On this week’s podcast, we open with a refresher on the four antitrust claims being debated at the Google antitrust trial – the ad server, the ad network, the ad exchange and tying those products together – and we analyze the most standout testimony of the week.
On Wednesday, Daily Mail Chief Digital Officer Matthew Wheatland testified about its efforts to switch ad servers. Last week, on the stand and with newly released documents, the judge heard about News Corp’s “Project Cinderella,” its unsuccessful attempt to switch ad servers.
Together, this testimony is painting a compelling picture for the judge, says Check My Ads Director of Intelligence Arielle Garcia, who has been attending every day of the trial and joined us as a guest this week. She’s noticed the judge doesn’t want to spend much more time hearing testimony on the ad server claim.
After eight days of the trial, Garcia has placed a bet on how the trial will end.
“The ad server. I cannot imagine a world where that claim is not successful,” Garcia says on today’s podcast, recorded after the trial adjourned on Wednesday. “The tying claim is another one,” she added, or the claim that the products were linked together in a monopolistic way. “I would be shocked if that’s not successful.”
The caveat? Google could prove the digital ad market is different than the display-focused market described by the DOJ, making the case fall apart. But Garcia isn’t convinced that “jazz hands” approach to redraw the market will be successful.
Bonus: Does Judge Brinkema buy the argument that some of the claims companies made in slides don’t count because they are investor hype that’s just part of pitch decks? According to Garcia, the judge’s comments suggest she understands the puffery that’s part of tech culture.
