Santa Monica-based music and sound design house Ear to Ear has signed Grace Silverstein of independent firm Reel Grace to handle representation on the West Coast and in Texas…. Hollywood-headquartered Music Forever has secured spot rep Aaron Clute to cover both coasts, and Chicago-based Dan O’Brien to handle the Midwest….Chicago-based Champ Films has added rep Vince Kamin to handle Midwest sales….The GAF Group has been launched in Nashville, Tenn. The new venture, headed by president Steve Glover, opens with a roster of Deanton Flanigen Productions and Whistler’s Entertainment Group, both also located in Nashville. GAF Group is repping the two companies nationally….DP Chris Manley has finished principal photography on the feature Side Show, and is available exclusively through Los Angeles-based Lyons•Sheldon•Prosnit….John Shike has been named VP of marketing throughout the Americas for Snell & Wilcox, the Twickenham, U.K.-based electronics design, manufacturing and engineering firm. Shike will work out of the company’s U.S. headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif….
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