The US government has filed an antitrust lawsuit against $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ Google's advertising business, and the prosecutor has cited internal emails from Google as key evidence, demonstrating that company executives are aware of Google's dominant position in the online advertising market.

In the past two weeks of the trial, evidence submitted by the Department of Justice included an email from YouTube Chief Executive Neal Mohan in 2010. Mohan previously oversaw Google's display advertising business. At that time, Google faced increased competition from advertising technology startups.

In an email to Google colleagues, Mohan wrote: "One way to ensure that we do not fall further behind in the market is to pick the most attractive product and stick it somewhere."

In 2011, Google spent 0.4 billion US dollars to acquire the advertising technology company AdMeld. Two years later, the technology of this startup company was integrated into Google's AdX advertising trading platform, and then the company was closed down. Prosecutors claim that the AdMeld transaction was part of a broader strategic move to eliminate competitors and lock customers into terms that required them to pay for software tools to access another software tool.

During the trial, Mohan denied that he suggested acquiring AdMeld to eliminate competitors. He stated that the acquisition was more beneficial for customers as it filled gaps in the product suite.

Reportedly, prosecutors also questioned the email content of former Google executives including Jonathan Bellack, Chris LaSala, and Issar Lipkowitz. Other witnesses included former Google customer Stephanie Leze, a former News Corp executive, who testified that she felt she had no choice but to use the Google platform as switching ad servers would cost millions of dollars in ad revenue.

Google's legal team for civil litigation will defend the case next week. Judge Leonie Brinkema of the US District Court in Virginia will make the ruling on this case. It has been reported that an unfavorable ruling against Google may lead to the company selling a portion of its advertising technology business, estimated to be worth 100 billion dollars or more.

Editor/Rocky