MARCH 3, 2000
Palomar Pictures, Los Angeles, has signed a reciprocal agreement with noted London-based production house Godman. Per the deal, Palomar will provide the lion’s share of Godman’s directorial roster with full U.S. commercial presentation….Pam Tarr, president of commercial production house Ace Entertainment and music video shop Squeak Pictures, has consolidated the two Los Angeles entities into a hybrid spot/music clip company that will operate under the Squeak banner….Director Raymond Bark has joined bicoastal Gartner for exclusive U.S. representation….Composer/arranger Don Sebesky has joined Crushing Music, New York, for exclusive spot representation. He was most recently with Montclair, N.J.-based Mess Hall….
MARCH 3, 1995
Director/DP Rob Lindsay has signed with Scene Three, Nashville, for exclusive representation….Toronto-based director Richard D’Alessio, formerly of bicoastal Chelsea Pictures, has joined The End, a bicoastal commercial/music video house, for representation in the U.S. market….Editor Jonathan Edwards, who had been on staff at 2POP Editorial, Hollywood, and postproduction manager Carrie Guilbeau, the former operations manager for 2POP’s Texas office, have teamed to launch Yellow Rose Editorial, Dallas….Scott Gardenhour and Rich Wafer have been named executive producers for Propaganda Films’ commercial division, which has bases of operation in Hollywood, New York and London….David H. Bernstein has been added to the telecine department of The Post Group, Los Angeles….
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More