High Technology Careers, a California Partnership v. San Jose Mercury News, a California Corporation
Opinion
Opinion
Farris, J.
High Technology Careers appeals the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the San Jose Mercury News in HTC’s antitrust action alleging that Mercury News violated the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 2 , by refusing to continue to publish HTC’s advertising insert. We have jurisdiction of the timely appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We reverse.
FACTS
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper published in San Jose, California. Mercury News possesses 85% of the market for daily newspapers in Santa Clara County, America’s leading county in high-tech employment and the heart of Silicon Valley. In 1990, Mercury News carried more than sixteen million lines of recruitment advertising, significantly more than any other newspaper in the country. Mercury News proclaims that it is “the world’s leading recruitment advertising newspaper” and “America’s # 1 newspaper in classified employment advertising.”
In 1982, Rodney Lake and Fred Falter-sack formed Westech Expocorp, which sponsored high-technology job fairs in Silicon Valley. The next year, Lake, Faltersack, Gregory Bahue, and Paul Burrowes formed High Technology Careers to advertise Westech’s job fairs.