Entertainment:
·
SNL turns 40 this week, please see below for an article on the
biggest blunders they’ve made over the years
·
Deezer is rolling out a high-definition version of its
service, called Deezer Elite, globally, initially in partnership with audio
equipment company Sonos.
·
Grapevine, which pairs social stars with brands, just raised
$1.1MM in seed funding
o
http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/10/grapevine-unearths-1-1m-to-grow-some-more-youtube-product-stars/
·
Hollywood-based 3D and visual effects studio Legend3D is
getting into the virtual reality business, saying this morning that it has
opened up a brand new Virtual Reality division
·
Los Angeles-based 3D theater projection company RealD said that
it has started a process to review "strategic alternatives" for the
company, and hired investment banking firm Moelis & Company
·
Trust for Brian Williams, one of the most popular news anchor
in America, has plummeted in one week after he admitted to embellishing a story
from his war coverage.
·
Ben Stiller is attached to executive produce and direct
multiple episodes of ‘Super Sad True Love Story’, an hourlong dramedy in the
works atMRC
·
The Paley Center for Media announced its first batch of panels
for PaleyFest 2015
·
Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal’s Al Arab news channel has
been shut permanently by Bahraini authorities after only a single day of
broadcasting
·
The indie production and film finance team behind ‘Whiplash’
and ‘Nigthcrawler’ said today that it is opening a London office and has
brought in a quartet of senior executives
·
The big online-video companies Machinima and Collective
Digital Studio filed federal lawsuits today against Freeplay Music LLC, a site
that provides backing music for video creators
·
Sky has won five of seven TV rights packages for soccer games
in the English Premier League, with BT, formerly known as British Telecom, and
Discovery Communications and its Eurosport network also competing for rights in
a deal worth $7.8B overall
·
In a reboot of the “Spider-Man” franchise, Sony Pictures
Entertainment has announced a new partnership with Marvel Studios that brings
the popular superhero into the Marvel universe
·
Coke and General Motors have returned as advertisers in ABC’s
Academy Awards telecast after an absence - Netflix, Comcast and Disney are also
among the marketers ponying up around $2MM for a 30-second blurb in the Feb. 22 live
Oscarcast
o
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/netflix-comcast-disney-among-oscar-telecast-advertisers-1201429947/
·
Guy Hands, the man who was inadvertently responsible for the
dissolution of EMI, is back, with a $1.1B "war chest," as the
Independent reports, at his disposal.
·
Please see below for an article on how sports is driving
mobile video consumption
o
http://www.rapidtvnews.com/2015021037142/sports-driving-mobile-video-consumption.html#axzz3RGqQ1iD0
Tech:
·
Please see below for an interesting article on how Amazon
Prime is one of the most bizarre and good business ideas ever
·
Scribd has unveiled its “Netflix for Comics” version of the
service
·
Newsweek’s Twitter account was hacked today by a group calling
itself Cyber Caliphate
·
Prezi wants in on the consumer ‘video’ sharing trend and has
taken the same dynamic zooming tech used to spruce up Prezi presentations, and has
created a new app called Nutshell
·
ScreenPop, which grew to 15,000 users during two months of
beta testing, is designed to allow anyone to send photos, doodles, emoji and
more after just a quick swipe on their phone’s locked screen
·
Giveffect, part of Y Combinator’s current cohort, has built a
suite of cloud-based software that focuses specifically on the needs of
non-profit businesses
·
Facebook’s Internet.org project to provide basic mobile
internet services for free just took its biggest step to date after it launched
in India
·
Imgur Pro is now free
·
SpaceX is looking to launch its latest mission--the launch of
an space weather satellite for the U.S. Air Force--later today, aboard a Falcon
9 rocket
·
Ad tech provider BlackArrow has announced that it will be powering
dynamic ad insertion (DAI) in on demand content viewed on connected and mobile
devices by Time Warner Cable subscribers
·
Box is launching encryption keys that only you will hold
Deals:
·
Yelp acquired Eat24, a U.S. food
delivery business that competes with GrubHub, Delivery.com and others in the
area of delivering food on behalf of various restaurants, for $134MM
