Google dodges another breakup attempt

BREAKING: A US federal judge rejects the Justice Department's bid to break up Google's ad tech business, opting for milder behavioral remedies after ruling the company illegally monopolized the market.

Google just dodged a breakup, again.

A federal judge, Leonie Brinkema, ruled the Justice Department can't force Google to sell off pieces of its ad tech business, even though she'd already found the company illegally monopolized that market for years. Instead, Google gets behavioral remedies. Rules of conduct, not a chainsaw.

The details stay sealed until both sides sort out redactions, but think restrictions on Google favoring itself in ad auctions, and letting rivals see the same real-time data Google sees. Once the final opinion lands, Google can appeal the monopoly finding itself, which is exactly what it did after the search case, where another judge also stopped short of a breakup.

So that's two courts, two monopoly rulings, and zero breakups. The government keeps winning the argument and losing the remedy. Google's lawyers might be the best asset on that balance sheet.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.