Directors Sam Cadman and Nick Jones of Rogue Films, London, are being represented stateside by Sandi Mollod on the East Coast, in the Midwest by Jill Reehl and Noelle Whitfield of Get Reehl!, Chicago, and on the West Coast by Brent Novick of Novick & Associates, San Rafael, Calif….Benson/Schafler Artists Management, New York, has signed bicoastal Konk Inc., and Studio V12, Hollywood, for East Coast representation….Shea Bernard has joined the staff of bicoastal Zooma Zooma. She joins Lori Vitale in handling East Coast representation for the production company….Grace & Wild Digital Studios, Farmington Hills, Mich., has promoted Alison Collins to assistant sales manager/group leader, and Kimberly Stricker to sales representative….Jack Reed of Jack Reed Reps, Dallas, will handle sales in the Southwest for director Chris Smith of the newly formed production house Sugar Film Production, Dallas. Smith previously directed commercial and corporate films directly for clients….
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