Friday, August 29, 2014

8.29.14

Entertainment:
·         The film festival community has come together to sign a statement of support for the Beijing Independent Film Festival against the Chinese government
·         Johnny Knoxville signs a first look deal with ABC Studios
·         Youku is launching a film production arm called Heyi Film
·         2014 has been declared the ‘year of the megadeal’ in the media industry
·         George Lucas’ THX is going to open a Beijing corporate office
·         Philip Seymour Hoffman’s accused drug dealer was able to avoid jail time
·         Please see below for a list of films that will become available on Netflix this September
Tech:
·         Google X has been developing delivery drones, called ‘Project Wing’, and has been testing them for the past two years
·         Apple is in the midst of launching a mobile wallet
·         Pomplamoose musician started Patreon to help pay artists for their work
·         CalPal makes it easier to set meetings/events and communicate through your calendar
·         Ustream, live-streams red carpet events, could possibly be the next big acquisition for a media company
·         Apple’s wearable devices allegedly won’t be shipped until 2015
·         Aziz Ansari is directing his Twitter followers to go to his site and input their phone numbers to enter a lottery to win tickets to surprise ‘pop-up’ shows in certain cities
Deals:           
Business:
·         Tencent, Baidu, and Wanda form an $814MM joint venture to take on Alibaba
·         Microsoft is shutting down MSN Messenger
·         Tesla shares reached an all-time high after news was released that they reached an agreement with China Unicom
Exec Moves:
·         Evite names new CEO – Victor Cho
·         TNT & TBS head of programming, Michael Wright, to exit
·         Chelsea Clinton to exit NBC News
·         Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds, hired Pekka Rantala to be name their new CEO
Retail:
·         JustFab, an online subscription retailer, raises $85MM in a Series D round at a $1B valuation
Startups:
Government:
·         Barclays loans Detroit $275MM to help get the city out of bankruptcy
·         UK terror threat level has been raised to ‘severe’
Other:
·         Malaysia Airlines to cut nearly a third of its workforce


Thursday, August 28, 2014

8.28.14

Entertainment:
·         VHX rolls out new admin updates to make it easier for indie producers to self-distribute their films
·         Netflix acquires ‘The Blacklist’ for $2MM an episode
·         Lionsgate to re-release ‘Saw’ for its tenth year anniversary
·         Lebron James pulls out of a few of his Hollywood projects
·         Netflix plans to launch its first original French series ‘Marseille’
·         MipTV and Mipcom is launching MipCancun to target Latin America TV markets
·         Rdio partners with Toronto Film Festival to announce a free Ellie Goulding show
·         Please see below for a breakdown of how YouTube is going Hollywood
Tech:
·         Twitter opens its analytics dashboard so everyone can track the performance of their tweet
·         Google is allegedly searching for a new office space in Playa Vista
·         Vine rolls out a new suite of editing tools to compete against Instagram’s videos
Deals:           
·         Vivendi is in exclusive talks to acquired Telefonica’s Brazilian unit for $9.8B
·         Chapman University and HID Global pair up to create a new ‘Internet of Things’ incubator
Business:
·         Alibaba’s profits nearly tripled in its last quarter
·         HP is recalling six million laptop cords because they could start fires
Exec Moves:
Retail:
·         Heidi Klum partners with New Balance
Startups:
·         Acorns has been dubbed the Tinder of investing, by investing a percentage of each transaction on Wall Street
·         SeatGeek, ‘the web’s largest ticket search engine’, raised $35MM in Series B from led by Accel along with Carmelo Anthony’s fund and Boston’s Celtics CEO’s fund
·         KKBOX, a Taiwanese music streaming service, raised $104MM to expand overseas
·         Wikia, a user-generated publishing site/content portal, raised $15MM to expand into the Japanese and Asian markets
Government:
Other:
·         AIG’s CEO, Robert Benmosche, has roughly a year left to live
·         Joan Rivers was rushed to NYC’s Mount Sinai hospital when she stopped breathing during throat surgery
·         Brad and Angelina got secretly married in France


Wednesday, August 27, 2014

8.27.14

Entertainment:
·         Vimeo announces distribution partners for their VOD capabilities with BFS Entertainment & Multimedia Limited, Drafthouse Films, Gaiam, Gravitas Ventures, Inception Media Group, MarVista Digital Entertainment and X-Treme Video
·         At an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences event, neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists determined that movies/filmmakers manipulate the viewer’s brain through the mechanisms of attention and perception
·         Disney files patents to use drones in their park shows
·         A breakdown of how celebrities are founding and investing in apps
·         eOne signs a first-look deal with Rumble Films
·         Napa Valley Film Festival to go on despite the major earthquake
·         Piers Morgan is allegedly the most hated UK personality on Twitter
·         Hulu acquires Starz’s cult comedy ‘Party Down’
·         Tudou founder, Gary Wang, launches Light Chaser Animation to compete against Pixar and Dreamworks
Tech:
·         Apple to launch its largest iPad to consumers in early 2015, it will be 12.9 inches diagonally
·         Dropbox drops their prices as the cost of a gigabyte nears zero, now users can store a terabyte of data at their standard rate of $9.99 per month
·         Spotify launches smart TV integration by signing deals with Phillips, Bose, and Panasonic
·         Facebook announces a new option for international ads that will allow marketers to target certain types of smartphone network connections
Deals:           
·         Kleiner Perkins invests in Snapchat, valuing the company at $10B
·         Facebook has hired the team from an audio production company, WaveGroup Sound, that specializes in sounds for games (not an acquisition)
·         Google acquired Zync to make it easier for movie studios to render their visual effects in the cloud
·         Square is in the process of raising more funds, and has valued his company at $6B
Business:
Exec Moves:
·         Western Digital hires a new CFO – Tim Leyden
·         YouTube’s music monetization company, AdRev, names a new president – Brian Felsen
Retail:
Startups:
·         Zuli raises $1.65MM to prepare for pre-orders for its smart plug
·         Google to open a startup campus in Seoul
·         Jessica Alba’s startup The Honest Co., which sells eco-friendly baby products, readies itself for an IPO by raising $70MMM at a valuation of nearly $1B
Government:
Other: