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Justice Department Will Reportedly Push Google to Sell Chrome

The Department of Justice will ask a federal judge to force Google to sell its Chrome browser to address its illegal search monopoly, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The Justice Department will also ask the judge, Amit Mehta, to force Google to license its search engine data and stop bundling its Android operating system with products including search and its Google Play mobile app store, according to Bloomberg.

The Justice Department intends to ask for the Chrome sale because it is a key access point via which people use Google’s search engine, Bloomberg reported, adding that details of the remedy could still change. The Justice Department had previously flagged that it could ask for the sale of Chrome or Android as possible remedies.

In August, Mehta ruled that Google had used its exclusive distribution contracts with companies such as Apple and Samsung to create an illegal search monopoly. The Justice Department is expected to formally issue its remedies framework this week, but Mehta is not expected to issue a ruling on remedies until August 2025. Google has said it will appeal the case.

Colorful cartoon creatures by renowned Japanese graphic designer and printmaker Kazumasa Nagai peer out from handbags and small leather goods.

CREATURE COMFORTS: It’s never too late to do a collaboration. At age 95, renowned Japanese graphic designer and printmaker Kazumasa Nagai has teamed with luxury French leather goods house Moynat on a holiday capsule.

Handbags, passport cases, cardholders, notebook covers and bag charms bear vivid versions of Nagai’s quirky cartoon creatures: a lion, monkey and owl with wide-eyed stares from his ’90s catalogue, and more recent designs depicting an octopus, starfish and whale shark.

According to Nagai, “animals come in all shapes and varieties…I didn’t draw them realistically. They were all from my world expressed in a simple way with a sense of curiosity and cuteness.”

The capsule goes on sale in select Moynat boutiques from Tuesday, ranging in price from 300 euros for small leather goods up to 1,800 euros for a top-handle Duo BB bag.

Nagai is considered a living legend in Japan in graphic design circles as a founding member of the Nippon Design Center, and as the talent behind logos for Japan Railways, Asahi Breweries and the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.

Earlier this year, Moynat executives reached out to Nagai, who had never collaborated with a leather goods firm but was immediately intrigued by the project’s blend of haute craftsmanship and design.

“The skills of Moynat’s artisans are truly exceptional,” Nagai said. “The way the animals have been integrated into the bags, passport and card holders feel so lively.”

The graphic artist was instrumental in selecting color combinations and placement of his drawings, while Moynat’s teams were tasked with a painstaking process to print on leather without compromising a single hair on Nagai’s fuzzy creatures.

Word has it Moynat will extend the Nagai collaboration into December, when Dover Street Market Ginza will unveil another range of exclusive leather goods.

Over a career spanning more than 60 years, the Osaka-born Nagai has produced more than 1,000 posters. He has received numerous advertising and design awards and his works are held in the collections of many museums around the world.

One of Bernard Arnault’s smaller, under-the-radar brands known mostly for its ladylike, top-handle bags, Moynat prides itself on an artisanal approach based on rare raw materials and haute savoir-faire.

It operates about 25 boutiques worldwide. Founded in 1849, Moynat is five years older than Louis Vuitton and was best known for its lightweight, waterproof trunks for automobiles, which the brand collects fervently.

Arnault revived the brand in 2011 and it is controlled by the family-owned Groupe Arnault.

Essen-based group reveals €1.4bn net loss as Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský hints at increasing stake

Thyssenkrupp has written down its steel business by a further €1bn as Germany’s largest steelmaker warns of structurally lower demand from European industry as it struggles with the cost of decarbonisation.

The Essen-based group on Tuesday revealed a full-year net loss of €1.4bn, attributing it mainly to the writedown — an improvement on the €2bn loss posted the year before, when the energy-intensive company still grappled with high gas prices. Sales slumped 7 per cent to €35bn.

The company’s share price, which has halved in the past year, was up 2 per cent to €3.40 in Frankfurt on Tuesday morning, helped by the decision to maintain the dividend at €0.15 per share.

The writedown marks the conglomerate’s second asset impairment in two years, following a €2.1bn writedown on its struggling steel unit last November.

Thyssenkrupp, once a symbol of German industrial might, has after years of underperformance become focused on selling off assets, including the steel business and its submarine subsidiary, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.

After nearly two years of negotiations, US private equity group Carlyle last month pulled out of bidding for the naval contractor after it faced indecision and scepticism in Berlin about its involvement in a critical German defence player.

Thyssenkrupp has said it will instead pursue an initial public offering, as rumours swirl of potential takeover interest by other groups, including family-owned Lürssen.

Discussions over the future of the steel business are under way with Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský, who this year bought 20 per cent of the steel division and has signalled an interest in lifting the stake to 50 per cent.

These have, however, been complicated by infighting at the group over the cost associated with the division’s transition to making “green steel” using hydrogen and electricity rather than gas.

In August, several senior executives, including steel chief Bernhard Osburg and the division’s supervisory board chair Sigmar Gabriel, resigned in protest over Thyssenkrupp chief executive Miguel López’s handling of the green transition and the sale to Křetínský.

The upheaval at Thyssenkrupp, which has since appointed new steel leadership, has unsettled German authorities. Berlin and local authorities have together pledged €2bn to support the company’s decarbonisation efforts, a critical step in developing a hydrogen market for Europe’s largest economy.

Thyssenkrupp on Tuesday said it expected to return to profit next year, forecasting net income in the next fiscal year to reach €100mn-500mn. It added that “a large part” of negative market effects this year had been cushioned by an extensive savings programme, which it said would be extended.