Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema has rejected the U.S. Department of Justice's demand for the forced sale of Google's advertising exchange AdX. This decision effectively puts an end to regulators' plans to break up the tech giant's business. The market reacted immediately — Alphabet shares moved higher.
A Victory Without a Breakup
The antitrust case against Google has been ongoing since 2023, when the DOJ and several states accused the company of illegally monopolizing the online advertising market. In April 2025, Judge Brinkema sided with the prosecution, noting that Google forcibly tied publishers to its AdX exchange and charged a 20% commission on every transaction. However, now, at the remedies stage, the court did not support the radical scenario.
"Google's customers, competition, and, ultimately, users of the open internet have suffered substantially," the judge stated, but at the same time declined the idea of structural separation of the company.
Instead, Brinkema ordered Google to restructure the operation of its advertising services, in particular, to give competitors greater access to auction bidding data. The company itself insisted that selling AdX was technically complex and would negatively impact customers, and the court ultimately agreed with these arguments.
A Trend Toward Protecting Giants
This is already the third consecutive defeat for U.S. authorities in their attempts to break up IT monopolies. Earlier, the court allowed Google to keep the Chrome browser, and regulators failed to take Instagram and WhatsApp away from Meta (recognized as an extremist organization in Russia). It appears the U.S. judicial system is increasingly less inclined to support harsh structural measures against technology corporations.
Significantly, Ad Manager brings Alphabet relatively little: with the company valued at $4.08 trillion, the service generated only 4.1% of revenue and 1.5% of operating profit in 2020. Nevertheless, it was around this "small" part of the business that the main legal battle unfolded.
Google still has unresolved issues with European regulators, its position in the field of artificial intelligence remains shaky, and Alphabet's rising AI spending is increasingly worrying investors. However, today's decision removes the main existential risk from the company — the forced dismantling of its business.
My take: This decision is a landmark signal for the entire market. U.S. courts are demonstrating that even with proven monopolization, forced breakup is an extreme measure that harms innovation and customers. For investors, this means reduced regulatory risk in the technology sector, which could support the stock prices of not only Alphabet but also other major players targeted by antitrust authorities.