Big Tech is facing its biggest challenge in decades as antitrust regulators on both sides of the Atlantic crackdown on alleged anti-competitive practices that could result in break-up orders to Apple and Alphabet’s Google, a first for the industry.
That in turn could inspire watchdogs around the world to pile on, as evidenced in the growing number of antitrust probes in various countries following the opening of EU and U.S. cases. Since AT&T was broken up exactly 40 years ago, no company has faced the possibility of a regulator-led break-up in the United States until now.
Google has said it disagreed with the EU’s accusations while Apple said the U.S. lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law.
In 1984, AT&T, also known as Ma Bell, was broken up into seven independent companies called “Baby Bells” to open up one of the most powerful monopolies of the 20th century. AT&T, Verizon and Lumen are currently the only surviving entities.
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