The news: Google staff have taken unusual steps to position Ad Manager as a viable stand-alone entity, reports The Information.

• Employees recently hosted a dinner in New York with major ad agencies; these groups typically work with Google’s buy-side tools, not its publisher-facing business.
• Attendees said they were surprised that Ad Manager staff asked about building direct relationships with buyers, a move that would put the unit on a path more typical of independent ad tech companies.

Key context: The moves from Google Ad Manager (GAM) come as a federal court in Virginia prepares to begin hearing remedies next month in an antitrust case that could force Google to spin off its ad tech unit.

• As a result, regulators want Google to divest Ad Manager, which houses its publisher ad server and exchange.
• Next month’s hearings follow an April ruling that Google holds an illegal monopoly in publisher ad servers and ad exchanges. The remedies trial could determine whether Google must spin off Ad Manager or accept concessions such as selling its ad exchange, AdX, or opening it to competitors.
• The effort comes as Google’s network revenues, which include Ad Manager, have declined 7% since 2022 to around $30 billion. Assuming Ad Manager accounts for half of that total, its annual revenues may be near $5 billion—still far larger than rivals like Magnite ($668 million in 2024) or PubMatic ($291 million).

Why it matters: Ad Manager has sought growth in areas beyond banner ads but has struggled to adapt its technology for partners like Uber and Roku. Streaming TV platforms say Google’s tools cater more to small web publishers than to enterprise-scale needs.

Publishers argue they earn less through Google than through rivals due to weaker demand and slow innovation. Some have turned to alternatives such as PubMatic or Magnite, while others experiment with new monetization models like Cloudflare’s Pay per Crawl, which charges AI firms for scraping content.