Report: Google Offers Concessions to Avoid Antitrust Lawsuit

Google, unit of Alphabet has offered concessions in an attempt to avoid a possible antitrust lawsuit aiming at the company’s large advertisement technology business, which is a sign that regulatory and legal pressures on the technology giant are coming ahead.

As part of one offer, Google has now proposed splitting parts of its business that auctions and places advertisements on the websites and apps into a separate company the Alphabet umbrella. That entity can potentially be valued at tens of billions of dollars, along with depending on what type of assets it contained.

It could not be determined whether any offer short of asset sales will satisfy the Department of Justice of the United States, where the antitrust officials have signalled a preference for the deep structural changes to the advertisement technology business of Google, rather than promises to change the business practices.

The people familiar with the matter said the Justice Department has been conducting a long investigation into the allegations that Google abusing its role as both auctioneer and broker of digital advertisements for steering itself business at the expense of the rivals.

A Google spokesman said they have been engaging constructively with regulators to address their concerns. He also said as they have said before, they have no plans to sell the business and rigorous competition in advertisement technology has made online advertisements more relevant, expanded options, and reduced fees for the advertisers and publishers.