Nearing the end of the second week in court, the U.S. Department of Justice is wrapping up its presentation of evidence against Google in the company’s landmark adtech antitrust trial. According to The Associated Press, the DOJ contends that “Google built, acquired and maintains a monopoly over the technology that matches online publishers to advertisers.” The trial is expected to last four weeks.
If you would like more context on this matter, please consider David Halliday, teaching associate professor of strategic management & public policy at the George Washington University School of Business. His expertise includes business strategy, corporate strategy, and business ethics and public policy. Halliday offered a couple of key points about the ongoing trial.
“All of the coverage I've seen on the current case focuses on how small this market is for Google. It’s only about 4% of revenue and 1.5% of net operating profit. Being forced to divest their adtech services won't directly affect Google's profits to a large extent,” Halliday said.
“But, any change in power at the level of who delivers the ads will break Google’s ‘last look’ power on price setting. This may affect not only how display ads are delivered, but also how publishers choose which advertising platforms to use.
It's likely that this spinoff would facilitate competition with Google Ads by reducing switching costs and frictions allowing publishers and advertisers new ad platform options. This could facilitate competition at both the Google Ads and adtech market, putting further dents in Google’s (admittedly strong) armor.”
If you would like to speak with Prof. Halliday, please contact GW Senior Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass Restuccio at [email protected].
-GW-
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