Wednesday, January 7, 2015

1.7.15

Entertainment:
·         Digital purchases of movies in the U.S. boomed in 2014, to $1.55B, up 30% from $1.19B in 2013, according to new data from the Digital Entertainment Group
·         British audiences will get to see The Interview after all with the news that the film will get a wide theatrical release in the UK and Ireland on February 6
·         YouTube stars KickThePj and Sawyer Hartman will each launch an online-video series exclusively on Vimeo On Demand through a deal announced this morning with New Form Digital Studios
·         Ryan Seacrest rockin’ New Year’s Eve Special – featuring performances by Fergie, Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum – topped the week’s Twitter TV ratings from Nielsen
·         Media company stocks are among the big losers as the Standard & Poor’s 500 endured its fifth straight day of decline, the longest such stretch since 2013
·         While Sony’s limited theatrical release brought in $5MM, The Interview notched a whopping $31MM with 4.3 million transactions from film rentals and sales between December 24 and January 4
·         Annapurna Pictures and VICE are teaming up to produce The Bad Batch, the next film from breakout indie helmer Ana Lily Amirpour
·         Netflix opened the semi-annual Television Critics Association's winter press tour with a bit of breaking news: Period drama Marco Polo will be back for a second season
·         Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” and Ed Sheeran’s "X" were 2014's biggest sellers in Australia
·         Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has named the North Korean official who allegedly ordered the hacking attack on Sony Pictures
·         BitTorrent will release its first feature film called Hits
·         VHX has raised an additional $5MM to help filmmakers sell their films online
Tech:
·         OmniProcessor is a new kind of low-cost waste treatment plant funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
·         Amazon is now selling the Fire Phone today for $189, off contract, including a year of Amazon Prime (normally $99)
·         Google TV’s long, drawn-out good-bye has finally reached an end, with Google confirming today that it will no longer support the platform now that its successor, Android TV, has launched
·         The FAA now allows real estate agents to use drones for aerial photography
·         Rdio announced a raft of integration partnerships that it hopes will give its service more ubiquity and make it more attractive
·         Uber is launching its new ‘Momentum’ rewards program for U.K. drivers, two months after the U.S. launch
·         Kingston Digital is targeting the new 4K and HD video capture market, with a brand new, ultra high speed microSD flash memory card
·         Amazon has been hiring for a new venture with the goal of creating the “best end-to-end platform for startups.”
Deals:
·         Visual Supply Co., better known as VSCO, has acquired Artifact Uprising, a Denver-based startup focused on bringing photographers’ work from the digital hubs frequented by modern creatives to the real world as tangible books and prints
·         An obscure marketing firm out of North Carolina called Red Ventures just landed $250MM in funding from Silver Lake Partners — a firm known for investing in tech companies like Dell, WME, and Alibaba Group
Business:
·         Not even a month after T-Mobile announced its rollover data plan called “Data Stash,” competitor AT&T is following with the unveiling of a rollover data plan of its own
·         Intel has promised to spend $300MM to boost the representation of women and minorities in tech
·         Monster, the consumer electronics firm which co-designed the original Beats By Dr. Dre headphones, has sued Beats Electronics, saying that Beats stole the technology behind its immensely popular headphones from the company
·         Keurig Green Mountain has signed a deal with Dr Pepper Snapple to sell capsules that make its sodas in its planned cold-drink machine
·         Venezuela has announced it has reached several agreements to increase China's investment in the country's telecoms sector, especially in 4G networks and mobile manufacturers
Exec Moves:
·         Formation 8 has been on a bit of hiring spree recently, bringing on multiple partners and advisors over the past few months
·         Bonnie Hammer, chairman of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, has been appointed an independent director on eBay’s Board of Directors
·         Hypebot is reporting that top executives Eric Garland and Ethan Kaplan at Live Nation Labs have exited the company's three-year-old digital innovation division, and signs are pointing towards a larger restructuring within the unit
Retail:
Startups:
·         LineO, a food delivery startup that guarantees delivery from local restaurants in less than an hour, raised $30MM in its Series B
·         fitmob, which is redefining the gym in the digital age delivering unique group workouts with top trainers in your neighborhood, has raised $5MM in its Series B
Government:
·         Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would like some credit for all the recent rosy economic news as he states that the economy is improving due to the recent GOP Congress
Other:
·         Al Qaeda gunmen stormed the Paris offices of a weekly satirical magazine renowned for lampooning radical Islam, killing at least 12 people, including two police officers
·         The tail of the crashed AirAsia jet has been found on the sea bed about 30 km (20 miles) from the plane's last known location, a breakthrough that investigators hope will lead to the crucial black box recorders

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