Entertainment:
·
AT&T announced today that it is working on a promotional
scripted series called ‘SnapperHero’ that will soon debut on Snapchat
·
Sony is relaunching its streaming music service for
PlayStation Network, and this time it’s bringing in a partner with ample
expertise in streaming music services: Spotify
·
Medium has moved into video content with an author interview
series spotlighting Kelly Corrigan
·
The Walt Disney Company is running another startup accelerator
class, as part of the Disney Accelerator program in Burbank, and is now
accepting applications for a class of another ten startups for the program
·
Paramount Pictures has found a way to get its sequel ‘Hot Tub
Time Machine 2’ some playing time during Super Bowl week, dropping today the
funny “The Big Game Spot”
·
BAFTA is giving its Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema
Award to BBC Films
·
GoDaddy.com wound up vowing not to air its ad during the big
game this Sunday after unveiling it this morning, to widespread disgust
·
Conde Nast Entertainment has acquired a trio of shorts at the
Sundance Film Festival
·
Jeff Robinov's Fosun-backed Studio 8, together with Chinese
distribution company Bona Film Group, have become partners with Tom Rothman's
Sony shingle and Film4 on the adaptation of Ben Fountain's acclaimed novel
·
Literary managers Britton Rizzio, Noah Rosen and Greg Shephard
have split from Circle of Confusion to form their own management and production
firm, Writ Large
·
Chris Ferguson, the former ‘Late Late Show’ host has inked a
multiple-year overall deal with Lionsgate Television
·
As Russia’s economy sinks deeper into recession, leading production
companies plan to introduce a salary cap for TV series' actors in a move similar
to that dating back to 2009
·
Please see below for an interesting article penned by Shane
Smith (VICE CEO) on the disruptive digital force that is approaching Hollywood
·
The Hakkasan Group announced an exclusive three-year
partnership with Calvin Harris, creating a comprehensive music consultancy role
for the Scottish artist and extending his affiliated residencies
·
‘Tangerine’, a breakout hit from this year’s Sundance Film
Festival, was shot almost entirely on an iPhone
·
The second biggest retailer in the world, Carrefour, has
launched France Nolim Films, a new multi-platform entertainment service based
on the UltraViolet digital locker
Tech:
·
Mobile analytics provider App Annie, the market leader in the
app measurement business today, is out this morning with its annual report that
takes a look back at the app trends that defined the past year
·
Eventjoy, the event management platform and Y Combinator
graduate that was quickly snatched up by Ticketmaster last fall, is today
releasing a new version of its mobile application for event attendees that’s
more of an overhaul than an upgrade
·
Assets from Blinkbox Books — specifically customer accounts
and existing e-book libraries — are being picked up by Kobo, the e-book
division of Rakuten
·
Oyster, which offers unlimited access to more than 1 million
e-books for $9.95 a month, just announced it’s adding the Harry Potter series
to its library
·
Kik claims to have higher engagement than Snapchat as it just
hit 200 million users
·
Uber has partnered with with Metromile to offer per-mile car
insurance, and now the company is announcing a partnership with Intuit that
could provide more visibility to drivers about their earnings and taxes
·
Facebook unveiled plans for a Super Bowl-related page where it
will collect football-related chatter from your friends and others in your
network, along with photos, videos, expert commentary, and more
·
HelloSponsor, which just launched after going through
AngelPad’s accelerator, is looking to modernize event sponsorship for brands by
simplifying the experience and building up metrics so that they can measure the
impact of their campaigns
·
Uber is partnering with the television network Animal Planet
to let you order an on-demand, adoptable puppy to your office (just for today)
Deals:
·
Danny Wimmer Presents, which
produces music festivals like Rock on the Range, is selling a stake in itself
to the United Auburn Indian Community Development Corporation
·
Slack, the enterprise collaboration
service that has raised $180 million and proven to be a runaway success with
365,000 daily active users, has acquired Screenhero to add more functionality
to its platform and position itself as a sharper competitor against the likes
of Microsoft
·
Tech accelerator franchise Techstars
announced that it raised a new $150MM fund, with plans to invest the capital
back into its own “ecosystem.”
·
Burger chain Shake Shack Inc now
expects its initial public offering to be priced at $17-$19 per share, up from
$14-$16 expected earlier, valuing the company at up to $674.5MM
Business:
·
Apple had its most profitable quarter in its history
o http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/27/apple-just-had-the-biggest-quarterly-earnings-of-any-company-ever/
·
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been talking for a while now about
how mobile, video, native advertising, and social are the company’s key growth
areas, now she’s come up with an interesting way to refer to them — MaVeNS
·
Nintendo is moving towards a slim profit for its current
financial year - the Japanese games giant just went public with its Q3 2014
numbers: total revenue came in at $2.3B, of which $383MM was net profit
·
Yahoo just announced its plan to spin off its stake in Alibaba
into a new company, currently dubbed “SpinCo.”
·
Google officially announced that it is bringing its Google
Fiber Internet and TV service to 18 new cities in four metro areas
·
American Express is following MasterCard, stating it would
launch operations in Cuba following Washington's decision this month to ease
restrictions on travel, trade and financial activities
·
Amazon might reveal how many Prime members it has this year
Exec Moves:
·
Sony Pictures Entertainment today
named Oscar nominee Kristine Belson as President, Sony Pictures Animation in
the wake of Michelle Raimo Kouyate’s departure from the post last week
·
John Morayniss has signed a new
long-term agreement with Entertainment One to continue as Chief Executive
Officer of eOne Television
·
Lance Crosby, CEO of SoftLayer, the
cloud services company that IBM acquired in mid-2013 and which now forms the
backbone of its cloud services business unit, has left IBM
Retail:
Startups:
·
Ripple Labs, which created the
Ripple Protocol - an open source payment network that can be used to transfer
value instantly point to point, raised $30MM in its Series A
·
Tradesy, which is a platform for
buying and selling clothing, shoes and accessories online at reasonable prices,
raised $30MM in its Series C
Government:
·
China is planning to cut its growth target to around 7% in
2015, its lowest goal since 2004, as policymakers try to manage slowing growth,
job creation and pursue reforms to drive the economy
·
Kim Jong Un plans to go to Russia for his first trip out of
North Korea since he assumed power in 2011
Other:
·
Marshawn Lynch, the interview-hating star running back for the
Seattle Seahawks, had a simple message for reporters at the NFL's annual
pre-Super Bowl XLIX media day circus: He's just there so he won't get fined
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