Wednesday, January 14, 2015

1.14.15

Entertainment:
·         Vidyard is a new video technology tool used to measure marketing methods for businesses
·         Two video crowdsourcing sites — Poptent in North America and Userfarm in Europe — announced today they are merging into a new company called Vizy
·         Clearleap, which powers multiscreen distribution for many TV networks and pay-TV providers, has announced a deal with A+E Networks
·         Charles Barkley, Dana White and Ronda Rousey, Art Briles, Shaun White and NFL Network Anchor, and Deion Sanders are among those added to SXSW’s 2015 SXsports program
·         Amazon has slated the premiere of its first original drama series, Bosch, on Feb. 13th
·         Nominations for the 35th annual Razzie Awards, which satirize “the Worst Achievements in Film for 2014,” are out - Transformers: Age Of Extinction leads the field with seven
·         Sky Europe, flexing its multi-territory muscle since forming late last year, is to launch Sky Atlantic’s original drama, Fortitude, simultaneously to 20 million customers in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy
·         The American Federation of Musicians and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers have struck a deal to extend their labor contract
·         FilmLA has stated that LA production has risen 10% in 2014 fueled by TV
·         The Avatar sequel has been delayed until 2017
·         Taylor Swift spent her ninth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with her '1989' album.
·         NimbleTV, a startup that let some cable TV customers stream their shows over the Web, shut down yesterday - it said it will re-launch later this year
Tech:
·         Facebook at Work, the service has launched today and works pretty much just like regular Facebook, except you use it to connect to colleagues who may or may not be friends
·         On Tuesday, IBM launched the z13 mainframe, which it bills as the first mainframe specifically designed to accommodate the booming mobile app economy
·         Scribd and Oyster both announced partnerships with Macmillan to bring new titles to their e-book subscription services
·         Uber and Lyft drivers are frequenting The Rideshare Guy blog, operated by a structural engineer at Boeing out of Orange County
·         Switch, a new, cloud-based phone system from the makers of UberConference, is now becoming generally available for any businesses that would like to sign up
·         A Sony-backed ‘special project’ is currently passing a donations bowl around on Indiegogo For Mesh, a DIY sensor platform designed to let people create their own connected devices by using a series of Bluetooth sensors which talk wirelessly to an iPad app
·         Google Translate has added a new update to the Android and iOS apps that is rolling out today introduces real-time voice and sign translation
·         Social media analytics startup SocialRank released a new tool earlier today called the SocialRank Index — aimed at tracking and aggregating the performance the biggest brands in the world
·         Kixeye, the San Francisco-based online gaming giant, held layoffs yesterday as part of a larger reorganization of the company that cut roughly 25% of the staff
·         Apple has been awarded a patent by the USPTO based on IP it acquired from Kodak in a deal from 2013, which details a remote digital camera system that can be controlled from a smartwatch and will heavily compete against GoPro
·         Sony’s streaming PlayStation Now service is available beginning today via PS4 in two subscription flavors starting at $20 a month, and $45 per quarter
·         Dailymotion today announced the launch of Dailymotion Games, a new live-streaming platform for gamers that is taking dead aim at the explosive success of Amazon’s Twitch service
·         Slack, which raised $120MM from Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins in November, has released Slack Plus to compete against Facebook at Work
·         Samsung Electronics has launched the first smartphone that runs its homegrown Tizen operating system, a major step in advancing an alternative to Google's dominant Android platform
·         Bitcoin has fallen 40% this year
·         LinkedIn has plans for an app to connect co-workers and for another product to help companies share content with employees
Deals:
·         TapZen and Magic Pixel Games, have been acquired by San Francisco-based game maker Kabam, to help Kabam establish a studio in Los Angeles
·         Alibaba Group has acquired a controlling stake in AdChina, an online marketing company
·         Etsy, a website that sells handmade crafts, is said to be working on an initial public offering that could take place as soon as this quarter
Business:
·         The three-year anniversary of Apple’s announcement of a record capital return program is approaching in April, and one analyst believes the cash juggernaut will mark that occasion with a new $200B program to buy back shares and raise its dividend
·         MGG Investment Group, which makes its official debut on Wednesday, will use capital from Frank H. McCourt Jr. to try to capture a slice of the small-business lending market
·         MetLife sued the Financial Stability Oversight Council on Tuesday to fight its designation as “systemically important”
·         Tesla's auto sales in China were "unexpectedly weak" during the fourth quarter, said Elon Musk at the Detroit Auto Show yesterday
·         Apple sued Ericsson alleging that the Swedish company’s LTE wireless technology patents are not essential to industry cellular standards and that it is demanding excessive royalties for these patents
Exec Moves:
·         Wesley Chan is announcing that he has joined fellow Google alum Aydin Senkut at Felicis Ventures, where he will serve as managing director of the early-stage investment firm
·         Ariane de Rothschild will serve as chairwoman of the private bank’s executive committee, succeeding Christophe de Backer after he steps down as chief executive at the end of the month
·         The co-chairs of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group just signed “long-term agreements” that will maintain their oversight of feature film acquisitions, production and distribution
·         Marc Cimino, who had been the executive VP and head of business & legal affairs at Warner Bros. Records, is joining the Universal Music Publishing Group as chief operating officer
Retail:
Startups:
·         Rounds, a video chat company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, is announcing that it has raised $12MM in Series B funding
Government:
·         President Obama will push the Federal Communications Commission today to overturn state laws that prevent cities from building their own broadband networks, building on his previous call for the agency to regulate broadband service as a utility
Other:
·         Charlie Hebdo's defiant new issue sold out before dawn in Paris, but people are still lining up at kiosks in case there's a spare copy of the paper


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