Topic A in New York City: a state law that eliminates broker fees for renters. Google reportedly weighs divesting a big ad businessAs antitrust regulators turn up the heat, the company is reportedly considering a sale or spinoff of its third-party ad tech unit, Keach Hagey and Rob Copeland of the WSJ report, citing unnamed sources. The context:• The Justice Department has increasingly focused on Google’s third-party ad business, which was “built largely on the company’s 2008 acquisition of the ad-technology firm DoubleClick,” Ms. Hagey and Mr. Copeland write. • Google’s ad-tech business consists of software used to buy and sell ads across the web. • Critics say Google unfairly bundles these tools together and uses them to help its own services, like search and YouTube.

Source: New York Times February 06, 2020 11:52 UTC