DOJ seeks breakup of Google ad unit

Linked In ^ | 1/25/23 | Brad Kallet, Editor

[EBH]

The U.S. Department of Justice and eight states have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, calling for a breakup of the search-giant's advertising technology business. The lawsuit argues that Google has "corrupted legitimate competition" by taking control of a "wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers and brokers to facilitate digital advertising.” Filed in a federal court in Virginia on Tuesday, the suit calls for the unwinding of Google's “anticompetitive acquisitions,” such as its 2007 purchase of ad-tool maker DoubleClick.

The company is expected to earn about $66 billion in digital ad revenue in the U.S. this year, more than a quarter of the market.

Google said the lawsuit "attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive advertising technology sector.”

[EBH]

The lawsuit on Tuesday describes a campaign by Google to monopolize advertising technology and then abuse that dominance, to the detriment of publishers, advertisers and ultimately consumers.

The Justice Department and the states, which include New York and California, said Google had built its monopoly by buying up crucial tools that delivered ads to publishers. As a result, advertisers paid more for space on the internet and publishers made less money, as Google took its cut, they said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/technology/google-ads-lawsuit.html

[fireman15]

I am not really buying into this very much. The DOJ has been weaponized and become a political tool of the left. Google is far left; it is probably just a reminder for them to start contributing more to the Democrats now or face the consequences.

On the other hand, Bill Gates has always been a lefty and the Clinton DOJ went after Microsoft. But at that time, it was fashionable in lefty circles to do anything that helped out Apple.

[pepsi_junkie]

I am not really buying into this very much. The DOJ has been weaponized and become a political tool of the left.

Communists are not rational. They are aggressively paranoid and quick to anger at any perceived slight. Hence cancel culture. Anyway they turn on their own all the time and given that they naturally hate big corporations too, it's not that surprising that they would irrationally work to destroy their own tool.

Dumbasses probably want to tear it down so someone like Elon Musk can never buy it. As I said, paranoia rules in those people.