For the past four days, the Justice Department has sought to persuade a federal judge in Virginia to force Alphabet Inc.’s Google to sell off part of the company and change the way it does business to improve competition for online display advertising.
Google runs an ad-buying service for marketers and an ad-selling one for publishers, as well as a trading exchange where both sides complete transactions in lightning-fast auctions. Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled earlier this year that the search giant illegally monopolized two of those markets – the exchange and ad-selling technology, known as an ad server. She’s now considering how to remedy the illegal conduct in what’s expected to be a two-week hearing.