Google will confront an existential threat as the U.S. government tries to break up the company as punishment for turning its search engine into a ruthless monopoly.

It's official time for Google to have its moment in court in front of the U.S. government as it relates to its dominance of the search engine market. In August, a judge ruled that Google had violated antitrust laws to maintain its dominance in online search, and the government's potential solution involves breaking Google apart.