Google's Chrome browser provides valuable distribution for the company's dominant search engine. Can it thrive without this?

The spinoff would be a major blow to the tech giant and will likely kick off a legal fight with wide-reaching implications for its core business.

Efforts by U.S. antitrust regulators to break up Alphabet by forcing a sale of its Google Chrome browser and other proposals to limit its search dominance are likely to run into legal challenges on grounds the remedies are extreme.