This seems to be one of those instances where the free market bites a corporation in the butt and then they whine to the Government so that pro-"their business interest" regulation is put into place or in place regulations are used/ruled in their favour. Thus making it an un-free market even though corporations are championing a free market to whatever gov. official will offer them sympathy.
In this case AT&T was free to create it's own innovate search engine and reap the benefits from it. Investers would not have made the same dough via AT&T than Google by making sure a brand new company introduced itself to the stock market.