Entertainment:
·
Netflix today said it plans to offer $1B in senior notes and
plans to use the proceeds for “general corporate purposes, which may include
content acquisitions and investments
·
NBC brought the Super Bowl to the internet for free offering a
live stream of the big game
·
Hulu has been featuring the ads on the Hulu AdZone and ranking
them based on popularity again this year, currently showing Budweiser's
"Lost Dog" follow-up as the most liked spot
·
The British Board of Film Classification has given Universal
and Focus Features’ ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ an 18 rating — meaning no one under
that age will be admitted to the movie
·
Warner Bros.’ IMAX presentation of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’
made $1.5MM from 205 playdates for a per-theater of $7,323
·
Screenwriter Graham Moore and author Andrew Hodges have won
the 27th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award for ‘The Imitation Game’
·
Celeb-driven “Access Hollywood” has launched a new
video series — distributed exclusively on Facebook — that promises a
behind-the-scenes look at how producers decide what stories to put on TV
·
Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications has
struck a deal with Dish Network’s over-the-top Sling video distribution
service. Sling’s rights will include both live and video-on-demand content.
·
German broadcast group ProSiebenSat.1 has extended its
existing content licensing agreement with Twentieth Century Fox Television
Distribution
·
Spotify has pumped the brakes on its planned launch in Russia,
citing a growing list of negative factors in the country
·
Spotify is working with Goldman Sachs to raise $500MM at a
valuation in the $7-8B range, although the company has no takers just yet
·
NBC also scored big with the Super Bowl earning its highest
overnight ratings in history - it delivered a 49.7 overnight rating
·
Please see below for links to all of the Super Bowl ads
·
ESPN will sell live and on-demand access to the Cricket World
Cup, a 49-game, six-week tournament, over the Web for $100
·
Viacom International Media Networks has announced that Spain's
Comedy Central will now be available on Samsung smart TVs through a new app
Tech:
·
Nest revealed that it had been quietly studying the energy-
and cost-saving benefits of its smart thermostats since 2013, and it has saved
its users 10-12% on their heating bills and 15% on their cooling bills
·
Verizon Wireless says it will soon allow customers to sidestep
the mysterious “perma-cookie” it has placed on at least some phones to track
user behavior and help target ads
·
Facebook is currently running a focus-group-like program that
asks people direct questions about News Feed items in an effort to improve post
relevance
o
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/facebook-making-news-feed-better-asking-real-people-direct-questions/
·
Alibaba announced that it has created a $129MM non-profit
organization to help young people who want to start businesses on the
e-commerce giant’s online marketplaces
·
Select Android users are reporting they’ve happened upon a new
voice calling feature in their Whatsapp mobile application, indicating that the
now Facebook-owned company is testing the addition ahead of its expansion into
territory currently dominated by apps like Skype and Viber
·
Ad tech firm Inneractive hopes to advance the use of the
format for apps as it launched what it describes as the first programmatic
platform for inserting native video ads into content feeds of apps
·
Pebble plans to carry its momentum through 2015 with new
products and a new software platform that is unlike anything else used on
smartwatches to date
·
50% of 2015 Super Bowl ads carried hashtags, a bit of a slip
from the record 57% during the 2014 game and Facebook was the social network
most mentioned, though mentions of specific social networks were again very
sparse
Deals:
·
Moving deeper into the Internet of
Things, Intel has acquired smart home startup Lantiq for $280MM
·
Monotype Imaging Holdings, a
publicly traded company focused on fonts and other creative tools, just
announced that it has acquired New York City-based ad startup Swyft Media for
$27MM
·
Ticketea has acquired TodayTickets,
the German last-minute ticket booking app, as a means to further expansion in
Germany
Business:
·
Over the last 72 hours the youngest bank CEO in China - Mao
Xiaofeng - has stepped down, been accused of corruption, and seen his company's
stock tumble over 10% on Hong Kong's stock exchange
·
Stephen A. Schwarzman, the billionaire co-founder of the
Blackstone Group, has a sobering message for any junior financiers hoping to
emulate his success: Think twice
·
Morgan Stanley is shopping its oil-trading and storage
business again after an earlier deal with Rosneft, valued at $700MM dollars,
fell through last month
·
Investors are furious at the way Euro Disney has been run -
the Paris-listed firm has recorded losses in 16 of its 23 years, despite owning
Europe's top tourist destination with about 14 million visitors per year
·
U.S. consumer spending recorded its biggest decline since late
2009 in December, with households appearing to save the extra cash from cheaper
gasoline, which could support future consumption
·
Jack Ma, the cofounder and chairman of Chinese ecommerce giant
Alibaba, is now wealthier (at least on paper) than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos,
according to data collected Friday from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index
·
FCC commissioner has called out Dish for taking $3B in small
business discounts
·
Please see below for why Ericsson took a legal action against
Xiaomi. It's learnt that the Indian companies Micromax, Intex and Chinese
Gionee are also under the radar
Exec Moves:
·
Razmig Hovaghimian, who founded Web
video site Viki and sold it to Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce giant, is
leaving his CEO post
Retail:
Startups:
·
Brazilian mobile phone taxi hailing
application developer 99Taxis has raised what investors and the company’s chief
executive are calling a “significant” new round from the international
investment management firm, Tiger Global Management
·
Coursmos, a web and mobile
micro-learning platform for learning and teaching micro-courses raised $600k in
seed funding
Government:
·
President Obama released an ambitious 2016 budget on Monday
that's more about what he would do than what he can do on the $4T budget
Other:
·
The New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks to win the
Super Bowl 28-24
·
Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel entered rehab last
week after a season of well-documented hard partying
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