Business

Google’s Ad Tech dominance in peril as EU joins US on breakup bandwagon

European Union and US antitrust regulators may have gone their separate ways of late. But they can still agree on one thing: the era of Google’s dominance in advertising technology must end.

The European Commission last week joined the Department of Justice in touting a breakup as a viable remedy for the California-based tech giant’s alleged monopoly abuses.

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“Divestiture is the only way,” Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s anti-trust commissioner, told reporters after firing off a charge sheet accusing Alphabet Inc.’s Google of favoring its own services to the detriment of ad tech rivals, advertisers, and online publishers.

A selloff order would strike at the heart of one of Google’s biggest money spinners, although it could still be years away due to the legal processes being played out. While most of its revenue comes from ads on search results, the EU and US antitrust cases focus on a lucrative segment of its business that involves facilitating the placement of ads on other websites.

The EU’s competition chief argued that since 2014, Google has favored its own advertising exchange platforms by abusing access to information on rival bids for ad space, and also harmed other ad exchanges by placing bids for advertising on its own platforms.

In its probe, the EU said a divestment is needed because a be-havioral remedy wouldn’t stop Google from “self-preferencing.”
It said Google “is active on both sides of the market with its publisher ad server and with its ad buying tools and holds a dominant position on both ends.” It also “operates the largest ad exchange.” This leads to a situation of inherent conflicts of interest for Google.

One option for a split down the middle of Google’s ad tech ser-vices would be to force the firm to separate its ad-purchasing plat-forms Google Ads and DV360 from DoubleClick — its service for publishers to find advertisers — and its advertising marketplace AdX, according to the EU commission.

The EU’s view echoes the January lawsuit by the DOJ, which called for a company breakup for the first time since the late 1990s when it unsuccessfully sought to force Microsoft Corp. to sell off some of its computer software operations. The depart-ment’s last major breakup came when the Bell telecoms systems was
dismantled in the 1980s. But under the leadership of DOJ Assis-tant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter — who in a previous legal career represented Google rivals — breakups are back on the cards.

The US agency alleges that Google’s dominance over advertising technology allows it to keep at least $0.30 out of every dollar ad-vertisers spend through its online advertising tools.

It claims Google engaged in 15 years of anticompetitive conduct, including a pattern of acquisitions to dominate the market includ-ing the 2007 acquisition of online advertising giant DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.

Vestager last week heralded “close and fruitful cooperation with the DOJ. But following on its coat tails could come at a risk for the EU commission and Vestager, with a potential legal battle in the EU courts.

“The commission may feel emboldened by the fact that the DOJ is pursuing virtually the same lawsuit, but some might say this is more a case of folie à deux than a healthy working relationship,” said Dirk Auer, Director of Competition Policy at the International Center for Law & Economics.

“The legal obstacles to breaking up Google are tremendous,” he said. “The commission will have to show there was really no other way to solve the issues.”

Trail blazers

Unlike in the US, the EU’s move to issue a statement of objections is an interim step that doesn’t mean a court fight is inevitable. The Brussels-based commission could still be swayed by Google’s
arguments at a formal hearing or accept a settlement.

Google has already hit back, with Dan Taylor, vice president for global ads, warning last week that breaking up Google’s ad tech suite would “diminish the availability of free, ad-supported content that benefits everyone.”

The company may also lean on an agreement that was brokered with the French competition regulator in order to convince regulators in Washington and Brussels of a less-intrusive remedy to the alleged abusive behavior.

In 2021, Google was hit with a €220 million ($240 million) fine by France’s antitrust watchdog for favoring its AdX sales platform, and pledged to implement greater interoperability for third-party ad servers.

The country’s competition chief Benoit Coeure said that his authority had “blazed the trail in curtailing Google’s market dominance in ads.”

Business

Almarai signs multiple agreements to localize jobs through training and recruitment programs

Almarai signed a cooperation memorandum with the Food Industries Polytechnic, the
Transport General Authority, and the Saudi Logistics Academy to localize jobs in the
food and beverages sector through training and rehabilitation programs ending in
employment. This came within the first international conference on the labor market,
organized by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development on 13 – 14
December 2023 at the King Abdulaziz Convention Center in Riyadh.

‘These agreements are part of Almarai’s corporate program for the social responsibility
to achieve localization in the food industry sector, which is one of the top priorities of the
comprehensive strategic plans in Almarai, especially since the company is one of the
largest working environments in the kingdom, with more than 9,000 Saudi employees,
including more than 900 Saudi female employees.”Fahad Aldrees, Chief Human
Resources Officer of Almarai, said.

He added that the agreements signed to train and qualify young people are part of the
integrated initiatives and training and rehabilitation programs for national human
resources in Almarai. He pointed out that the company provided about half a million
employee training hours during 2022, raising its retention rate to 90% during 2022.

It is worth mentioning that Almarai is the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy
company, and the largest food and beverage producer and distributor in the Middle
East. Almarai was ranked among LinkedIn’s top 15 Saudi companies for professional
career development for 2022.

