Tuesday, February 17, 2015

2.17.15

Entertainment:
·         Please see below for an interesting article on Liberty Global and how it can be viewed as a takeover target
·         It wasn’t the Super Bowl, but in terms of social-media buzz, ‘Saturday Night Live’s 40th Anniversary’ show during Sunday primetime probably was as close to the big game as the late-night landmark will ever get
·         Fandango said today it sold 29% of the domestic tickets for ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey‘s’ three-day opening weekend, the largest share for any film in its 15-year history
·         Through the end of Sunday, Universal is estimating that ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ will post a $266.4MM worldwide opening, comprised of a stateside four-day bow of $94.4MM and a $172MM foreign launch
·         Sling TV to add EPIX to its platform
·         MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett on Tuesday cut his ratings on big cable sector stocks from “buy” to “neutral,” citing increased cord cutting risk, regulatory concerns about the planned Comcast acquisition of Time Warner Cable and a recent rally in stocks
·         Paradigm Talent Agency has unveiled its new logo as part of a rebrand following sustained expansion
·         Swedish songwriters have a bone to pick with digital music streaming services, which they say are not allocating a fair percentage of their revenue to the people who actually write the songs
·         Growing by 140% in Latin America, Telefónica´s Movistar TV is leading the HD growth wave across the region, driving great results for the pay-TV business of the Spanish telco
Tech:
·         Apple has put hundreds of employees on a project to make an Apple car, which is codenamed “Titan,” and being led by Steve Zadesky, a former Ford engineer who helped develop the iPod and iPhone
·         Apple has been awarded a patent by the USPTO (via AppleInsider) for a head-mounted virtual reality set that uses an iPhone as the display and computing component
·         Sony has put a developer edition of its forthcoming smart glasses, branded as SmartEyeglass, up for pre-order today, starting with the U.K. and Germany for $840 USD
·         VLC for iOS, a popular media player application that has had a shaky history with the iOS App Store, now appears to be returning to the mobile app marketplace following its removal around the time iOS 8 launched in September 2014
·         Google is continuing to open its Android platform to mobile developers in China after it announced a localized version of its Google Developers YouTube channel for the country
·         Facebook has patented a clever idea that allows the company to  watch the rate at which a piece of content like a link is shared, then figure out whose posting led to a sudden increase in share rate in their network
·         Ad tech provider This Technology has been awarded a patent covering key dynamic ad insertion (DAI) functionality, which relates to "identifying dynamic ad inventory and defining attributes like ownership, length and interactivity, which are all critical requirements for targeted advertising delivery"
·         Thousands of businesses could receive clearance to fly drones two years from now under proposed rules that the FAA unveiled Sunday, a landmark step that will make automated flight more commonplace in the nation’s skies
·         Apple is in the process of redesigning its stores, drawing on the design expertise of Jony Ive
Deals:
·         Oneflare, a local services directory based in Sydney, Australia, announced today that it has acquired WOMO, which claims to be the country’s largest customer reviews site
·         Los Angeles-based j2 Global, which operates an wide range of Internet services, said today that its Excel Micro business has acquired the assets of Nuvotera, a provider of email security services
Business:
·         Cisco CEO John Chambers said that the company is taking tiny steps to ramp up its investments in French startups, starting by investing $100MMin multiple French startups over the coming years
·         Asset managers may soon overtake “average” investment bankers in pay
·         Vodafone is turning its focus to broadband to catch up to its rivals
·         See below for an interesting article on how including Drexel Burnham will help augment resumes
·         Just a little over a month before Apple releases its smartwatch, LG has unveiled a new smart "luxury timepiece" called the LG Watch Urbane, which features a 1.3 inch touchscreen display and runs on Google's Android Wear
·         Billionaire investor Richard Perry is the latest hedge-fund heavyweight to exit Herbalife, following on the heels of George Soros
·         GoPro Inc. shares surged 8% Tuesday as a lock-up on 76 million shares expired
Exec Moves:
·         Van Toffler, President of MTV Networks Music & Logo Group at Viacom, is leaving the company after 28 years
·         Univision Communications said CFO and SVP Andy Hobson has resigned
Retail:
Startups:
·         Please see below for interesting article on Jet.com and how it will help small businesses while competing against Amazon
·         A new company called Parent Co. is launching today, backed by $1.8MM in angel funding, with the goal of creating a line of digital products designed to meet the needs of modern parents
·         Applicaster is a startup originally out of Israel which offers a number of what’s known these days as ‘synchronised social experiences’ - in other words they can literally sync a TV broadcast with a social app
·         Firefly Games wants to bridge the East West cultural divide - the Los Angeles startup is announcing today it has raised $8<< to bring top-grossing mobile games from Asia to the West
·         WeTransfer, which is a cloud-based file transfer service designed to transmit small to large files, raised $25MM in its Series A
Government:
·         German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that is decision time for Greece regarding a bailout
·         Top lawmakers in the House and Senate have begun their own probes into a recent wave of fraudulent tax filings made through Intuit's TurboTax, highlighting a growing problem in the "e-filing" industry
Other:
·         At least 18 people were killed and 60 injured early on Tuesday when a carnival float hit a power line in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince
·         ISIS burned 45 people to death in western Iraq, according to the police chief of the town of al-Baghdadi
·         A federal judge in Texas issued a temporary halt to President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration Monday, agreeing with Texas and 25 other states in a lawsuit aimed at blocking the directive
·         The US government isn't just fighting ISIS on the ground — it's also been battling the terrorist group online, trying to counteract ISIS' propaganda with messaging of its own

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