OCTOBER 14, 1994
Director Ray Lawrence has signed with Bedford Falls, Santa Monica, for commercial representation in the U.S. He will continue to work internationally via Window Productions, the Sydney, Australia-based shop where he is a partner….Red Car, an editing shop with offices in Hollywood, Santa Monica and New York, has opened up a Chicago branch….Director Brad Christian—who has most recently been freelancing—has joined Original Film, Santa Monica, for commercial and music video representation….George Mendoza has joined post/visual effects facility CIS Hollywood, Los Angeles, as head of commercial production. He was most recently a producer at Leo Burnett Co., Los Angeles….
OCTOBER 13, 1989
Story Piccolo Guliner, bicoastal and Chicago, has launched a New York division, Crossroads Films. The new unit will represent and produce for feature film, TV, animation and graphic design directors….Ending a nearly 20-year tenure at Sunlight Pictures, director/cameraman Melvin Sokolsky has launched his own boutique, Sokolsky Film, Los Angeles….In an effort to increase his company’s video postproduction and film transfer capabilities, president Jack Tohtz of Szabo-Tohtz Editing, Chicago, has debuted a videotape and editorial division, Skyview Film & Video, also Chicago….Tapping into the growing Florida commercial industry, music house Richard Goldman Productions, Cincinnati, is expanding its operation into Miami….
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