If you go that far back, tell me, where would the world be if Microsoft, Apple, Google, the whole world would come to a screeching halt. People would have no idea where to go to find information. They would have no PC, smartphones, search engines, etc.
The hardware would still be there and is a commodity. Produced mostly by the Chinese. As well as the French (Alcatel network switches). The software would also keep on running, and development would just be taken over.
The only people who lose data are those rock-dumb enough not to use local storage.
Search engine design isn’t even unique at this point. Wolfram Alpha (heavy European presence) and Yandex would likely take over soon enough.
