Monday, March 23, 2015

3.23.15

Entertainment:
·         Vivendi confirmed that the hedge fund P. Schoenfeld Asset Management called for a sale of the music company, but said it had no intention of doing so
·         See below for an article on media tech and venture capital
·         See below for an article on how music labels are trying to kill off Spotify’s unlimited free streaming
·         Los Angeles-based streaming television site Hulu said last week that it has gained the exclusive streaming video-on-demand rights to the show “Empire,” in a deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution
·         Just two weeks short of its Easter weekend release, many industry estimates are projecting Universal’s “Furious 7” with a $115MM opening
·         Two new bills to increase New Mexico's film tax incentives have sailed through the state Legislature
·         Discovery Communications has walked away from the auction for Australia's Ten Network, sources confirmed
·         WWE and NBCU have partnered to get more revenue from advertising
·         Netflix launched in Australia and New Zealand
·         The Ultra Music Festival has named Twitch, the social video platform and game-streaming giant, as its official broadcast partner
·         An attorney for Adnan Syed, the subject of popular podcast "Serial," argues that trial attorney Christina Gutierrez's failure to interview a possible alibi witness was an error of "such a fundamental nature" that it requires a new trial to resolve
·         The latest trailer for “Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation” dives a little bit further into agent Ethan Hunt's battle with the villainous organization known as the Syndicate
·         The pay-TV market in North America, which already has new over-the-top (OTT) services hanging over it menacingly, looks likely to have peaked in 2013, says Digital TV Research
·         Yomvi, Canal+'s streaming and video-on-demand (VOD) platform, has launched on Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4
Tech:
·         Please see below for an interesting analysis on the new Apple TV
·         Stripe is today unveiling a new product designed to help marketplaces like Lyft or Kickstarter scale internationally, by offering a suite of tools that allow businesses like these to accept payments from anywhere in the world
·         Square is expanding its Cash product to allow businesses to accept payments
·         India is Uber’s second largest market worldwide behind only the U.S., and the company is today bolstering its position in the Asian country after agreeing to an alliance with media firm Times Internet
·         Yesterday afternoon, the legal team representing venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers rested its case in the Ellen Pao Vs. Kleiner Perkins trial, bringing the fourth full week in the courtroom to a close
·         Meerkat has closed on a $12MM Series B led by Greylock at a $40MM valuation
·         Facebook open sources Augmented Traffic Control, a Wi-Fi tool for simulating 2G, Edge, 3G, and LTE networks
·         Fans of SpaceX, the Los Angeles area space flight company led by Elon Musk, will have a field day with a giant trove of photographs from the company, which SpaceX made free to the public late Friday
·         The retirement accounts of millions of Americans have long contained shares of stalwart companies like General Electric, Ford and Coca-Cola - today, they are likely to include riskier private stocks from Silicon Valley start-ups like Uber, Airbnb and Pinterest
·         After investing $5M in Lyft last year at an $850MM valuation, GSV Capital has invested another $2.5MM in the ride-sharing platform/Uber archrival through its latest funding round, which valued the company at $2.5B
·         See below for the 5 future-focused tech trends of SXSW Interactive
·         Samsung is bundling Microsoft's Office apps on some Android tablets
Deals:
·         Edocr has been acquired by Accusoft, which is known as a venerable player in the OEM software business for documents
·         Rakuten has acquired Deep Forest to bolster its mobile marketing operations
Business:
·         In the latest twist to the showdown between Argentina and Citigroup, a U.S. federal court has agreed to allow Citi to make interest payments to investors holding $2.3B of Argentine bonds at the end of this month and on June 30
·         Benjamin Lawsky, New York state's financial services regulator, has added himself to the regulators investigating Deutsche Bank for the alleged rigging of Libor
·         China could make billions of dollars from taxing gains made by employees of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group who are free to sell their shares for the first time since its IPO
Exec Moves:
·         Gearing up for the spinoff of PayPal from eBay later this year, eBay today added two new people to its board, with one of them having an interesting link to some of eBay’s earlier corporate history – Tony Bates and Gail McGovern
Startups:
Government:
·         When Chelsea Clinton’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, co-founded an investment firm, Clinton family friends took an interest, illustrating how politics, family and finance can intersect
·         European equities are heading south as investors watch a meeting between the leaders of Greece and Germany, beginning a week that may prove decisive for Greece's future in the euro zone
·         Senator Ted Cruz announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Monday

Other:

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