Watch Out for Big Cheerleader! – Tablet Magazine
Some of the economic problems identified by the antitrusters are genuine. Conglomerate mergers, for example, are hard to justify. Why should a holding company like Alphabet own Google, Android phones, and Waymo, a self-driving car firm? The danger that the holding company s deep pockets will allow its unrelated assets to compete with others below cost justifies the breakup of such conglomerates.
Monopolies or near-monopolies in essential economic infrastructure are also a concern. These can take the form of physical infrastructure like roads and bridges or firms upon whose services most businesses and citizens depend, like Amazon for retail, Google for online search, and Facebook for media. But in these cases, the solution to the problem is government regulation, not eight Amazons and 12 Googles.
I actually think breaking up Alphabet/Google would be great for shareholders, not harmful. I bet Google has far exceeded the optimum scale. But this is a question for our professional economists and which of them are paid the most.