The deal that made Google a trillionaire paperboy

Court hears how Google's purchase of DoubleClick on Friday the Thirteenth 2007 turned out to be extremely bad luck for the news industry...

Welcome to new subscribers, and what a moment to join this community just as Google’s trial of the century gets underway.

So, hi to new faces from Paramount Pictures, Reuters, Adobe, Samsung, News UK, The Trade Desk, Canva, Taboola, IBM, video platform SpringServe in glorious Santa Monica, also to Radio New Zealand, Hubspot in Singapore, KPMG and PWC, Wizeline, and League of Legends creator Riot Games, among others.

Today we have heard the first few hours of evidence in a Virginia courtroom alleging that Google has built an ad monopoly and should be broken up.

I will be reporting on events in the court, and I’m running a live chat to answer questions and take comments on what’s happening. Don’t be shy, add your voice.

This case has been 25 years in the coming. Google’s already been ruled a monopolist on search and its app store. This is the third act. Let’s go…

Let’s be upfront right from the outset. The US Government is suing Google for being a monopoly, but the greatest beneficiary w…