Business

SEBA Bank rebrands to AMINA Bank and continues to write its success story

a fully licensed Swiss crypto bank, announced today its new brand identity: AMINA Bank AG. The group operates
globally from its regulated hubs in Zug, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong, offering its clients traditional and crypto banking services.
SEBA Bank made history in 2019 by becoming one of the first FINMA-regulated institutions to provide crypto banking services. This rebrand marks a new chapter for the company, which has proudly been in operation for more than four years. AMINA Bank is inspired by the same trailblazing ambition to lead the way for its clients and to write its own future as a Swiss-
regulated crypto bank offering services to its traditional and crypto savvy clients around the globe. The name ‘AMINA’ stems from the term ‘transAMINAtion’, meaning transference of one compound to another. AMINA is a brand driven by perpetual change, bringing together the various ‘compounds’ of traditional, digital, and crypto banking to unlock new potential and
growth for our clients. This vision of change represents the transformation of our clients’ financial future. Franz Bergmueller, CEO of AMINA, said: “We are delighted to introduce the world to our new brand identity. While we say goodbye to the SEBA name, we remain forever proud of the achievements made by the group under the former brand. “Our brand signifies a new era in the company’s growth and strategy; we are a key player in crypto banking and are here to define the future of finance. With our client-focused approach, our years of traversing traditional and crypto finance, we offer a platform for investors to build
wealth safely and under the highest regulatory standards.” “We are grateful to be encouraged by our supportive and committed investors who have been very helpful, supporting the growth of the company. We thank our employees in all the regions
for their dedication and client focus. As we look forward to 2024, our ambition is to accelerate the growth of our strategic hubs in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi, and to continue our global expansion, building on all the successes we have laid down over the past years.” Current clients of AMINA Bank (formerly SEBA Bank) will be unaffected by the rebrand other than encountering the new name; all operations will be business as usual across the board. The branch office based in Abu Dhabi and the subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Singapore will subsequently apply for a name change to align with the head office in Zug.

Business

Uptime Appoints Mustapha Louni Chief Business Officer

Uptime Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Mustapha Louni to the position of Chief Business Officer, a role specifically created to drive strategic leadership and client success. In this new role, Mr. Louni will assume responsibility for the global Uptime sales and marketing organizations and drive overall business value for all Uptime clients. He will retain his existing responsibilities overseeing operations in the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. In this elevated capacity, Mr. Louni is poised to play a pivotal role in driving Uptime’s next phase of global expansion through strategic initiatives to enhance market awareness of the dramatically expanding global service lines and delivery capabilities of Uptime that uniquely support the global data center industry in its pursuit of ever higher performance through elevated availability, resiliency, sustainability, and cyber-security of digital infrastructure. Louni’s appointment renews and expands Uptime

Institute 39;s 30-year commitment to advancing excellence in the data center sector on a global scale. “Today we are experiencing the next phase of the one-time, planetary transformation from analog to digital. This unprecedented, once-in-a-generation growth in data center demand is primarily driven by continuing cloud adoption, the new promise of AI, and the demonstrable fact
that hybrid digital infrastructure is here to stay for the foreseeable future,” said Martin McCarthy, CEO, Uptime Institute. “These complex and nuanced market demands require a visionary talent like Mustapha Louni. He is someone who cannot only deftly manage specific aspects of the business but also remain ahead of accelerating changes and trends. He continues to earn client
trust and respect by timely delivery on demanding commitments while he also inspires and energizes colleagues and clients alike. I am delighted to announce Mr. Louni’s new position and know that he will continue to expand the impact that he has already brought to Uptime since his arrival.” In 2014, Mr. Louni joined the Uptime organization in the United Arab Emirates, leveraging his extensive experience from roles at Panduit and Schneider Electric in Paris and Dubai. As the company’s first commercial resource in the Middle East and Africa region, Mr. Louni played a pivotal role in expanding Uptime’s presence. Within a year, he successfully established what became and remains Uptime’s fastest growing regional office. Under his leadership, Uptime has
extended his impressive trajectory of growth in MEA to the Asia-Pacific regions, augmenting the Uptime workforce with dedicated team members spanning more than a dozen countries across these regions. A new Uptime office has been inaugurated in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) this year, further fortifying the company’s ability to meet its commitment to sustained
growth and excellence and serve clients in critical, accelerating markets for digital infrastructure.

Uptime Institute began development of its proprietary and now globally recognized Tier Standards and its Tier Certifications 30 years ago to ensure that the mission critical computing needs of all organizations could be met with confidence and understood by executive management. Since that time, Uptime Tier Certification as well as other Uptime offerings including assessments and awards in digital infrastructure for ensuring business performance in areas of management and operations, risk and resilience, sustainability, and more recently cyber- security have gained global adoption. Uptime’s expanding success is based on delivering a
unique business service that is based upon unparalleled engineering excellence and technical mastery, while remaining vendor independent and technology agnostic.