Entertainment:
·
Cinedigm Corp. has closed a three year deal to acquire
domestic rights to 12 films from The Asylum
·
Line continues to build out its business beyond its core chat
service after it launched a YouTube-like video service in Thailand - the
company, which claims 181 million active users worldwide, is evaluating plans
to introduce similar services in other markets
·
JustWatch, launching today, is offering a streaming search
engine designed just for cord cutters
o
http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/05/justwatch-debuts-a-new-search-engine-for-cord-cutters/#tZicGQ:Y2O
·
Airtame, which is building a nifty wireless HDMI dongle to
easily share your computer or phone’s screen to a TV or projector, has closed a
$1.4MM seed round led by Danish investment firm SEED Capital and
Libratone-founder Tommy Andersen
·
Please see below for an opinion article on why the
Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger is dead
·
CNN has “revised” its report about NBC News anchor/managing editor
Brian Williams this morning when the pilot who'd said Williams was in his
helicopter and did take small arms fire, now says he isn't sure
o
http://variety.com/2015/tv/opinion/brian-williams-and-the-lost-art-of-the-public-apology-1201425652/
·
Vice is premiering its latest narrative feature ‘Prince’
tonight in Berlin
·
FilmNation Entertainment has sealed a batch of multi-year
output deals with international distributors to cover titles that Open Road
produces or acquires for the world
·
NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden will appear via live video,
along with the team behind Oscar-nominated documentary ‘CitizenFour’ —
filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald, in a February 12
edition of TimesTalk
·
Brett Ratner has been in negotiations with alcohol giant
Diageo to come out with a high-end whiskey that is associated with Hollywood
glamor
·
Cutting Edge Group has entered into a seven-figure slate
financing deal with Cross Creek Pictures covering a dozen feature films
·
Taylor Swift recently trademarked “Shake It Off”, and her
legal team continues to defend the empire - Buzzfeed reports that numerous Etsy
sellers have been asked to remove Swift-themed items from their stores due to
alleged trademark violations
·
British independent label Cooking Vinyl has partnered with
John Black to launch a standalone management arm called Black Gold Music
Management
·
Please see below for Billboard’s 2015 Power 100 List
o
http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/legal-and-management/6465288/biz-2015-power-100-article
·
See below for an article on how ‘Star Wars’ made $27B
·
The demise of traditional television viewership and
multichannel services through over-the-top (OTT) subscription video-on-demand
(SVOD) services, maybe somewhat exaggerated says a Horowitz Research report
Tech:
·
Swatch plans to launch its own smartwatch within the next
three months
·
India-based mobile news aggregation service NewsHunt has raised
$40MM to continue its evolution into a digital content platform
·
Please see below for the list of startups and VCs that won
Crunchie Awards
·
Sir Richard Branson detailed the next moves over at
Mojave-based Virgin Galactic on Thursday, releasing a video and more details on
the company's second, SpaceShipTwo
·
Adidas started rewarding fans for their support of the brand's
#ThereWillBeHaters campaign by offering a private group conversation with some
soccer stars on Twitter, including Real Madrid CF star Karim Benzema
·
Microsoft is currently testing a "Work Assistant"
app that’s designed to use Cortana to open, edit, and share documents using
voice commands and Cortana – like Clippy
·
TurboTax halts e-filing for state tax returns amid reports of
fraud
·
Fab.com, the online design retailer that, for the blink of an
eye, looked like it could someday develop into the Ikea for a new generation,
is expected to complete a fire sale of its assets by the end of this month
Deals:
·
HelloFresh, the European startup that delivers perfectly
portioned groceries and recipes for you to cook at home, has just announced the
close of a $126MM Series E funding round led by previous investors Rocket
Internet and Insight Venture Partners
·
Marin Software, the cross-platform ad platform, will be
acquiring France’s SocialMoov, an early mover and big player in social
advertising on sites like Facebook (specifically video)
·
ReadWrite (originally known as ReadWriteWeb) has been acquired
by conference/incubator/media company Wearable World - its previous owner Say
Media announced plans last fall to sell off its owned properties in order to
focus on its ad business and its Tempest publishing platform
·
Delivery Hero, a network of online food ordering sites with
over 73,000 restaurant partners worldwide, raised $568MM in its Series H from
Rocket Internet
Business:
·
RadioShack has officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
·
Twitter’s stock is up around 7% after reporting a big
financial quarter, beating expectations on both profit and revenue, however,
its user growth was decidedly weak
·
LinkedIn handily beat Wall Street’s expectations with its
revenue of $643, up 44% from the year-ago quarter, for non-GAAP earnings per
share of $0.61
·
GoPro reported strong fourth-quarter results, with net income
almost tripling to $122M<, as strong demand for its wearable cameras got a
boost during the holiday season
·
Investors tuned out of Pandora after a pullback in mobile
advertising caused the internet radio company to miss revenue targets, and its
sales outlook for the Q1 and 2015 missed Wall Street’s views – the stock has
plunges nearly 20%
·
Activision Blizzard said today that its holiday quarter was
better than it had forecasted, with profits of $438MM , or 94 cents per share,
on sales of $2.21B
Exec Moves:
·
Cablevision vice chairman Gregg Seibert has been tapped for
the same role at AMC Networks and MSG, two of Cablevision’s spinoff companies
Retail:
Startups:
·
Clyp, the app that bills itself as an imgur for sound files,
has blown up since its launch in 2013 with 825,000 unique users playing with
the app
·
Picsart, a mobile photo editing and publishing app that claims
60 million monthly users, has closed $10MM in funding from Sequoia Capital
Government:
·
Speaker John Boehner misled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
into thinking an invitation to address the U.S. Congress on Iran next month was
fully supported by the Democrats, a senior Israeli official said
·
Companies’ offshore cash holdings are a tempting target for
American tax writers, as President Obama’s proposal this week to tax deferred
offshore earnings proves
Other:
·
Leatherman made a multi-tool watch
·
Harvard University said applications for this fall’s freshman
class jumped 9 percent, to a record 37,305, after the school heightened
recruiting on social media and publicized a $150MM gift mostly for financial
aid
·
ISIS said Friday its last remaining American hostage, a
26-year-old female aid worker, was killed by a Jordanian air strike
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