Monday, December 8, 2014

12.8.14

Entertainment:
·         Vimeo today announced that those subscribed to Vimeo Pro accounts will now have the option of uploading their videos in 4K
·         YouTube is now offering some of its most popular video creators bonuses in exchange for signing exclusive multiyear deals
·         CBS and Dish Network reached a new carriage fee deal over the weekend, after CBS pulled CBS, CBS Sports and Showtime from Dish
·         Boyhood won four awards - including best picture, actress and director - from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association
·         Time’s person of the year finalists have been revealed
·         See below for an article on how CBS has pitched TV advertising dollars to not go digital
·         Allegedly, George Lucas hasn’t watched the new Star Wars trailer
·         The Sony PlayStation Network has now been hacked, and was temporarily shut down
·         French multiscreen video specialist Dotscreen has scored a big domestic win with MYTF1VOD for the technical development of mobile, connected TV and video game console applications.
Tech:
·         Valve added individual broadcasting to its ever-growing Steam gaming service, which competes against Twitch
·         China is in the midst of a mobile commerce boom, according to a new report from Alipay, the Alibaba-affiliated payments service in China that handles more than 80 million transactions per day
·         Uber has been banned in the Netherlands and New Delhi
·         Please see below for an interesting report on online media sales for the first half of 2014, Goggle leads the group
·         Vidcoin is an advertising technology startup focused on video ads for smartphones - the French startup makes watching video ads less painful by providing an SDK that will buffer videos before playing them so that they will instantly play
·         Comcast has decided to turn every cable router on its network into a public wi-fi access point. While this may sound like a good idea – free Internet for all Comcast subscribers everywhere is the goal – the reality clashes with the Internet user’s sense of freedom and control
·         Google announced it has expanded Windows support on the Google Cloud Platform
·         Apple has revealed its top apps for 2014, and Elevate is at the top of the list
·         A group of 5th grade girls sent a GoPro into space for a project
·         Microsoft announced its special "Work & Play Bundle" of subscription services last month, but the company is already discounting it in time for the holidays
·         An Uber driver in India has been arrested after suspected of rape
·         Venture capitalist Tim Draper won part of the U.S. Marshals Service’ auction of 50,000 bitcoins
·         Paul McCartney appears as a hologram in his new music video – “Hope for the Future”
Deals:
·         AppGyver has announced the acquisition of AppArchitect, a company that provides app-building tools through a drag-and-drop, no-code interface
·         Rakuten is entering the soccer industry in Japan after agreeing to buy J-League side Vissel Kobe
·         Merck to acquire Cubits Pharmaceuticals for $8.4B
Business:
·         Blackstone will sells its California office buildings for $3.5B
·         The Swiss bank UBS has turned to Sqreem Technologies, a company based in Singapore that uses artificial intelligence, for help delivering personalized advice to the bank’s wealthy clients
·         In 2015, advertising is expected to grow 4.9 percent to $545B worldwide, but the next year it should leap 5.6 percent, helped by the Summer Olympics, a U.S. presidential election and the UEFA European Football Championship
·         Please see below for a list of the top transactions from last week
Exec Moves:
·         Daniel Graf, who was just recently bumped from his role as the head of Twitter’s product team, has parted ways with the company altogether
Retail:
Startups:
·         Instacart, a same-day grocery delivery company delivering groceries and home essentials from a variety of local stores, has raised $100MM in its Series C
Government:
Other:
·         An apartment complex in downtown Los Angeles burned early Monday morning in a fire that temporarily shut down parts of two major freeways in the city
·         Ferguson protests in Berkeley turned violent over the weekend – explosives were thrown at cops


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