Google stock declined after hours as it faces the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) second lawsuit on Monday over its alleged ad-tech monopoly.
The search giant’s stock plunged -4.02% to $150.92 apiece in closed trading and dipped by -0.28% to $150.50 in the after-hours session.
According to reports, the DOJ claimed that Google’s ad-tech services created an unequal playing field for its rivals. This has allowed the internet giant to monopolize advertising, increasing user costs.
Furthermore, sources noted that Alphabet’s ad-tech earnings account for 77.00% of its total revenue. Google’s annual revenue disclosed that it brought in $307.00 billion last year, but $237.00 billion was made through its advertising services.
Meanwhile, a federal judge last month ruled that the tech giant has breached antitrust regulations by engaging in unjust business strategies to dominate the ad landscape.
Moreover, the second government antitrust case against Google is set to begin on September 9, and analysts have dubbed it the DoubleClick trial.
The DOJ alleges that the tech giant’s digital ad market dominance has battered advertisers and content creators.
Chair Leonie Brinkema will also hear the advertising antitrust lawsuit at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
LLM Rivalry, Google Services Persists to Show Solid Growth
According to reports, Google Services has persisted despite the solid competition of large language models (LLM) like ChatGPT.
Sources noted that the Alphabet Q2 2024 Search & Other segment rose to $48.51 billion compared to $42.63 billion in the same quarter last year. This represents a 13.80% surge year-over-year (YoY), highlighting significant growth in this part of Google’s business.
Furthermore, Google Services’ total revenue, including YouTube, Android, and Google Play, has been boosted by 11.50% YoY to $73.93 billion.
Additionally, Alphabet’s earnings across its segments increased by 13.60% annually in the second quarter of 2024, revealing a solid financial performance for the tech giant.
