Alphabet's stock climbs after judge rules Google won't be forced to sell Chrome

When a federal judge deemed Google a “monopolist” last year, questions lingered about how he would help restore competition in online search.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta for the District of Columbia gave his answers in a highly watched decision that spared the online behemoth from selling its Chrome browser but placed other limits on the search giant.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, after dodging the most severe penalties, saw its stock surge 9% on Wednesday.

“It’s overall a win for Google,” said Yory Wurmser, a principal analyst at EMarketer. “It’s probably about the best it could have expected, given that they were found guilty.”

Advocacy groups and some tech companies expressed disappointment about the ruling, stating that it didn’t go far enough.

The judge