Wednesday, October 22, 2014

10.22.14

Entertainment:
·         Please see below for an interesting article on the astrophysics in the upcoming film ‘Interstellar’
·         The World Series Game 1 ratings were down by double digits
·         Bunim/Murray Prods. is opening a New York office which will be headed by Rob Bagshaw, the showrunner/executive producer who helped launch ‘Project Runway All Stars’
·         Universal Music Group is partnering with ITV Studios Global Entertainment to bring China’s ‘Sing My Song’ to a worldwide audience
·         Frank Sivero says that ‘The Simpsons’ ripped off the Frankie Carbone character he played in ‘Goodfellas’ and is suing Fox for $250MM
·         Daniel Loeb has sold his shares in Sony after a 20% profit
·         Warner Bros’ recently launched digital series production unit called Blue Ribbon Content, which encompasses short-form content from all divisions of the company
·         CBS Television Stations group and Weigel Broadcasting have unveiled plans for ‘Decades’, a national entertainment programming service for distribution across local television stations’ digital sub-channels
·         Please see below for an article on how TV disrupting the Internet
·         Netflix has picked up the animated comedy “F is for Family,” a series based on the comedy of Bill Burr that features the voices of Burr, Laura Dern and Justin Long
·         Avicii, The Prodigy, Afrojack, Die Antwoord and 2 Chainz are booked to play at Australia’s Future Music Fest
·         64% of US broadband households have an Internet-connected device, and 55% have an over-the-top service subscription, according to research from Parks Associates
Tech:
·         Magic Leap’s technology lets users see virtual 3-D objects in the real world using a wearable device
·         Pandora announced the ‘Artist Marketing Platform’, offering a variety of listener data to everyone whose music is played on the Internet radio service
·         Spot.IM wants to turn any site into a social network with two lines of code
·         Microsoft and IBM announced a partnership that will see the two companies bring their enterprise software to Microsoft Azure and IBM Cloud
·         Playstudios offers rewards, or “comps”, for social casino games that lets winners of its MyVegas gamers stay in Las Vegas hotels
·         MediaSpike has figured out a way to embed branded ads inside apps, much like product placements in movies
·         Zuma Ventures is a new VC fund for early stage startups in LA – headed by a former Amplify.la exec
·         Google says a new Chromecast is on the way
Deals:
·         Google announced that it has acquired Firebase, a backend service that helps developers build realtime apps for iOS, Android and the web that can store and sync data instantly
·         Siemens is in advanced talks to sell its hearing-aid business, which could be valued at up to $2.55B
Business:
·         Yahoo! beat Q3 expectations
·         The German automaker, Daimler, has sold its remaining 4% stake in Tesla Motors for $780MM, but added that it would continue to cooperate with the American maker of electric cars on automotive projects
Exec Moves:
·         Layer3 TV has added Lindsay Gardner to lead Programming and Content Acquisition
Retail:
Startups:
·         Glamsquad, an on demand hair and beauty startup, has raised $7MM in its Series A led by SoftBank
·         Tokopedia, an online marketplace in Indonesia, has raised an impressive $100MM round led by SoftBank Internet and Media with participation from Sequoia Capital
·         Mobile ad startup YieldMo, which says it can make ads that both marketers and phone users like, has raised another $10MM in a round led by Time Warner’s venture arm
Government:
Other:
·         Police have reportedly confirmed a soldier was shot at the Canadian National War Memorial, which is across the street from the Parliament complex in Ottawa


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