Move will support production through post one-stop shop business model
Production and post house Optimus plans to move to the Wrigley Building in Chicago by late fall of this year. The move to the more open, customized floor plan supports the growth of Optimus’ talented team and full suite of creative services–including production, editing, color correction, visual effects and design, audio mixing and finishing–and enables all of these departments to work even more seamlessly together.
Designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, the Wrigley building is a Chicago icon, a perfect home for Optimus to begin its next chapter in the Windy City.
“After 19 years at 161 East Grand, we are thrilled to accommodate our growth with the new headquarters in the iconic Wrigley Building,” said Tom Duff, president of Optimus. “We have a blank canvas to build a new Optimus from scratch. That’s been a dream of ours for a long time. Our managers are working closely with architects to design state-of-the-art, customized spaces to not only support each department’s unique requirements, but also to provide a most unforgettable client experience each time they walk through our doors.”
Optimus’ new 38,000 square-foot headquarters will be housed on the 11th and 12th floors of the Wrigley Building’s north tower. A large spiral staircase will connect the floors, enabling easier collaboration among creative teams.
Build-out is scheduled to begin this summer. Optimus also maintains bases of operation in Santa Monica, Calif., and New York.
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