Google Scores a Win in Antitrust Decision

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Alex Ossola (0:34)

Google avoids a breakup of its dominant ad tech business.

Dave Michaels (0:38)

This is a huge win for Google and a big loss for the Justice Department.

Alex Ossola (0:43)

Plus, Chevron and other energy companies signed deals to revive Venezuela's oil industry.

And sailors on board the USS Lincoln get their first break in nine months at a Thai beach resort town. It's Wednesday, September 2nd. I'm Alex Ossola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

Several energy companies signed deals today to invest billions of dollars into Venezuela's oil fields. Chevron, which is currently the only big US company active in the country, will invest more than $7 billion there over the next five years. That's meant to double its production in Venezuela. The Italian oil company ENI, smaller US players Primavera and Aspect Holdings, and the power equipment firm GE Vernova also signed deals in Venezuela today. Venezuela's oil output has barely budged since the US ousted Nicolas Maduro, and the agreements are the first big win for the Trump administration's push to revitalize the country's oil industry. During the signing ceremony today at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, US. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that energy production would transform Venezuela and help Americans too.

Chris Wright (1:58)

The catalyst for improving the life conditions of Americans, our hemisphere and everyone in the world, is to massively expand energy production around the world.

But of course, we're massively interested to do that in the Americas. This is our neighborhood.

Alex Ossola (2:14)

Oil prices remained on the rise today, with Brent crude gaining 1% to over $95 a barrel. And the global bond market route continued, with a 30-year high for the Japanese 10-year yield and a 15-year high for the German bond yield. The 10-year US. Treasury yield overnight hit its highest point since November 2023, but then retreated to finish the day almost unchanged from yesterday. In stock markets, the major US indexes all rose, with the Dow leading the gains. It closed up 0.6%.

Meanwhile, Uber says it's laying off 3,300 people, or about 10% of its staff. It's trimming management layers and streamlining divisions. The restructuring comes after Uber softened its outlook last month.

A federal judge ruled today that Google didn't have to dismantle its online advertising business. It's a decision on a lawsuit that the Justice Department filed in 2023, claiming that the only way to curve Google's dominance over the digital advertising industry was for it to sell off its ad exchange. Dave Michaels covers corporate law enforcement for the Journal and joins me now with more. Dave, what do we know about this ruling?

Dave Michaels (3:26)

Well, we know that the court disagreed with the Justice Department's request to break up Google. That was the big ask from the Justice Department, and the judge said she'd agree to more restrained options for trying to inject new competition into this business.

Alex Ossola (3:44)

But we don't have the full details of the decision yet, right?

Dave Michaels (3:48)

Right. The judge sealed her opinion for a week or two to allow the two sides to go over anything in there that's confidential business information. So we don't know her reasoning yet, but for the moment, this is a huge win for Google and a big loss for the Justice Department. This is a huge business that Google has dominated and frankly where it has created a lot of complaints and ill will from the website publishers that need to use Google's tools to manage the space that they have on their websites and their other digital properties for ads.

Alex Ossola (4:26)

So this case follows a number of others, including another against Google, in which federal judges have opted against breaking up companies. What does that tell us about the state of antitrust enforcement?

Dave Michaels (4:38)

Well, if you are an antitrust hawk who thinks that to really fix excessive corporate power, that you need to break up companies, then this is a huge setback. There may be other means to achieve that goal, but as far as using antitrust law to dilute power and scale the giants back, it's proving hard to do that through antitrust litigation where the government is the plaintiff.