Google dodges antitrust breakup of ad tech business

A federal judge rejected the Justice Department's push to force Google to divest its AdX ad exchange and open-source key auction logic, despite having already ruled last April that Google's ad-tech conduct violated antitrust law and harmed publishers and consumers. Judge Leonie Brinkema accepted most of the government's proposed behavioral remedies 'as modified by this court' but kept her full reasoning sealed for two weeks.

Google's regulatory affairs VP said the company was 'very pleased' the court rejected breaking apart tools that help small businesses — a framing that skips past the part where a court found those tools helped Google run a monopoly. Google is expected to appeal regardless, which would likely delay any remedy further.

The ruling arrives as rival ad-tech firm PubMatic seeks over $1 billion in damages from Google based on the earlier liability finding, and as EU regulators separately fined Google $3.2 billion over similar conduct. It's also the second U.S. antitrust case — after the search monopoly ruling — in which a court found Google guilty and then declined to order a breakup.

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