U.S. judge rejects forced sale of Google's ad tech unit

A U.S. judge rejected the government's bid to force Google to sell its advertising exchange, AdX, marking a major victory for the tech giant in its antitrust battle with the Department of Justice. Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia declined to order the sale, instead accepting most proposed behavioral remedies. The DOJ and states had sued in 2023, and Brinkema ruled in April 2025 that Google held illegal monopolies in ad tech, harming publishers and consumers. The ruling is the third consecutive rejection of U.S. efforts to break up Big Tech, following similar losses against Meta and Google's Chrome browser. AdX represented 4.1% of Google's revenue in 2020, and cases against Amazon and Apple remain pending until 2027.