Presidents often start legal battles they won't be around to finish, betting on the inertia of federal bureaucracies.

• That may be what faces the incoming Trump administration, based on a Bloomberg report that the Justice Department will ask a judge to require that Google divest its Chrome browser.
• This comes three months after the judge ruled that Google violated antitrust law to maintain its search monopoly, and would be DOJ's proposed remedy.

Why it matters: This could be the first big test of tech antitrust policy under Trump 2.0.

• Google already plans to appeal, which means the case will bleed way past Jan. 20, and even the divestiture decision isn't expected until next summer.

On the one hand: Trump has no love lost for Google, which he threatened to sue during the campaign.

• Same goes for Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz, who's called for breaking up Big Tech companies.

On the other hand: Trump ran on a deregulatory agenda, which helped pry free a lot of donation dollars from Silicon Valley investors.

• Dealmakers have convinced themselves that the next White House will have a much lighter touch on antitrust, but forcing Google to dump Chrome could switch the signals.
• It's not exactly like blocking a new merger, but it could chill future Big Tech acquisitions.

The wildcard: The original case was actually filed during Trump's first term, although the Chrome request would come from Biden's DOJ.

• There's no particular reason to believe past is prologue here, given Trump's reversals on the TikTok ban and crypto being a "scam."

Zoom in, per Bloomberg: "Owning the world's most popular web browser is key for Google's ads business. The company is able to see activity from signed-in users, and use that data to more effectively target promotions, which generate the bulk of its revenue. Google has also been using Chrome to direct users to its flagship AI product, Gemini, which has the potential to evolve from an answer-bot to an assistant that follows users around the web."

The bottom line: Google is the world's fourth-largest company by market cap, with a market cap of nearly $2.2 trillion. It would take two presidents to break it up, but only if they both want to take the fight.

The Blackstone Group agreed to buy a majority stake in sandwich shop chain Jersey Mike's Subs for around $8 billion.

Why it's the BFD: This is nearly the same amount that Roark Capital paid earlier this year for Subway, even though Subway has over 36,000 stores and Jersey Mike's has around 3,000.

Behind the scenes: Blackstone and Jersey Mike's CEO Peter Cancro held takeover talks for three years before the final agreement.

• Jersey Mike's bid have banker representation, but didn't run an auction.
• Blackstone was helped on the deal by senior advisor Nigel Travis, the former Dunkin' Brands CEO who will join the Jersey Mike's board of directors.

The bottom line: Part of Blackstone's bet is that Jersey Mike's can continue to take domestic market share from Subway, but expect a lot of the focus to be on global growth.

• Jersey Mike's currently has just four stores outside of the U.S., compared to more than 15,000 international Subway locations.

• Kong, an SF-based developer of cloud API tech, raised $175m in Series E funding. Tiger Global and Balderton co-led, and was joined by OTPP, 137 Ventures, and insiders a16z, Index Ventures, CRV, Sapphire Ventures, and Notable Capital. konghq.com

• Skydio, the San Mateo, Calif., dronemaker, added $170m to the $230m Series E it closed last year from KDDI, Axon and insider Linse Capital. axios.link/3UZqyDM

• Roboflow, a Des Moines, Iowa,-based computer vision startup, raised $40m in Series B funding, per Fortune. GV led, and was joined by Craft Ventures and YC. axios.link/4hWN7Tr

• SuperAnnotate, an SF-based provider of software for managing large-scale AI datasets, raised $36m in Series B funding. Cox Enterprises' Socium Ventures led, and was joined by Nvidia, Databricks, and Play Time Ventures. axios.link/4i9y0GH

• Minu, a Mexican employee benefits platform, raised $30m in Series B funding. QED led, and was joined by Endeavor Catalyst and Next Billion Capital Partners. axios.link/40XeVkD

• Plantible Foods, a San Diego-based maker of plant-based protein, raised $30m in Series B funding. Siddhi Capital and Piva Capital co-led, and were joined by Betagro Ventures, Chipotle, Griffith Foods, and insider Astanor Ventures. plantiblefoods.com

• Snap Mobile, a fundraising platform for schools and organizations, raised $23m from Runway Growth Capital. snapraise.com