Even Facebook couldn’t compete with Google, says ex-ad chief Boland

Meta Platforms Inc. entered into a 2018 deal with Google after concluding internally that it couldn’t successfully compete against the search giant, because of its monopoly over the technology undergirding online display advertising, a former Facebook advertising executive testified as part of a US Justice Department antitrust trial.

Brian Boland, who headed Facebook’s advertising technology between 2009 and 2019, told a Virginia federal court that the social network initially aimed to directly challenge Google in the market for display ads sold on websites.