Nov 21 (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google will make

its final plea to avoid a breakup of its advertising technology

business in a U.S. court on Friday, as the Department of

Justice's antitrust case draws to a close.

Google has so far come away largely unscathed from a bipartisan

government legal crackdown on the dominance of Big Tech - a push

that began during the first term of President Donald Trump.

But that could change, depending on what U.S. District Court

Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, decides.

Brinkema ruled in April that Google holds two illegal ad tech

monopolies, and is now considering what the company must do to

restore competition. The DOJ and a coalition of states have

asked the judge to make Google sell its ad exchange, AdX, where

online publishers pay Google a 20% fee to sell ads in auctions

that happen instantly when users load websites.

At an 11-day trial that began in September, DOJ attorneys sought

to convince Brinkema that nothing short of a forced sale would

keep Google from developing new tactics to hamper competition.

Google tried to show that a breakup would be technically

difficult, resulting in a long and painful transition that would

hurt customers.

The closing arguments on Friday mark the end of evidentiary

hearings in Google's years-long battle with the DOJ over its

dominance in online advertising and search.

Next, the fight will shift to appeals courts, a process that

could take years.

Google has said it will appeal Brinkema's monopoly ruling.

The company also plans to challenge a ruling issued by a

Washington-based judge that it holds illegal monopolies in

online search and related advertising. In that case, Google

avoided a forced sale of its Chrome browser, but was ordered to

share data with competitors.

The U.S. still has antitrust cases pending against Meta

Platforms ( META ), Amazon ( AMZN ) and Apple ( AAPL ).