Craig-Hallum sees biggest opportunity residing with Magnite after Google ruling

Craig-Hallum analyst Jason Kreyer notes that a landmark ruling came this morning as a federal judge ruled against Google (GOOGL), citing monopolistic behavior in its adtech business. Behavior between Google exchange and ad server was the primary culprit of these behaviors, with remediation focused on a divestiture of some combination of GAM and AdX. The firm sees clear benefits to SSPs as Google’s behaviors have artificially suppressed win-rates, which should see an immediate boost as Google’s anti-competitive behaviors are remediated. The biggest opportunity resides with Magnite (MGNI), the number 2 SSP which has flourished despite Google’s monopolistic practices, Craig-Hallum argues. Overall, the firm views this as a win for the broader open web and publishers, which should no longer be pushed around by Google.