Last week’s remedies ruling in the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust case against Google and its ad tech offering, i.e., the sell-side assets of Google Ad Manager (formerly DoubleClick), resolved the most consequential question facing its ad tech business: the company will not be forced to break it apart.
Judge Leonie Brinkema rejected the DOJ’s proposed structural remedies, including the divestiture of its ad exchange plus Google’s publisher ad-server business, a.k.a. DoubleClick for Publishers, or DFP, as well as the open-sourcing of DFP’s final auction logic. Instead, the court accepted most of the proposed behavioral remedies, subject to modifications.
The focus now moves from ownership to conduct. Google will retain its ad exchange, popularly known as AdX, and DFP but the final judgment will restrict how those businesses operate and interact with publishers and competing ad tech companies.
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