Entertainment:
·
Please see below for the list of Oscar nominations, including
snubs and surprises
·
Amazon has a slate of new shows available now on its Instant
Video streaming service, which includes 13 new comedy, drama, documentary and
kids shows
·
The White House has invited three top YouTube creators —
Bethany Mota, GloZell Green and Hank Green — to interview President Obama next
week, two days after his Station of the Union address
·
Vimeo and Maker Studios are announcing a partnership that will
bring new videos from the Disney-acquired content network (that’s Maker
Studios) to the IAC-owned streaming video service (that’s Vimeo) for an
exclusive time window
·
GoPro has forged a partnership with Vislink to bring live HD
broadcasting to the GoPro line of portable, rugged HD cameras
·
Tremor Video has unveiled its video supply side platform, with
40 publishers on board, including existing customers USA TODAY Sports, Bonnier
Corp. and Young Hollywood
·
Chris Hemsworth and Naomi Watts will be on hand to receive top
honors at China's 11th annual Huading Awards
·
Discovery Communications’ founder will launch a new project:
CuriosityStream, which will be like a Netflix for nature and science
enthusiasts with prices ranging from $2.99 a month (for standard resolution
video) to $9.99 (for 4k, or Ultra HD)
·
Discovery Communications looks to be signaling a more
aggressive move into the European sports rights arena
·
Teamsters Local 399 is signing up members for picket duty in
preparation for a possible strike against producers of TV commercials
·
LBI Entertainment has signed a first-look deal with Jeff
Robinov’s Sony-based Studio 8 as the fledgling company builds up its first
slate of projects and cements filmmaker relationships
o
http://deadline.com/2015/01/studio-8-lbi-entertainment-rick-yorn-julie-yorn-jeff-robinov-1201350094/
·
Mike Myers has signed a two year overall deal with HBO
·
Break.com will stream over 200 Lionsgate movies for free on
over-the-top platforms for a month
·
Jukely Unlimited, a social concert app that gains members
entry into a selection of venues and concerts with a monthly subscription fee,
launches today (Jan. 15) in Los Angeles
·
Netflix has begun its first Spanish-language original series
Tech:
·
Elon Musk announced a donation of $10MM to help fund research
to “keep AI beneficial” to humanity today
o
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/15/elon-musk-donates-10m-to-make-sure-ai-doesnt-go-the-way-of-skynet/
·
MySpace still reaches 50 million people each month, large
figures come from users logging into the site to download pictures for
throwback Thursday posts
·
Booking.com, a subsidiary of the Priceline Group, launched a
new app called Booking Now, which lets travelers find last-minute hotel deals
anywhere in the world and book them with a single click
·
Apple has a new patent application that describes a pop-up
home button which can work as an analog joystick
o
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/15/apples-rd-department-conjures-a-pop-up-iphone-home-button-joystick/
·
Timeline is a news aggregator app that gives you insider
context behind the day’s headlines
·
Twitch is launching Music Library, a curated collection of
music that broadcasters can use in their streams for free
·
India has welcomed the first international music streaming
service to its shores after Rdio, the San Francisco based company, launched in
the country
·
Keysweeper is a new device that looks like a phone charger,
which actually monitors your keystrokes
o
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/14/this-fake-phone-charger-is-actually-recording-every-key-you-type/
·
Google announced that it will launch its modular smartphone,
known as Project Ara, with a limited market pilot in the US territory of Puerto
Rico later this year
·
Peer-to-peer lending service Lending Club has announced a new
tie-up with Google that will help facilitate funding for “eligible Google
partners”
·
Santa Monica-based secure messaging software developer
TigerText announced partnership with Casa de la Luz Hospice
·
Talko, developed by software legend Ray Ozzie is a coworking
and communication app attempting to reinvent the phone call, which falls in the
same genre as popular online tools like Slack and HipChat
·
Please see below for the “Beginner’s Guide to Understanding
the Internet of Things”
Deals:
·
On Wednesday, Samsung approached the
beleaguered BlackBerry to buy the company for as much as $7.5B – but Blackberry
has denied the rumor of the bid
o http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/14/us-blackberry-m-a-samsung-exclusive-idUSKBN0KN2FW20150114
o http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/14/blackberrys-shares-drop-15-after-denying-samsung-acquisition-rumor/
·
Synacor, a Buffalo, NY-based company
that provides technology and services to the pay-TV industry, has purchased
NimbleTV in what it described as a “part acqui-hire” transaction
·
The German publisher of Scientific
American and Nature magazines has agreed to form a joint venture with the
private-equity backed Springer Science & Business Media to create a global
science and education publishing house
·
Telefónica has reached an agreement
with Mediaset Premium, the Italian group's pay-TV company, through which the
Spanish telco will acquire 11.1% of its capital by paying around €100 million
Business:
·
Bank of America is the latest large bank to report uninspired
earnings for the fourth quarter of 2014, which fell 11 percent, to $3.05B, or
25 cents a share, from $3.44B, or 29 cents a share, in the period a year
earlier
·
Caesars Entertainment put its largest unit into Chapter 11
bankruptcy, forging ahead with a planned restructuring over the forceful
objections of some creditors
·
BP is planning to cut 300 jobs from its 4,000-strong North Sea
business following a review of its operations
·
Adobe's Board of Directors has approved a new buyback, granting
the company authority to repurchase up to $2B in common stock through the end
of fiscal 2017
·
Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan cut interest
rates in an unscheduled review to revive growth in Asia’s third-largest economy
after inflation eased
·
Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu now owns more of the
New York Times Company than does the Sulzberger family, which has controlled
the venerable news provider since 1896
·
The Federal Communications Commission asked Dish about how it
reached agreements to carry channels on its new service, as the agency’s review
of Comcast’s $45B deal to acquire Time Warner Cable heats up
Exec Moves:
·
Kevin Rose has stepped away from his
role as an investor at Google Ventures to work full-time on his mobile app
development startup North Technologies, which just raised $5MM in funding led
by True Ventures
·
Jonathan Barzilay was named COO of
PBS today
Retail:
Startups:
·
Skydio announced a $3MMseed round
led by Andreessen-Horowitz for the company to build computer vision into drones
that can be flown with your phone
·
Classpass, the NY-based company that
offers unlimited fitness classes at 2,000 different studios and boutique gyms for
$99/month, has closed a $40MM Series B led by General Catalyst and Thrive
Capital
·
Moovit, which is a mobile
application that enables users to track information on public transport, raised
$50MM in its Series C
Government:
·
Rupert Murdoch praised Jeb Bush, while calling Mitt Romney a
"terrible candidate"
·
Traveling to Cuba will be much easier due to a set of new
regulations implemented by the Obama administration
·
Marco Rubio is working with Utah Senator Mike Lee on a tax
plan that would expand the Child Tax Credit and allow it to offset both income
and payroll tax liabilities
Other:
·
The Australian website Ship Your Enemies Glitter claims that
it’ll send “so much glitter in an envelope that [the recipient will] be finding
that s*** everywhere for weeks”
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