Google avoided a forced sale of its AdX advertising exchange this week after a federal judge rejected the Justice Department’s breakup request in Virginia.
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema instead ordered behavioral changes to Google’s ad tech business after ruling in April 2025 that the company illegally monopolized two advertising technology markets used by publishers.
The decision marks Google’s second major escape from divestiture after a separate search antitrust case ended without a forced sale of Chrome or Android in the US.
The court chose conduct limits over a breakup
Brinkema rejected the Justice Department’s push to make Google sell AdX, its ad exchange that charges publishers a 20% fee to auction ad space as webpages load.
The judge accepted most proposed behavioral remedies, though the full opinion was sealed temporarily so the parties could review confidential business information before release.
Google must make its ad tech tools work with rival-operated tools, according to the short order described by Bloomberg on Wednesday.
The parties have 30 days to submit a joint final judgment proposal, or competing versions if they can’t agree on implementation.
"We’re very pleased the court rejected the DOJ’s proposal."
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google
The Justice Department argued that a sale was needed because Google could not be trusted to run AdX after its past conduct in the market.
Google said a forced sale would be technically difficult and could create a long transition that would hurt customers using its tools.
The ruling weakens the breakup playbook
The case centered on the open-web display ad market, where regulators said Google used control over publisher ad servers and exchanges to favor its own systems across auctions.
Google’s network ad business accounted for roughly 12% of Alphabet’s total revenue when the government sought divestiture, according to Axios citing filings.
Wedbush analysis cited by Reuters said Ad Manager represented 4.1% of Google revenue and 1.5% of operating profit in 2020 based on court documents.
Companies spend more than $919B globally on digital advertising, while Google’s US ad operations are expected to bring in $101.2B in 2026 per EMarketer estimates.
The ruling is the third straight failed breakup bid against Big Tech after courts rejected forced divestitures involving Google search and Meta Platforms social assets.
Amazon and Apple still face US antitrust cases, but those trials are not expected before 2027 at the earliest, according to Reuters.
For investors, the immediate takeaway is narrower than the headline victory, because Google kept the asset but still faces court-supervised operating limits in ad tech.