Entertainment:
·
As expected, more than 99% of Comcast shareholders have
signed off on the company’s proposal to merge with Time Warner Cable
·
DirecTV has teamed with Alcon Television Group for a drama
series project that has been fast-tracked for a straight-to-series order
·
NBCUniversal announced that Robert Greenblatt, chairman of
NBC Entertainment, will oversee the company’s live-theater division, Universal
Stage Productions
·
WME, ESPN, and other networks have been hit by a class
action lawsuit from college football and basketball players
·
Mandalay Sports Media just became the largest shareholder in
toy maker OYO Sports, guided in part by a belief that the company can follow
rivals such as Lego and Hasbro in blurring the lines between physical and
digital play
·
Revolution has acquired Morgan Creek’s library
·
EuropaCorp has inked a non-exclusive TV venture with
Slingshot Global Media with the aim of co-developing and co-financing two “globally
appealing” projects a year
·
Please see below for an interesting article on the ‘second
acts of studio heads’
·
A Parent Media Co., which runs the Kidoodle.TV kids’
subscription video-on-demand service in the U.S. and Canada, announced that it
has raised $10 million (Canadian) from angel investors
·
AT&T Mobility reached a $105 million settlement with the
FCC, following an investigation into allegations that the company billed
customers millions of dollars in unauthorized third-party subscriptions and
premium text messaging services
·
Digital rights administrator Audiam has signed Metallica and
Red Hot Chili Peppers for an exclusive North American representation of the
bands' publishing catalogs across digital music services
Tech:
·
Facebook is working on a standalone app that would allow
users to communicate anonymously, similar to existing apps like Whisper and
Secret
·
The latest beta of the Apple TV operating software shows that
we could be nearing more visible HomeKit features for a smart home hub
·
‘App Annie’ reports that Google’s Chromecast is the most
popular connected device
·
Please see below for an interesting article written by a VC
at Upfront Ventures on the LA startup scene
·
Twitter is suing the government for the right to share the
requests for user data
·
IBM announced that it is officially opening up its Watson
headquarters in Manhattan to serve local startups (among many other uses)
·
Facebook, Box, & Pinterest launch ‘WEST’ mentorship
program for women in tech
·
A new dating app called Luxy matches wealthy singles to
wealthy singles - it describes itself as “Tinder, minus the poor people”
·
Google is using high-tech mapping to entice people to visit
CA Parks
·
San Francisco has legalized AirBnB
Deals:
·
Scripps acquired WeatherSphere,
the publisher of 3 of the top 10 weather apps
·
Santa Monica-based Cornerstone
OnDemand said that it has agreed to acquire Evolv, a machine learning and data
science company based in San Francisco for $44.5MM
·
Valeant Pharmaceuticals and
Pershing Square are said to be planning to raise their offer to acquire the
Botox maker Allergan to more than $191 a share, or nearly $60B in cash and
stock
·
Microsoft has signed a letter of
intent to buy Equivio, an Israeli developer of text-analysis software used for
corporate/legal e-discovery and information governance applications
Business:
·
UPS has launched a new delivery method in Chicago, whereby
customers in the My Choice program pick up packages in designated UPS lockers
·
Symantec is exploring a break off of its companies
·
Please see below for an inside-peak at Lyft’s very pink
offices
·
SolarCity will begin offering a new financing option that
will allow its customers to claim a solar power federal tax
·
The Staples Center is poised to unveil $7.5 million in
renovations to the arena's lighting systems, along with improvements to
retractable seating and the team store
Exec Moves:
·
Dot & Bo, the e-commerce site
for home furnishings, has added Nancy Tellem to its Board to combine content
and commerce
·
Verve Agency has hired the former
Manager of TV at Lionsgate, Melissa Darman, as an agent
Retail:
Startups:
·
Azuqua raised $5MM in its Series A
for its IFTTT-like cloud connectivity platform
·
Vive, a mobile app that lets you
video chat with strangers, raised $1.5MM
·
Truecaller raised $60MM to help
you avoid spammers and annoying calls
·
LeadGenius, a sales-acceleration
solution that provides companies with an accurate, efficient way to qualify,
deliver, and convert leads, raised $6MM in its Series A
Government:
·
Libya’s sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman over $1.2B worth
of derivative transactions the bank designed and executed in 2008
·
The Dallas Ebola patient has died
Other:
·
Prepare for traffic on October 20th as Hilary
Clinton’s fundraiser will be in Brentwood
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