Google Scores a Win in Antitrust Decision

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Google avoids a breakup of its dominant ad tech business.

This is a huge win for Google and a big loss for the Justice Department.

Plus, Chevron and other energy companies sign deals to revive

Venezuela's oil industry.

And sailors on board the USS Lincoln get their first break in nine months

at a Thai beach resort town.

It's Wednesday, September 2nd.

I'm Alex O'Sullah for the Wall Street Journal.

This is the PM edition of What's News,

the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

Several energy companies sign deals today

to invest billions of dollars into Venezuela's oil fields.

Chevron, which is currently the only big US company active in the country,

will invest more than $7 billion there over the next five years.

That's meant to double its production in Venezuela.

The Italian oil company, any smaller US players,

Primavera and Aspect Holdings and the power equipment firm,

GE Vernova, also sign deals in Venezuela today.

Venezuela's oil output has barely butch since the US-Austed Nicholas Maduro.

And the agreements are the first big win for the Trump administration's push

to revitalize the country's oil industry.

During the signing ceremony today at Mira Flores Palace in Caracas,

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that energy production

would transform Venezuela and help Americans too.

The catalyst for improving the life conditions of Americans,

our hemisphere and everyone in the world,

is to massively expand energy production around the world.

But of course, we're massively interested to do that in the Americas.

This is our neighborhood.

Oil prices remained on the rise today,

with Brent Crude gaining 1% to over $95 a barrel.

And the global bond market route continued

with a 30-year high for the Japanese 10-year yield

and a 15-year high for the German bond yield.

The 10-year US Treasury yield overnight hit its highest point

since November 2023,

but then retreated to finish the day almost unchanged from yesterday.

In stock markets, the major US indexes all rose

with the Dow leading the gains.

It closed up 0.6%.

Meanwhile, Uber says it's laying off 3,300 people

or about 10% of its staff.

It's trimming management layers and streamlining divisions.

The restructuring comes after Uber softened its outlook last month.

A federal judge ruled today that Google didn't have to dismantle

its online advertising business.

It's a decision on a lawsuit that the Justice Department filed in 2023,

claiming that the only way to curb Google's dominance

over the digital advertising industry was for it to sell off its ad exchange.

Dave Michaels covers corporate law enforcement for the journal

and joins me now with more. Dave, what do we know about this ruling?

Well, we know that the court disagreed with the Justice Department's request

to break up Google.

That was the big ask from the Justice Department,

and the judge said she'd agreed to more restrained options

for trying to inject new competition into this business.

But we don't have the full details of the decision yet, right?

Right. Right. The judge sealed her opinion for a week or two,

to allow the two sides to go over anything in there that's confidential business information.

So we don't know her reasoning yet, but for the moment,

this is a huge win for Google and a big loss for the Justice Department.

This is a huge business that Google has dominated,

and frankly, where it has created a lot of complaints,

and it will from the website publishers that need to use Google's tools

to manage the space that they have on their websites

and their other digital properties for ads.

So this case follows a number of others, including another against Google,

in which federal judges have opted against breaking up companies.

What does that tell us about the state of antitrust enforcement?

Well, if you are an antitrust hawk who thinks that

you need to really fix excessive corporate power

that you need to break up companies, then this is a huge setback.

There may be other means to achieve that goal,

but as far as using antitrust law to dilute power and scale the giants back,

it's proving hard to do that through antitrust litigation

where the government is the plaintiff.

That was Journal reporter Dave Michaels.

Thanks so much for joining me, Dave. Thank you.

This is the report that says it's please the court didn't order a breakup of its business.

The Justice Department says it's weighing its next steps now,

but it thinks the court's order includes substantial changes to how Google behaves in the market.

And we should note here that News Corp, the owner of the Wall Street Journal,

has a commercial agreement to supply content on Google platforms.

Coming up, our travel column, this Dawn Gilbertson,

tells us about her new favorite way to cut the airport security line.

More after the break.

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The US government is backing OpenAI in its legal battle with the New York Times and other publishers.

