Bicoastal RSA USA has signed Chicago-based rep firm Nikki Weiss & Company to handle the shop’s Midwest sales, and Santa Monica-based Stacey & Annie to cover the West Coast and Texas….After a six year run with the company, Chicago-based rep Donna Daguanno is no longer repping bicoastal HSI Productions. According to HSI executive producer Bill Sandwick, HSI has no plans to hire a Midwest rep to replace her….Daguanno has picked up bicoastal The Artists Company and The A+R Group for Midwest representation……Envision It, Miami, has signed New York house Steam Films for representation in Florida. Headed by partners Robin Campbell and Barbara Weiss, Steam has a directorial roster that includes Rick Field, Robert Palumbo, Ana Coyne Alonso and Barbara Heller. Envision It was founded earlier this year by Alana Rothlein….Miami-based BVI Communications has added Leslie Schwimmer as director of new business…. A…List Artists, Hollywood, has signed aerial/underwater DP Joshua S. Narins for exclusive representation in commercials and features….
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 โ 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