U.S. judge rejects Department of Justice's request to break up Google's advertising business

On Wednesday, a federal judge rejected the US Department of Justice’s request to break up Google’s (GOOG.US) online advertising business. This ruling is historic, effectively bringing almost 20 years of antitrust risk for Google under Alphabet to a close. As early as the Obama administration, US law enforcement agencies had considered filing monopoly lawsuits against Google. However, judges have consistently been resistant to breaking up companies, regarding such remedies as too drastic. Wednesday’s ruling is the latest example. US Judge Leonie Brinkema took a more restrained approach in deciding how to penalize Google. Last year, she ruled that Google had illegally monopolized the complex online advertising market for websites. The Department of Justice argued that forcing Google to sell its ad trading platform was the only way to curb its market dominance and open the market to new competitors. Brinkema did not agree. In a ruling only two pages long, she adopted alternative measures to restrict Google’s ability to control publishers’ use of its ad technology.