The Times alleges that OpenAI trained its AI tools on Times content

and its 2023 lawsuit kicked off a wave of similar legal challenges from news publishers.

Now a letter from the Justice Department says that under US copyright law,

training on news content is within the bounds of fair use.

Fair use says that in certain circumstances,

it's okay to use copyrighted material without permission.

A New York Times spokesman says that the administration's stance

would undermine the sustainability of content created by humans.

News Corp has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, tech executives and Trump administration officials

were at a G20 summit focused on technology,

where they encouraged policy makers from other big countries

to minimize AI regulations.

WSJ Tech Policy reporter Amrith Romkumar has a dispatch from the summit in Chapel Hill.

We're at the Carolina Inn, which is a historic hotel on UNC Chapel Hill's campus.

It's officials from these countries and their aids.

We've definitely seen Jensen Wong's eminent, a lot of people from the government.

It has also been clear how close detect officials are

with the administration and leaders around the world.

Jensen Wong did a fireside chat with Commerce Secretary Howard Letnick this morning.

Afterwards, they took an opening photo for the G20 event today

with all ministers from all of the countries.

After the ministers took their photo, Letnick invited Jensen into the photo.

Then afterwards, the officials from the country's footprints,

one by one, several of them taking selfies and other photos with Jensen.

Once again, confirming his global rock star status,

because everyone needs access to things in video ships to run AI.

So, it's basically sort of like a Punjabi moment.

But Amrith says the summit also highlighted some of the backlash against AI.

We saw dozens of protesters on UNC Chapel Hill's campus

who were very anti-AI, very anti-data centers, very anti-floc safety cameras.

So, the industry knows they have a huge problem here.

The administration knows they have a huge problem here,

but people are trying to put on a good face this week in front of a global audience.

And here in New York City, public schools are banning AI in some classrooms for one year.

The ban is in effect from preschool through 8th grade,

and it covers about 600,000 kids.

Schools are also going to introduce new limits on screen time.

City officials are going to study the impact of AI

and then the release recommendations on what to do after the one year ban is up.

After 286 days at sea, the USS Abraham Lincoln Aircraft carrier

has docked in Thailand for a port call.

The nearly 5,000 sailors and Marines on board

are spending their first extended time on land in more than nine months

in the beach town of Petya, which is known for its nightlife.

The Lincoln's Commanding Officer Captain Daniel Keeler

thanked the city's mayor today for welcoming the service members.

It is a well-deserved break for a whole group and we really look forward

to our time here to get a little rest and relax.

The carrier made headlines last month after family members and Democratic lawmakers

asked about the challenges of such a long deployment,

including having enough fresh food and the mental health impact on sailors.

The Navy has acknowledged the difficulties,

but said that there was always adequate food and that a small number of mental health cases had been treated.

Today in Thailand, the sailors joined the crowds of tourists on Petya's main drag,

packed with Go-Go bars and clubs.

They declined a comment on their deployment to the Wall Street Journal.

In travel news, we're exclusively reporting that Southwest Airlines

is getting in the airport lounge game.

Construction is already underway on the lounges in Austin, Baltimore, Nashville, and Honolulu.

The airline wants to use the lounges to attract flyers to a new high-end credit card

it's launching with JP Morgan Chase.

Well, in the shorter term with Labor Day Weekend fast approaching,

there are ways to start your luxurious travel experience before you even get through security.

I'm talking about those airport line-cutting programs like TSA Precheck, Clear and Global Entry.

Our travel columnist, Don Gilbertson, says they're worth signing up for.

She actually has all three.

I just know that from my travel patterns, I couldn't live without them personally.

And I think a lot of frequent flyers can't base on my inbox.

One thing I want to show from the rooftops is if you have TSA Precheck and a passport,

there's a relatively new program called TSA Touchless ID.

If you can opt in to touchless, you will have one of the smoothest airport experiences you've ever had.

And that's what's news for this Wednesday afternoon.

Today's show is produced by Danny Lewis and Alexis Moore with supervising producer Tali Arbell.

I'm Alex O'Sola for The Wall Street Journal.

We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning.

Thanks for listening.

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