Thursday, September 18, 2014

9.18.14

Entertainment:
·         Splice, a music storage and collaboration startup, has raised $4.5MM in its Series A led by True Ventures in participation with WME, AM Only, Tiesto, Scooter Braun and others
·         Tom Sizemore has launched an IndieGoGo campaign for his Detroit-set thriller
·         James Cameron has won another Avatar lawsuit
·         Imperative Entertainment has signed a deal with a German publishing company, Bastei Lubbe AG, to form a joint venture Bastei which will focus on developing IP for film and TV
·         Discovery plans to rebrand HubNetwork
·         Warner Bros. expects to cut as many as 1,000 jobs
Tech:
·         Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, shamed Google’s privacy policy in an open letter
·         Dice is a UK ticketing startup that looks to take down the traditional ticket buying process by taking out booking fees and additional costs
·         Amazon has announced new Fire Tablets, E-Ink Kindles and a Fire phone for kids
·         Slingbox and Twitch are now both compatible with Chromecast
·         YouTube was recently launched in Hungary by pay-TV operator UPC Hungary and it is already generating millions of views a day
·         Peter Thiel mocks Twitter’s ‘pot-smoking’ management team, and Twitter’s CEO charismatically responded in a tweet
·         Twitter tells TV Networks that live-tweeting during TV shows will help boost ratings
Deals:
·         Red Hat has acquired FeedHenry for $82MM to add mobile development to its service solution platform
·         Ping Identity, startup in the enterprise identity space, raised $35MM led by KKR
Business:
·         UBM, a British media and marketing company, is in talks to acquire Advanstar – the Californian trade show organizer most known for its annual Magic tradeshow in Vegas
·         Coachella and Firefly founders team up on a joint venture to launch a festival in Delaware
·         CA lawyer faces a 6 month suspension for photoshopping herself into photos with celebs and government officials
Exec Moves:
·         RatPac Entertainment has named Paul Neinstein as its new COO
·         Darrell Hammond is replacing Don Pardo as SNL announcer
·         An Instagram co-founder has joined LA’s community radio station’s board - KCRW
Retail:
·         Brown Shoe Company invests in Jack Erwin
Startups:
·         BeautyCon has raised roughly $2MM in seed funding from Hearst Corp, Rachel Zoe Ventures, and others to convince brands to embrace the online endorsement space instead of going the traditional Hollywood celebrity route
·         Shuttlerock, a New Zealand based developer of marketing software, has raised $2.35MM to set up shop in LA
Government:
·         Scotland is voting for its independence from the UK today
Other:
·         Bob Palmer, a longtime publicist, has died at 85


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