Wednesday, November 26, 2014

11.26.14

Entertainment:      
·         SyFy has greenlit a new, six-episode series that will follow teams of startups through the accelerator process in the Valley - the show, called The Bazillion Dollar Club*, is expected to focus on 12 companies (six each) participating in the 500 Startups Accelerator and PCH International’s Highway1 program
·         Video-focused startup Grabyo, which has a second-screen offering and partners with TV broadcasters to allow TV viewers to legally share real-time clips of its content, has landed $2MM in funding from a clutch of globally recognized sports stars
·         Jukin Media, a digital media startup has made the leap to prime time, after selling a TV show called the World's Funniest Fails to Fox
·         Netflix is suing its former vice president of IT operations Mike Kail, who left the company in August to become chief information officer at Yahoo!
·         Natalie Portman is in talks to join Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs biopic
·         Fox News Channel was the most viewed cable news network when St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch revealed if Wilson would be indicted for shooting Brown
·         Maker Studios plumped up its chest full of YouTube video creators just ahead of the Christmas season, adding five big channels focused on the fast-growing toy sector, including the No. 2 site, DisneyCarToys
·         The Motion Picture & Television Fund event “Night Before the Oscars’ was held since 2003 at the Beverly Hills Hotel, but organizers revealed earlier this year that the party would be moved to the Fox lot as part of a boycott of the hotel over its owner the Sultan of Brunei's controversial stance on gays
·         “Boyhood” writer-director Richard Linklater will receive the Sonny Bono Visionary Award at the 26th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival
·         Disney has cut a deal with Turner Classic Movies to get more mileage out of its film vault and add the cabler's cinephile branding to its Hollywood Studios theme park in Florida
·         U.K. streaming service Blinkbox, which is being offered for sale by its owner Tesco, has inked a content deal with leading independent movie distributor Entertainment Film Distributors
·         Prince said goodbye to his brief, awkward dalliance with social media
·         Robin Williams, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jay-Z are among the top celeb web-searches
·         Concert venues are capitalizing on the DIY model of concert promotion
·         Sony Corp plans to slash its TV and mobile phone product lineups to cut costs, counting on multi-billion-dollar revenue surges for its buoyant PlayStation 4 and image sensor businesses over the next three years
·         The Wuaki.tv over-the-top streaming online video service is to offer film content in 4K/UltraHD format
Tech:
·         GoPro is reportedly planning to launch consumer drones next year for between $500-$1,000
·         Twitter announced that it is testing Twitter Offers, which lets retailers tweet special cash-back deals that users can then claim in brick-and-mortar stores
·         Sony’s Alpha A7 series of full-frame mirror less cameras has evolved, and has higher-resolution and stabilization capabilities
·         Melbourne-based Tiger Pistol, a startup offering social marketing tools for small businesses, has raised $3.1MM in Series A funding to expand into the US
·         Canopy launched last year to bring a more curated and community-driven experience to shopping Amazon products, with an organized catalog of recommended items, and a number of tools for finding and saving favorites
·         Line has revealed that it sold more than $300MM in user-generated stickers from independent ‘creators’ during the first six months of launching its Creators Marketplace service
·         US-Australian startup Canva is injecting a dose of social into its easy-to-use graphic design platform after it rolled out public user profiles, a Twitter-style following system, and a real-time content stream
·         Tumblr has overtaken Instagram as the fastest-growing social platform, and Snapchat is the fastest-growing app
·         Amazon has dropped the price of its unlocked Fire Phone from $250 to $199 for the holiday season and to move inventory of the product
·         Google announced that it will make Google Play and a free version of Google Analytics available in Cuba
·         A fresh funding round for the fast-growing startup could give Uber a valuation between $35B-$40B according to a report today from Bloomberg
·         Sqor, a social network focused exclusively on sports, is now moving into athlete crowdfunding
Deals:
·         Twitter is allegedly in talks to acquire the Justin Bieber-backed social app ‘Shots’
·         BT, Britain’s former telecom monopoly, said it was in talks with investors in two of Britain’s cellphone carriers about a potential takeover offer of EE
·         Vista Equity Partners has agreed to acquire the Advanced Computer Software Group, a British health care and business software maker for $1.14B
Business:
·         Samsung Electronics has announced that it will sell stakes in Samsung Techwin and Samsung General Chemicals to Hanhwa Corp. in order to raise money for new investments
·         Activist investor Carl Icahn raised his stake in U.S. car rental company Hertz to 10.77% from 8.48%
·         Samsung Electronics announced a $2B share buyback plan
·         TiVo has reported a very strong third quarter of 2014 with record net revenues and subscriptions soaring past the key five million landmark
Exec Moves:
·         Ren Ng, founder and executive chairman of light-field photography company Lytro, plans to exit his full-time role next year as he assumes a post at the University of California, Berkeley
Retail:
·         At eight Patagonia retail locations throughout the country, customers can bring in their lightly used Patagonia clothing and get other used items off the rack
Startups:
·         Rocket Internet-backed online retail Jumia is in the money today, after the Africa-based company announced that it has raised $150MM in new funding
Government:
Other:
·         170 cities have been hit with Ferguson protests


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