Your Evening Briefing: US Sues to Break Up Google’s Ad Unit

The US Justice Department and eight states sued Google, calling for the breakup of the search giant’s ad-technology business over alleged monopolization of the digital ads. Google is the dominant player in the $278.6 billion US digital-ad market, controlling most of the technology used to buy, sell and serve online advertising. The lawsuit is the Biden administration’s first major case challenging one of America’s tech behemoths in this fashion, and marks one of the few times the federal government has called for the breakup of a major company since it dismantled Bell telecom in the 1980s. Google contends the lawsuit is based on a “flawed argument.” Its stock fell 2%.

It was a chaotic open Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange as dozens of the largest US companies seemed to lose billions of dollars in market value for no apparent reason. The NYSE said it’s investigating the cause. Here’s your markets wrap.