Silicon Valley’s phones buzzed with alerts last night, offering surprising news about one of its bellwether companies: A federal jury decided Google had exercised unlawful monopoly power over app developers like Epic Games. Investors so far have responded mostly with a shrug. By the end of today, the stock of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, had slumped by less than a point on a day the S&P 500 ticked up.
The muted response might reflect the slow-moving mechanics of the specific court case with Epic, maker of the game Fortnite. Google still has a chance to win that case on appeal. A ruling on one of Alphabet’s other high-profile antitrust cases—the Department of Justice’s lawsuit challenging the company’s search engine deal with Apple—isn’t expected until next year.
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