In a 1956 consent decree in which the Justice Department allowed AT&T to maintain its phone monopoly, the government extracted a huge concession: All past patents were licensed (to any American company) royalty-free, and all future patents were to be licensed for a small fee. These licenses led to the creation of Texas Instruments, Motorola, Fairchild Semiconductor and many other start-ups.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/opinion/sunday/is-it-time-to-break-up-google.html?_r=0
F Jeff
I honestly think Google is in a position to get weaker in the next few years and market forces will take care of themselves here. Their strength is not only getting compromised by Amazon but will be confounded by a reversal of net neutrality.
I'd be satisfied if Google rolled back to 2010-2011, no need to break them up. ;)