Liz Laine Reps, Chicago, is handling Midwest sales for Primal Scream, Santa Monica, and London-based animation company Exposure Films….The Blue Rock Editing Co., New York, has added Marisa Stubin as sales rep….Lisa Osrin has been named in-house East Coast sales rep for The Firm, New York….Darren Mark has come aboard Beehive, New York, as business development director….Rob Russo Promotions, New York, is handling national sales for New York-based motion graphics shop Velocity Design Group….Michael Bove, formerly of Big Foote Music, New York, has been named West Coast rep for Val’s Artist Management, a New York-headquartered personal management boutique that specializes in handling singers for commercials….Cinematographer Harris Savides has wrapped principal photography on Jonathan Glazer’s film, Birth, and is again available for spots through The Skouras Agency, Santa Monica….
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