Regulations
By Evie Vavasseur
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What the Court Actually Ordered. No sale doesn't mean no consequences. Brinkema ordered Google to open up its ad bidding data to…
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AdX in the Bigger Alphabet Picture. It's worth putting AdX in context. Alphabet sits at a $4.
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A Pattern of Failed Breakups. And here's the broader picture: this isn't the only time regulators have swung at a major tech…
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Google won't be selling AdX. A U.S. District Judge ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department's push to force a sale of Google's advertising exchange goes too far, letting…
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Judge Leonie Brinkema made the call, and Alphabet shares nudged higher almost immediately after the news hit.
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No sale doesn't mean no consequences. Brinkema ordered Google to open up its ad bidding data to competitors — a meaningful operational shift that could reshape how rival ad…
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Google pushed back hard on the divestiture idea. The company argued that ripping AdX out of its broader ad-tech stack would be technically brutal and would hurt customers who'd…
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But the bidding data requirement is real, and it's not trivial. Competitors have long complained they can't meaningfully challenge Google's ad dominance partly because they lack…
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It's worth putting AdX in context. Alphabet sits at a $4.08 trillion valuation, and its Ad Manager suite — the broader product that includes AdX — contributed just 4.
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Google's AI investments are the thing investors are really watching right now. Regulatory battles are basically background noise for a lot of Alphabet shareholders who'd rather…
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Read also: AI Billionaires Launch Multi-Million Dollar Ad Campaign Against Data Center Opposition
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That doesn't mean regulators are wrong about the underlying market dynamics. It probably means courts are genuinely uncertain about whether forced divestitures would fix anything…
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Europe is a different story. Google faces ongoing scrutiny there, and European regulators have generally been faster to act and more willing to impose structural remedies.
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The Justice Department, joined by several states in this case, had argued Google's grip on ad technology crushed competition and damaged both publishers and everyday consumers…
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Brinkema agreed the fee and the tying arrangement were illegal. She just didn't agree the remedy needed to be a sale.
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