Wednesday, September 24, 2014

9.24.14

Entertainment:
·         21st Century Fox met with Starz yesterday to possibly acquire the company
·         Millennium Entertainment has secured a $40MM revolving credit facility
·         Penguin Random House has signed a first-look deal with Universal
·         Comcast accuses Netflix, Discovery Communications, Dish Networks, and others of ‘extortion’ over the proposed Time Warner Cable deal
·         Keek, a mobile video social network, will get content from Relativity in a new deal that targets young audiences
Tech:
·         Amazon is increasing its staff by 27% in its internal hardware lab to compete against Google and Apple
·         Amazon has expanded its Twitter integration, it now allows users to add items to their wish list by tweeting
·         Qzzr has launched out of stealth mode with ESPN, Mashable, Reddit, and Yahoo! partnerships, and $2MM in seed funding
·         Eventbrite has launched Neon, an all-in-one app for event organizers
·         Kiip, a mobile rewards company, has launched a new video ad service called Kiip Rewarded Video
·         LiveRail will extend its platform to mobile display ads as part of Facebook
·         Blackberry has announced a square-screen phone called the Passport
Deals:
·         PRSS, a digital magazine platform, was acquired by Apple
·         Upsight has sold its ad network, PlayHaven, to digital marketer, Science Inc.
·         Rocket Internet is expected to price its stock between $35.50-42.50 for its upcoming IPO, valuing the company at $7.3B
·         Starbucks will buy the rest of its Japanese operations for roughly $913.5MM
Business:
·         The price of Bitcoins increased after PayPal began accepting the crypto-currency this week
·         Cinedigm has sold its Hollywood Software division
·         The SEC is investigating  Pimco ETF for pricing irregularities
Exec Moves:
·         Google X Founder, Sebastian Thrun, has left Google as a VP and a Fellow
·         Former Universal Chairman, Adam Fogelson, has been hired as the Chairman of STX Entertainment
Retail:
Startups:
·         Inspirato, dubbed the Airbnb for rich people, recently landed $20MM to grow its portfolio of locations
·         Udacity, provider of online programming and data science classes to large tech companies, has raised $35MM in its Series C
·         Qualtrics, a software-as-a-service company and provider of the world’s leading insight platform, has raised $150MM in its Series B from Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Insight Venture Partners
Government:
·         India successfully sent a spacecraft to Mars’ orbit, beating out China
·         After 9 years and $67B, the F-22Raptor Fight jet saw ‘combat’ for its time in Syria on Monday
Other:
·         The ‘David Bowie Is’ exhibit has opened at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art


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