Yandex expresses interest in acquiring Google Chrome’s Turkish operations

Alexander Popovskiy, the general manager of Russian technology company Yandex’s Türkiye operations and CEO of Yandex Search, said Friday that the Turkish operations of Google’s Chrome web browser could become a focal point of interest if a U.S. federal court orders the tech giant to divest the asset as part of efforts to curb its alleged illegal monopoly.

His remarks emerged during the fourth day of a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) remedies trial concerning Google’s alleged monopoly in the search market.

As part of its proposed measures, the DOJ has asked Judge Amit Mehta to consider breaking up Google by requiring the company to divest Chrome, which the agency argues is a critical distribution channel sustaining Google’s dominance in online search.

Several companies have expressed interest in acquiring Chrome, including Yahoo and artificial intelligence firms Perplexity and OpenAI, while alternative search engine DuckDuckGo stated it would be unable to afford such an acquisition.

Popovskiy noted that while interest from major companies such as Perplexity, OpenAI, and Yahoo is understandable, transferring a strategic asset like Chrome from one technology giant to another would not fundamentally address competition concerns.

“Chrome is a cornerstone of Google’s hold on the web,” Popovskiy said. “However, simply shifting such a significant strategic advantage from one large company to another would not resolve the underlying issue.”

He added that a better solution would involve adopting a deeply localized approach, allowing Chrome to evolve as part of Türkiye’s digital ecosystem alongside Yandex Search and Yazeka, a local web technology platform.

This, he argued, would foster fairer local competition rather than maintaining the concentration of control over a critical internet asset in the hands of a single global entity.

Yandex criticizes Google, calls monopolistic control a global concern

Popovskiy emphasized that Yandex is the only company worldwide to have surpassed Google’s market share in its home country through fair competition.

He also pointed to the Turkish Competition Authority’s recent efforts to limit the dominance of digital platforms through proposed amendments to Türkiye’s Competition Law. Popovskiy indicated that Yandex would closely monitor the impact of these legal reforms.

Referring to the ongoing developments in the United States, he said monopolistic control over digital markets has evolved into a global issue. With the rising importance of domestically developed artificial intelligence technologies, addressing this challenge has become even more urgent, he said.

Popovskiy concluded that proactive measures by Turkish authorities could attract additional investment and that the proposed reforms under the new law are likely to be seen as balanced and comprehensible by both global and local stakeholders, especially when contrasted with the court-ordered remedies still under discussion in the United States.