CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday criticized the Department of Justice’s potential remedies in the Google search-monopoly case, arguing that, if they were implemented, the California tech giant would be “a shell of its former self.” The DOJ in a court filing late Tuesday provided a high-level overview of recommendations it may make to a federal judge overseeing the landmark antitrust case. In early August, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google used illegal practices to maintain a monopoly in the internet search market. Alphabet -owned Google has said it plans to appeal that decision. “This is devastating,” Cramer said Wednesday on “Squawk on the Street,” reacting to the DOJ filing. “Google will be a shell of its former self if they do this,” he added. “I think what this says is, ‘No one is bigger than the U.S. government.” Cramer’s Charitable Trust, the portfolio used by the CNBC Investing Club, has long owned shares of Alphabet. Alphabet’s stock fell roughly 1.5% on Wednesday to roughly $161 a share, underperforming the broader market, which was flat in the session. The stock has lagged the S & P 500 considerably since the monopoly ruling was handed down Aug. 5. Including Wednesday’s intraday move, shares are down more than 3.5% compared with a nearly 8% gain for the S & P 500. GOOGL .SPX 3M mountain Alphabet vs. S & P 500 over 3 months In Tuesday’s filing, the Justice Department said it is “considering behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products and features—including emerging search access points and features, such as artificial intelligence—over rivals or new entrants.” The DOJ’s final proposal on remedies is not due until Nov. 20, and Mehta’s decision from there is expected by August 2025. In a blog post, Google blasted DOJ’s remedy overview as a “broad outline of radical changes.” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, also wrote that “splitting off Chrome or Android would break them — and many other things.” Cramer has in the past said Google’s various businesses — ranging from the core search unit to YouTube to cloud-computing platform Google Cloud — are not properly being valued by Wall Street and could actually be worth more as standalone entities. In investing parlance, that’s often called a sum-of-the-parts valuation. Asked Wednesday whether the kinds of structural changes the DOJ seems to be considering in this case would result in a more valuable sum of the parts, Cramer responded: “No.” “That is not at all what [DOJ officials] want,” Cramer said. “What they want is to say, ‘This company is a monopolist. It must be punished. It’s got to become the equivalent of a Greyhound bus. It can’t really have any edge” over competitors. To be sure, these monopoly cases can take years upon years to play out — if the Microsoft antitrust case filed in the late 1990s is any indication. The Investing Club is going to continue to monitor the situation and assess how it might impact Alphabet over the long term. Last month, the Club did sell some Alphabet after a big run higher and to mitigate against legal exposure downside.
