US government demands spin-off of Google's Ad Manager
r a court ruled Google holds an ad monopoly, the US government seeks to break it up. Google argues such a split is impossible and unjustified.
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In the US court proceedings concerning Google's dominance in the online advertising market, the US government is demanding that the company divest itself of part of its advertising platform. Google sees no legal basis for this and also considers it technically unfeasible. This is according to court documents filed by both parties on Monday.
In the proceedings initiated by the US Department of Justice, the judge found in April that Google had created a monopoly position in the advertising market, including by unfair means. The further course of the proceedings will now focus on what countermeasures Google must take. Google has also already announced that it will appeal against the decision.
Dumping DoubleClick again?
With the billion-euro takeover of DoubleClick in 2007, Google acquired its Ad Exchange (Adx) and DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) platforms and has since integrated them into its own platforms such as Google Ad Manager. They are a central component of Google's real-time advertising marketplace. The US government is now demanding that Google divest Adx and DFP.
Google sees no legal basis for this and considers a forced spin-off to be excessive in view of the problems identified by the court. Furthermore, a spin-off is also not technically feasible because "the code will not work outside of Google" and a completely new development would be necessary.
Instead, Google is offering to address the competition law concerns by making changes to the way the platforms work and investing more in their infrastructure. For example, Google could open up the real-time auctions on its own platform to third parties and give customers more control over the marketing of their advertising space.
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Google's cash cow
The advertising business is Google's cash cow. The parent company Alphabet generates around three quarters of its revenue from advertising. Of the 90 billion US dollars that Alphabet earned in the first quarter of 2025, just under 67 billion is attributable to the advertising business.
In another lawsuit, the US government has set its sights on Google's dominance of the search engine market. The Department of Justice is demanding that Google sell its Chrome web browser business. A court had previously found that Google had a monopoly in web search and was defending it against competition by unfair means.
Case number: US District Court Eastern District of Virginia, 1:23-cv-00108-LMB-JFA
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