Google weighed AdX shutdown, trial documents reveal

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The US Department of Justice’s antitrust remedies trial against Google took a dramatic turn when internal company documents revealed the tech giant had considered shutting down its AdX advertising exchange.

Tim Craycroft, Google’s VP of display products, testified that the company ran feasibility studies from 2020 onward, including a 2021 project codenamed Project Monday that explored “fully shuttering AdX” and converting DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) into a Google Cloud service. A 2024 analysis evaluated three remedies nearly identical to those now sought by the DOJ: transferring AdX to another company, open-sourcing DFP auction logic, and enabling DFP to bid into Prebid.

The revelations directly contradicted testimony from expert witnesses who argued DOJ remedies were technically impossible. Judge Leonie Brinkema even suggested shutting AdX entirely could be “an elegant solution,” since AdWords and DV360 demand could flow through Prebid.

Financial disclosures underscored the stakes. AdX alone generated about $7 billion annually from AdWords spending, while DV360 handled $20 billion across inventory types. Together with DFP, Google’s ad tech stack contributed an estimated 12% of Alphabet’s 2024 revenue — roughly $42 billion.

Technical experts testified that divestiture could take 18–24 months, with APIs and data migration posing the biggest hurdles. Industry groups like Prebid.org confirmed they could host open-sourced auction logic, potentially reshaping market dynamics.

The case highlights a divide between legal remedies and technical complexity but also reveals Google’s internal flexibility. For publishers and advertisers long critical of Google’s dominance, the trial signals the possibility of a more open, competitive ad tech ecosystem.