Alexandria, Virginia – Google’s defense against charges that it has an illegal monopoly on internet advertising technology began Friday with witness testimony claiming that the sector is far more sophisticated and competitive than the federal government portrays.

“The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years,” said Scott Sheffer, Google’s VP for Global Partnerships and the company’s first witness in its antitrust trial in Alexandria.

Google Begins Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Advertising Technology

According to the Justice Department and a coalition of states, Google established and maintained an illegal monopoly on the technology that enables the buying and selling of internet advertisements seen by consumers.

Google maintains that the government’s case incorrectly focuses on a specific form of online ad — namely, the rectangular ones that show at the top and right sides of a webpage. Google’s lawyers stated in their opening statement that the Supreme Court had urged judges not to interfere when dealing with fast-growing technology, such as what Sheffer described, due to the danger of error or unforeseen consequences.

According to Google, strictly defining the market misses the competition it confronts from social media businesses, Amazon, streaming TV providers, and others who give advertisers a means to reach online customers.

Justice Department lawyers invited witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, outlining how automated ad exchanges run auctions in milliseconds to choose which ads are displayed to which people and at what price.

The department claims that the auctions are rigged in subtle ways that benefit Google at the expense of potential competitors and prevent publishers from making as much money as they could for selling ad space.

It further claims that Google’s technology, when applied to all aspects of an ad transaction, allows Google to keep 36 cents on the dollar for any given ad purchase, which occurs billions of times per day.

Executives at media businesses such as Gannett, which publishes USA Today, and News Corp., which owns the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, have stated that Google controls the scene with technology used by both publishers to sell ad space and advertisers eager to buy it. Because the products are linked, publishers must use Google’s technology to have quick access to its massive advertiser database.

In its complaint filed last year, the government stated that Google should be required to give off a section of its business that serves publishers to break up its dominance.

Google Begins Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Advertising Technology

Sheffer explained in his testimony on Friday how Google’s capabilities have improved over time, as well as how it vets publishers and advertisers to protect against vulnerabilities such as malware and fraud.

The trial began on September 9, less than a month after a judge in the District of Columbia deemed Google’s core business, its ubiquitous search engine, an illegal monopoly. That trial is currently ongoing to see what, if any, remedies the court may impose.

The ad technology at issue in the Virginia lawsuit does not produce the same money for Google as its search engine, but it is estimated to bring in tens of billions of dollars every year.

Overseas regulators have also accused Google of anticompetitive behaviour. However, the company gained a victory this week when an EU court reversed a 1.49 billion euro ($1.66 billion) antitrust sentence issued five years ago on a different section of the company’s online advertising business.

SOURCE | AP

FedEx said a weaker industrial environment resulted in a “challenging” quarter, prompting it to lower its view for later this year, indicating a likely cooling in the overall economy.

Investors saw the company as a harbinger for the US and worldwide economies, but it was more concerned with industrial customers who send items to other businesses than with consumers, who account for the vast majority of US economic activity. CEO Rajesh Subramaniam stated that the company’s e-commerce shipments “start to grow again.”

FedEx (FDX) shares fell 14% on Friday because of concerns about its industrial customers.

FedEx Earnings Miss Could Signal A Slowing Economy

“The soft industrial economy is clearly weighing on (business-to-business) volumes, and it was definitely much weaker than we expected, and we have to make adjustments accordingly,” Subramaniam told investors in a conference call Thursday following its late-day report. “And as you know, shipments linked to industrial production are our highest-yielding and the most profitable.”

According to the firm, this resulted in “reduced demand for priority services (and) increased demand for deferred services.”

FedEx is a firm founded and built on people’s demand to get items delivered quickly – it’s in the name, after all. When consumers quit doing something to save money, it’s bad news for the company.

FedEx faced “pretty dramatic changes” in the shift in the mix from priority to deferred, according to CFO John Dietrich in the investors call, despite the fact that total volumes “were, for the most part, fairly strong.”

The figures were poorer than expected, coming the day after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a percentage point in an effort to boost US economic growth. Subramaniam mentioned that cut during his remarks to analysts.

“The magnitude of the Fed rate cuts yesterday signals the weakness of the current environment,” Mr. Powell stated. “Now, we’re not assuming a significant comeback on the industrial environment in the rest of this (calendar year).”