·
Hem, the Berlin-based home
furnishings company created last year by Jason Goldberg as a pivot after his
previous online marketplace Fab.com collapsed, has confirmed the acquisition of
assets from Discipline.eu, an online design portal based in Italy
·
Los Angeles-based valet parking app
developer CurbStand said this morning that it has acquired another, parking app
developer, Curby, and will integrate Curby's technology platform into its
software
·
Canon of Japan said on Tuesday that
it had offered to buy the Swedish security camera maker Axis for $2.8B in cash
·
The Dalian Wanda Group, the Chinese
property and entertainment conglomerate, signed an agreement on Tuesday to buy
the sports marketing company Infront Sports and Media for $1.2B
Business:
·
IBM’s Watson is now learning Japanese with the help of
SoftBank
·
Qualcomm has been fined close to one billion dollars in China
after regulators found the U.S. chip-maker guilty of breaching national
antitrust regulations
·
GM is facing a new challenge from a group of activist
investors - A group of hedge funds — and a former member of the Obama
administration’s auto task force, charged with helping the automaker survive
bankruptcy protection — is seeking changes at the automaker
·
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts said on Tuesday that its
fourth-quarter profit fell 89%, hurt by turmoil in the energy sector.
·
In the final stages of a long-running investigation, the U.S.
Department of Justice has recently informed Barclays, JPMorgan, the Royal Bank
of Scotland and Citigroup that they must plead guilty to criminal charges that
they manipulated the prices of foreign currencies
·
SoftBank reported a sharp drop in its profit for the
October-December quarter this morning, weighed down by the continuing struggles
at Sprint, the U.S. mobile operator it acquired in 2013
o http://www.wsj.com/articles/softbank-earnings-weighed-down-by-sprint-1423550409?mod=rss_Technology
·
Pfizer has struck a $5B accelerated share repurchase deal with
Goldman Sachs, as part of its existing share repurchase authorization under
which an additional $11B of authority was announced in October
·
Univision reported a loss of $136.2MM for the fourth quarter,
compared with a year-ago profit of $172.2MM when a much bigger benefit for income
taxes boosted the bottom line
Exec Moves:
·
AwesomenessTV, a digital-focused
media company aimed at tween and teen audiences, has hired James Deutch in the
newly created position of creative director of branded entertainment
·
Steve Horowitz, a former engineering
VP at Motorola and CTO of Coupons.com, is now VP of engineering at Snapchat
Retail:
Startups:
·
Former Surf Air CEO Wade Eyerly Wade
Eyerly and his co-founders have started a very similar private flight startup
to their last venture - but this time it’s on the East Coast and it’s called
Beacon
·
Lamudi, the Rocket Internet-backed
online property listings company for emerging markets, has closed a $18MM round
of funding aimed at developing its marketshare and revenues worldwide
·
Cinemacraft, a Tokyo-headquartered
startup that provides a more innovative alternative to the traditional video
embed for publishers and content creators, has closed its $3.9MM Series A round
to expand its focus on international markets and product development
·
Bottlenose, which provides solutions
for enterprises to identify, anticipate and instigate trends that drive their
businesses in real-time, raised $13.4MM in its Series b
·
Team8, which is a cyber “think tank”
focused on developing disruptive technologies and launching new cybersecurity
companies, raised $18MM in its Series A
Government:
·
U.S. stocks rose modestly on Tuesday
on hopes a deal in Greek debt negotiations was drawing closer and on Coca-Cola
earnings, but a drop in energy shares served to cap the advance
·
Russia, where energy production
provides more than half of state revenue, is preparing for a battle with oil
producers over taxing the country’s most vital industry
Other:
·
‘Ext. Night’ is a new photographic series where Gregg Segal
captures the eerie, magical effect Hollywood lights have on the city
·
Miley Cyrus submitted an S&M-themed short film ‘Tongue
Tied’ to the NYC Porn Film Festival, which begins Feb. 27
·
In the wake of her death, the family of American Kayla
Mueller, held hostage by Islamic State, has released a letter they received
from her in the spring of 2014
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