the first episode of Season 2 of “Wednesday,” which will be released in August.
The event, named after the sound that plays before a Netflix program begins (“tuh-dum”), was part of Netflix’s ongoing effort to harness the enthusiasm its viewers have for its most popular programs and inspire them to keep streaming.
“It is about celebrating fans and giving something back to them,” Netflix’s Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee told The Times after the event. “Of course it is also about promoting … we have a huge slate coming up.”
Netflix hosted the first Tudum event in 2020 in São Paulo, which came from the company’s Brazil team, which had an idea for an event that rewarded the streamer’s fans of young adult shows. That later led to Tudum evolving into different formats including festivals and livestreams, events that were more like a fan convention.
In 2023, Netflix held Tudum again in São Paulo, drawing more than 35,000 attendees and more than 78 million views through Netflix’s social channels.
But Saturday’s festivities in Inglewood took Netflix brand promotion to a new level.
It was the first time Tudum was livestreamed directly on Netflix, rather than on YouTube or social media outlets. The event played like a roughly two-hour live variety show, featuring “ask me anything” segments, as well as performances from music artists including Lady Gaga, who appears in the next season of “Wednesday.”
Xavier Woods, left, and Kofi Kingston attend Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event at the Kia Forum on Saturday in Inglewood.
(Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Netflix)
There was plenty of cross promotion of Netflix content during the show, as WWE wrestlers talked about why people should tune into their weekly live show on the platform, while also speaking about their love for “One Piece,” based on manga.
Tudum host Sofia Carson touted her upcoming Netflix movie, “My Oxford Year,” which also stars Corey Mylchreest, known for portraying King George III in Georgian era romance series “Queen Charlotte” from the “Bridgerton” universe. Sesame Street‘s Cookie Monster also made an appearance with actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who star in the new Netflix movie “The RIP.”
“I don’t think another studio can pull this off in the way that we did,” Lee said. “Fandoms can be unique and distinct. They’re putting all those fans in a room together, WWE fans next to [mystery movie] ‘Knives Out’ fans next to Lady Gaga fans for ‘Wednesday.’ That’s an incredible achievement. That is something only Netflix can do.”
To some people, Tudum is a page borrowed from Walt Disney Co., which hosts the biennial D23 fan convention in Anaheim, pulling together disparate fandoms (Disney princesses, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars) to converge in the same place. It raises the question: Does Netflix, a streaming service that produces shows from just about every genre for just about every kind of audience, have fans in the same way that Disney does?
Over the years, Netflix has expanded its live events and in-person experiences to keep viewers engaged. Those have included “Bridgerton” balls, Netflix-themed eateries and retail stores selling merch based on “Stranger Things” and other shows.
Lee declined to say how much Netflix spent on the event. Some fans bought tickets, ranging from $25 to $75, while others said they scored free tickets. Netflix said tickets sold out in about a week.
Netflix doesn’t have iconic animated characters like Mickey Mouse or storied franchises like “Star Wars” or Marvel. But Netflix’s strategy is to have something for everyone, and because of that, people are reluctant to quit it, industry observers say, even as economic anxieties run rampant.
“That is the competitive advantage of Netflix,” said Larry Vincent, a marketing professor at USC Marshall School of Business. “It really has become the big tent of streaming. They’ve invested pretty significantly to develop a stockpile of content.”
The streamer said last year it had more than 301 million subscribers globally. On Saturday, the attendees reflected that expansive audience.
Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event at the Kia Forum on Saturday in Inglewood.
(Adam Rose/Netflix)
Fans dressed up as their favorite characters from Netflix shows. People wore black dresses similar to Wednesday’s attire, straw hats in support of “One Piece” and green tracksuits like the ones players wear in the deadly “Squid Game.”
When Cookie Monster appeared behind a DJ booth on the “N” shaped red carpet to sing “‘C’ is for Cookie,” adults in “Squid Game” tracksuits joined in the chorus.
“It’s all-encompassing and global and passionate,” Tudum host Carson, known for starring in Netflix movies including “Carry-On” and “Purple Hearts,” said in an interview after the event ended. “It is truly extraordinary to feel the love from every single part of the world — it crosses languages, it crosses cultures.”
Shaheidi Jimenez, 21, came to the Netflix event as a fan of “Wednesday” and “Squid Game.” She hadn’t watched “Stranger Things,” but seeing the screaming fans for the show’s actors on the red carpet made her more curious about the sci-fi series.
“When I see the cast, it makes me want to watch it now,” Jimenez said. “I’m familiar with them more. It makes me want to watch the show and probably get into it.”
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