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Alphabet’s Google will seek to avoid a forced sale of part of its online advertising business in its latest face-off with U.S. antitrust enforcers at a trial starting on Monday in Alexandria, Virginia. The trial is the government’s next best shot at curbing what a judge has ruled is Google’s monopoly power, after losing a separate bid to make Google sell its Chrome browser earlier this month. Online publishers and rival ad tech developers, some of whom have separately sued Google for damages, will be watching the case closely. The U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of states are seeking to make Google sell its ad exchange, AdX, where online publishers pay Google a 20% fee to sell ads in auctions that happen instantly when users load websites. The government also seeks to require Google to make the mechanism that decides the winner of those auctions open source. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who will preside over the trial, ruled in April that Google holds unlawful monopolies in web advertising technology. After this week’s trial, she will decide what remedies to impose on the company. The company has asked Brinkema to take the same cautious approach as a judge in Washington, D.C., who recently rejected most of the DOJ’s proposals in a separate case over Google’s monopoly in online search. The cases against Google are part of a larger bipartisan crackdown by the U.S. on big tech firms, which began during President Donald Trump’s first term and includes cases still pending against Meta Platforms, Amazon and Apple. Google says the DOJ’s proposal is technically unworkable and would lead to prolonged uncertainty for advertisers and publishers. Google had previously offered to sell AdX, however, during private negotiations to end an EU antitrust investigation, Reuters reported last year. Google’s internal studies on that potential sale may come into evidence at this week’s trial. Instead of selling AdX, Google has now proposed changing its policies to make it easier for publishers to use and support competing platforms. The DOJ has said such requirements alone are not adequate to restore competition. A former News Corp executive and executives at DailyMail.com and Advance Local, which operates local news outlets in eight states, are among those expected to testify at the trial. Some of those witnesses testified last year when the DOJ convinced Brinkema that Google locked publishers into using its publisher ad server – a platform used by websites to store and manage their digital ad inventory – by unlawfully tying the platform to Google AdX. Doing so allowed Google to engage in practices that were not in publishers’ interests, such as giving Google’s advertisers the first and last opportunity to bid on ads, Brinkema wrote in her April ruling. If the DOJ’s proposals have not bolstered competition within four years, Google should also be required to sell its publisher ad server, the government said in court papers. Jody Godoy, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
Rimowathe iconic luggage brand famous for its grooved aluminum suitcasesis stepping into a new category: leather handbags. Today, the brand launches the Groove Collection, four leather bags that come in a range of silhouettes, including a shopper, a hobo, and two cross-body purses, priced between $1,200 and $2,150. Like everything Rimowa creates, these bags have an architectural aesthetic with handles and grooves reminiscent of the suitcases, and the pieces are all gender-neutral. It’s a big move for Rimowa, allowing it to compete for the first time with other luxury accessories brands like Louis Vuitton and Chanel. [Photo: Rimowa] Rimowa was founded in 1898 in Cologne, Germany, where it is still does the majority of its manufacturing. For most of the brand’s history, it has focused on crafting highly functional, durable, and well engineered suitcases that have a cult status among frequent travelers. But over the last decade, the brand has gone through a transformation. [Photo: Rimowa] In 2016, the brand was acquired by the French luxury conglomerate LVMH, which owns brands like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and Dior. Under Alexandre Arnault (son of LVMH founder Bernard Arnault) who served as CEO from 2016 to 2021, Rimowa began positioning itself as a luxury brand with strong fashion chops. Rimowa collaborated with everyone from Virgil Abloh to Supreme and Dior to Rick Owens. [Photo: Rimowa] It also began expanding beyond its expertise in rolling luggage and has expanded into other products, like travel bags and accessories. Last year, for instance, it launched an aluminum handbag called the Original Bag that looked like a micro version of the suitcase. “We’re still very much focused on the concept of travel,” says Hugues Bonnet-Masimbert, Rimowa’s CEO. “We’re thinking about the idea of mobility, and all the ways we can use our expertise to make products that can help people on their commutes, whether that’s across countries or through their day.” [Photo: Rimowa] As part of this exploration, the company has also considered new materials. In 2023, for instance, the company created a $3,450 suitcase that is wrapped in leather. Given the brand’s focus on craftsmanship, Bonnet-Masimbert says that it was no small thing for the company to go beyond its expertise in aluminum and polycarbonate. “The craftspeople in our factories spend years developing their craft, so it takes time for them to understand how to work with a new material, like leather.” While Rimowa makes the majority of its suitcases in factories in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Canada, it has begun working with factories in Italy with expertise in leatherwork in order to make these leather bags. “Even as CEO, I couldn’t tell the craftspeople when we would launch this collection,” says Bonnet-Masimbert. “They didn’t want to launch it until they felt they could create the most durable bags out of leather.” (All of these leather bags come with Rimowa’s lifetime guarantee.) [Photo: Rimowa] For the first time, Rimowa can now compete in the world of luxury handbags, including other brands within the LVMH umbrella, like Louis Vuitton. But in some ways, these bags are quite different from others on the market. Many luxury brands design bags for women, but these bags are much more gender-neutral, or even masculine, than others onthe market. Bonnet-Masimbert says that when Rimowa launched the Original Bag, he was surprised to find that more men than women bought and carried it. “Men don’t have as many options when it comes to bags,” says Bonnet-Masimbert. And ultimately, Bonnet-Masimbert doesn’t see Rimowa as a fashion label at heart. It is grounded in performance and engineering, rather than what’s on the runway. “We’re not interested in chasing trends,” he says. “We’ll release new products when we feel like they’re serving a purpose.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Oracle on Monday named insiders Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia as co-CEOs, replacing Safra Catz who was named vice chair of the board after 11 years at the helm. Catz steered Oracle through an industry-wide shift, helping win multi-billion-dollar contracts as companies spend aggressively to secure computing capacity for AI tech. Shares of the company were down over 1% in premarket trading. Sicilia oversees cloud-based industry-specific applications and AI solutions across vertical healthcare, financial services, and retail, while Magouyrk manages Oracle’s underlying cloud infrastructure platform that powers these applications. Magouyrk joined Oracle in 2014 from Amazon Web Services while Sicilia joined Oracle through the acquisition of Primavera Systems, the company said. Oracle also reaffirmed its financial guidance provided earlier this month, where it said it expects booked revenue at its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure business to exceed half a trillion dollars, pushing the stock to record highs. Arsheeya Bajwa, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
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