Google will seek to avoid ad tech spinoff in antitrust case

Google is set to plead with a judge on Friday to refrain from dividing its advertising technology division in an attempt to conclude its dominance over tools essential for online ad sales.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, is conducting the hearing to gain a comprehensive understanding of possible solutions to reinstate competition in the technology markets that assist website publishers in selling advertisements. The judge will subsequently arrange additional proceedings to determine particular actions.

Google aims to prevent a situation similar to the ongoing case in Washington, where a judge is deliberating the Justice Department’s request for Google to sell its Chrome Web browser in order to tackle the company’s online search monopoly.

The company aims to prevent reaching that stage in the ad tech case by persuading Brinkema that a mandated selloff is not a legal possibility.

Google has stated that it would be unsuitable for the company to sell tools that offer more than simply selling website advertisements. The DOJ has informed Brinkema that Google should be required to divest at least its Google Ad Manager, encompassing the firm’s publisher ad server and ad exchange.

Publisher ad servers are tools utilized by websites to store and oversee their digital advertising inventory. In conjunction with ad exchanges, the technology enables news publishers and various online content providers to generate revenue by selling advertisements.

In April, Brinkema decided that Google illegally linked publishers’ usage of its ad exchange to their use of its ad server, implementing anticompetitive strategies that were “not in the best interests of its publisher clients.” The behavior negatively impacted competition, adversely affected publishers, and ultimately harmed internet users, she stated.