Friday, February 6, 2015

2.6.15

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
·         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
·         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
·         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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