FedEx Earnings Miss Could Signal A Slowing Economy

On Wednesday, however, Chair Jerome Powell stated that the Fed was decreasing interest rates to assist the labour market. “The labour market is in solid condition, and our intention with our policy move today is to keep it there,” Powell told reporters. “You can say that about the entire economy: the US economy is doing well. It is rising at a steady pace, and inflation is decreasing. The labour market is expanding rapidly. We want to keep it there. That is exactly what we are doing.

Subramaniam stated that FedEx is “cautiously optimistic” that industrial production will moderately increase in early 2025, “but we are dialling in pretty low growth expectations at this point because of the environment we are seeing.”

FedEx faced a number of challenges, including rising labour expenses.

FedEx shares had risen 21% year to date as of Thursday’s close before falling on Friday.

SOURCE | AP

(VOR News) – John Donahoe, currently leaving his post as Nike’s chief executive officer, oversaw this approach. Its main goals were online and direct product sales straight to consumers via the company’s retail locations.

Conversely, it is expected that the new chief executive officer of Nike would turn around this strategy and boost the company’s initiatives to rebuild relationships with stores to raise customer expenditure. This kind of occurrence is something one would expect.

Based on a statement released by the large company on Thursday, seasoned sportswear business specialist Elliott Hill has been named chief executive officer.

Investors have faith in the company’s ability to turn things around as a result of this decision even if it has been suffering from strategic errors and fierce competition.

The corporation, which had lost a quarter of their worth thus far this year, saw an uptick of 8% during the Friday early trading session. This marked a notable development.

Up till now, a fifth of their Nike value has been lost starting this year.

David Swartz, a Morningstar financial analyst, says, “Nike’s board, including the controlling Knight family, sought a leader with comprehensive knowledge of the company to tackle its recent challenges, the most urgent of which is Donahoe’s focus on prioritising direct sales over product development and retail partnerships.”

In 2020, Donahoe—who had worked for eBay as an executive—was named Nike’s CEO. His main goals as a leader were to grow the direct-to-consumer (DTC) market and increase the company’s e-commerce operations.

Nike wanted to increase the amount of goods it sold at full price through its own physical stores, mobile application, and websites while decreasing its dependency on other retailers like Foot Locker and Macy’s. In one way, increasing the range of products offered at additional locations helped to accomplish this goal.

The misguided tactical change gave out Nike’s shelf space and market share to up-and-coming businesses. Roger Federer’s sponsored company On Holding and Deckers’ owned Hoka are recent examples of enterprises. Deckers is the true owner of Hoka.

Nike management acknowledged earlier this year that the company was losing market share in the running segment and that the direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy was not producing the expected growth. This marked a major turning point for Nike.

In the running industry, Nike’s market share has decreased.

“Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, said that Donahoe was the perfect fit for the position, having been brought in to transform the business model.” “Donahoe was the appropriate individual for the task.”

“Donahoe was the appropriate individual for the task.” “Donahoe was the ideal candidate for the position.”

But after the epidemic, things changed, and people started to want face-to-face interactions with the brands they saw on store shelves. Regretfully, the return was made more difficult by the sudden adjustments implemented in 2020.”

Nike hopes that by highlighting high-performance products like the Pegasus running shoe and the Alphafly 3 racer, the Olympics would help the company regain market dominance. This is because the company wants to showcase its wares at the Olympics.

The business plans to introduce new trainers that would run less than $100. This is done in an attempt to attract customers who are worried about the price of their goods.

Those who attend the investor day that is slated for November will have a better idea of Hill’s goals.

“While we do not expect Nike to completely abandon its direct-to-consumer initiative, we view Elliott Hill’s appointment as CEO as a clear indication that Nike is re-focusing on product innovation,” said Oppenheimer research analyst Brian Nagel. That is unquestionably proof that Nike is currently shifting its approach.

SOURCE: YN

SEE ALSO:

Early Bitcoin Miner Wallets Come Alive, Moving $15 Million After Fifteen Years.

JetBlue Will Imitate Bigger And More Successful Rivals By Opening Airport Lounges At JFK, Boston