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Product cover image for Scaling into Scrutiny: Google’s Growth Strategy at an Antitrust Crossroads

Scaling into Scrutiny: Google’s Growth Strategy at an Antitrust Crossroads

Parul Gupta

Product #:W48925
Supplier:MDI/Ivey
Discipline:General Management, Strategy
Setting:United States, 2025
Details:Case (PDF) • 11 pages • 2026-05-29

Subjects:

Leadership and managing peopleStrategyManagement

Industries:

Information technology and telecom sector

Geography:

United StatesNorth America
Your Price:$9.71

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In April 2025, a US federal court found Google LLC (Google) guilty of illegally misusing its dominant position and maintaining monopolies in advertising technology (AdTech) markets. In its defense, the company argued that ad publishers chose Google not due to a lack of options but because its AdTech solutions were simple, affordable, and effective. While remedies for restoring competition were yet to be determined by the court, Google’s plan for business expansion in the online ecosystem could be severely affected if structural remedies were ordered. How did Google’s expansion strategies lead to antitrust scrutiny? Given potential court-ordered remedies, what strategic realignment did Google need to implement to avoid antitrust actions in the future while continuing to benefit from market expansion?

Learning Objectives

This case can be used in graduate and postgraduate management programs in the following types of courses: strategic management; business policy and corporate strategy; managerial economics; business, government, and society or non-market strategy; and elective courses centred around digital and platform strategy, competition policy, regulatory strategy, and risk management. The case is also suitable for executive modules and management development programs.

In working through the case and assignment questions, students will do the following:
  • Evaluate corporate growth and market expansion strategies that can trigger antitrust scrutiny against market leaders.
  • Explain how strategic frameworks such as Ansoff’s matrix can be used to link product–market choices with competitive and regulatory outcomes.
  • Develop an understanding of public interest theory and regulatory capture theory and assess their implications for market efficiency, consumer welfare, and innovation in technology-driven industries.
  • Explain structural and behavioural remedies imposed by antitrust regulators for restoring competition.
  • Assess strategic and operational implications of antitrust remedies on growth plans of dominant market firms.
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Case Study: Scaling into Scrutiny: Google’s Growth Strategy at an Antitrust Crossroads (English version) | Ivey Publishing