Publicly traded, Englewood, Colo.-based cable and communications company Liberty Media Corp. has completed its acquisition of Four Media Company (4MC), the Burbank-headquartered, publicly held firm that is parent to several post/visual effects facilities (i.e. Santa Monica-based R!OT; Company 3, Santa Monica; Encore Hollywood; Anderson Video, Universal City, Calif.; 4MC Asia, Singapore)….Actor/director Christopher Reeve has signed with New York-based TAG Pictures for representation as a commercial helmer….Director Joe Chapura has joined Sandbank Films, New York….Venice, Calif.-based Lux Pictures has entered into an agreement with Frontier Pictures, London. Per the deal, Lux will handle Frontier directors Michael Abel, Robert Dowling, Grey Lipley and Aernout Overbeeke in the U.S. Lux’s directorial lineup—including Tom Finerty, April Greiman, Michael Oblowitz, Hugo Pallete and Mitchell Walker—will be repped in the U.K. by Frontier….Animation director Graham Morris has signed with Los Angeles-based Duck Soup Studios for exclusive spot representation….Director Duncan Sharp has come aboard Marina del Rey, Calif.-based spot production house Life of Riley.…Robert Wherry, former managing director and head of East Coast sales for bicoastal HKM Productions, has become a partner in bicoastal Go Film, the shop founded by executive producer Jonathan Weinstein….Tim Cloherty and Peter Klinger have opened Sound of Science, a New York-based music and sound design company….
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