DecemBer 15, 1995/Frank Stiefel, president of Hollywood-based Stiefel & Company, has been elected chairman of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP). He succeeds Nick Wollner, founder/ partner of bicoastal Crossroads Films….Eggers Films, Santa Monica, will shut its doors at month’s end, to be succeeded by a new venture, production house Indigo, Santa Monica….Director Piers Plowden, formerly with Hollywood-based DNA, has signed with bicoastal The Artists Company….
DECEMBER 14, 1990/Jon Kamen, executive producer of Sandbank & Partners, Hawthorne, N.Y., has been elected national president of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP). He replaces John McCorkle, executive producer of Fireside Productions, Atlanta….Director Robert Black has exited Travisano DiGiacomo Black Films, Los Angeles, to join Chelsea Pictures, bicoastal and Boston…. Michael Givens, a former freelance DP, has obtained his first directorial roost, signing with Gibson Lefebvre Gartner, Los Angeles….
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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