Monday, March 16, 2015

3.16.15

Entertainment:
·         Please see below for interesting articles on VR and filmmaking
·         YouTube is rolling out a new product called “Cards,” which will eventually replace the annotations product with a new interface that’s designed to work across screens, including mobile
·         Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary have convinced a group of limited partners to put money into a new fund called Sound Ventures
·         ‘Seinfeld’ will be available to stream in the future – Sony expects to license the content in a $90MM deal
·         See below for an interesting interview with FameBit’s co-founders – connecting brands with YouTubers
·         Scripps Interactive Networks has agreed to a deal to acquire a majority stake in Polish broadcaster TVN for $615.3MM
·         Tribune Broadcasting will deliver online video reports from 30 of its TV stations to users of ‘Watchup’, a startup whose service delivers personalized newscasts to Internet-video devices
·         With its RealSense 3D camera now being built into laptops and tablets, Intel is starting to line up content partners, including comicbook publishers, to turn their properties into interactive entertainment
·         “Cinderella” was the belle of the ball at the box office this weekend, as Disney’s live-action update of its classic animated fairy tale swept moviegoers off their feet with a $70.1MM debut
·         PepsiCo announced a new multi-year partnership with Live Nation as the music company's official carbonated soft drink and bottled water partner, replacing previous partner Coca-Cola
·         The Hi-Fi, which has venues in Australia's three big cities (Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane), found a buyer after the company was placed in administration on Feb. 13 following a reported dispute with its major creditor
·         Matt Bomer to star in 'American Horror Story: Hotel,' but Jessica Lange is not checking in
·         See below for the films, music, and brands of SXSW 2015
·         King Bach, a Vine star, has made the move to become a Hollywood actor
·         Argentina's national satellite company, ARSAT, and the country's cinema institute, INCAA, have signed a deal to create a video-on-demand (VOD) platform containing content created in Argentina
·         RTVE.es, the online video platform of Spain's public broadcaster, continues to grow, grazing 20 million unique users last month, the best ever figure for a February
Tech:
·         Yahoo wants to end your dependency on memorizing passwords — or creating crap ones that can be guessed or hacked — after it introduced a new “on-demand” system that sends a one-time password when you need to log in
·         The Pebble Time Kickstarter was drawing in funding at a rate of around $6,000 per hour on Sunday, March 8, which rose to $10,000 per hour on Monday, March 9
·         Meerkat is a fast-rising, Twitter-centric live video broadcasting platform that seems to be gaining quite the fanbase since launching just a few weeks back
·         Utomik jumps into the cloud war with new instantly playable streamed games
·         Silicon Image is announcing a new SuperMHL chip today for cables that will make it easier for people to transfer and view video on 8K displays
·         Tinder has been sued over its move to charge users fees by a Florida man, who claims that Tinder offered up its service for free, then "deceptively and forcibly migrating" its user base to a paid subscription model
·         Tesla will present a software update to its Model S vehicle at a news conference on Thursday that is designed to allay fears that drivers will run out of power for their cars, Elon Musk declared on Sunday
·         A translator app will let you speak foreign languages with your Apple Watch
·         At this week's CeBit conference in Hanover, Germany, Alibaba founder Jack Ma finished his speech by presenting a prototype for one of the company's new prototypes: a payment system that uses facial recognition for its security
Deals:
·         Subabble co-founders and YouTube sensations Hank and John Green joined the Patreon family, along with 24 creators that use Subbable’s platform
·         Cheetah Mobile announced that it will buy MobPartner in a $58MM cash-and-stock deal
·         Forbes acquires photo-sharing app Camerama, pushes further into mobile
·         Facebook acquired TheFind is an e-commerce shopping search engine providing a multichannel environment to personalize the shopping experience
·         The investment firms Leonard Green & Partners and TPG Capital are buying out Life Time Fitness (the gym operator), which runs 114 centers in North America
·         GE Capital, the financing arm of General Electric, has agreed to sell its consumer lending business in Australia and New Zealand in a deal that values the business at $8.2B Australian dollars, or about $6.3B
·         LinkedIn has acquired Careerify, a Toronto-based startup with job-finding software
Business:
·         Chicago's tallest building could soon be named after a billionaire's private equity firm
·         Procter & Gamble Co. is exploring a sale or initial public offering of some of its beauty brands in a single deal
·         BlackBerry has announced that its SecuTablet, launched in partnership with Samsung and IBM, will be made available by this summer
·         EDM-focused promoter SFX Entertainment hasn't found its groove yet. On Friday, the company reported a weak fourth quarter and a loss of $131MM on revenue of $354.4MM for 2014
Exec Moves:
·         MSG Chairman James Dolan, who also runs Cablevision, will run MSG while it looks for a new CEO
Retail:
Startups:
·         A startup called Camio offers a free service that turns any old Android or iOS smartphone or tablet into a web-connected surveillance camera
·         Audvisor offers advice in the form of three-minute audio clip from more than 100 contributors like author/blogger Seth Godin, venture capitalist and lecturer Heidi Roizen, and tech evangelist/author Guy Kawasaki
·         Sakti3, a Michigan-based company that is developing solid-state recharcheable lithium ion battery technology, raised $20MM in its Series C
Government:
·         With the dollar hitting fresh 12-year highs and growing concerns that the U.S. might run out of oil storage, U.S. crude fell for a fifth day, dropping to its lowest intraday price since March 2009
·         The euro recouped its earlier losses after briefly touching a new 12-year low against the dollar in Asia trade, but further slides in the currency looked likely given the diverging monetary policies in the eurozone and U.S.
·         More than 45,000 Russian troops as well as war planes and submarines started military exercises across much of the country on Monday in one of the Kremlin's biggest shows of force since its ties with the West plunged to Cold War-lows
·         On Monday, Putin stepped back into the spotlight, attending a meeting with Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev in St. Petersburg
Other:
·         “Big Data” has released a catchy debut album, he goes all-in with songs inspired by Edward Snowden, the Internet of Things, and even Facebook’s mood experiments
·         Robert Durst, scion of one of New York's largest real estate empires, was caught on audio tape in an HBO documentary, saying he "killed them all," referring to three murders of which he was accused
·         Boston has officially had its snowiest winter on record — getting 108.6 inches of snow
·         Authorities on Sunday announced the arrest of Jeffrey Williams in connection with the shooting last week of two police officers in Ferguson, Missouri




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