Wednesday, March 25, 2015

3.25.15

Entertainment:
·         “Shovel Buddies”, a 2013 Black List script by Jason Mark Hellerman, will be produced by AwesomenessTV and Film 360 for day-and-date theatrical and VOD release
·         Lakeshore Entertainment has pacted with longtime partner the NY-based asset management firm Vine Alternative Investments Group on a new transaction in which they will co-finance upcoming Lakeshore-produced movies
·         Fan TV is today introducing a new mobile application that will allow users to search and save shows and movies they want to watch later – as well as get alerted to when they arrive on your preferred services
·         Warner Bros is negotiating with Bradley Cooper to make his feature directorial debut on the remake of “A Star Is Born”
·         Alchemy has entered into a multiyear joint venture with The Swirl Group to create and acquire material that appeals to urban audiences
·         Comcast says that it now expects that the FCC and Department of Justice will complete their review of its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable by mid-year
·         Sundance TV will launch “Behind the Story With the Paley Center,” a  six-episode series that features in-depth discussions with the stars, writers and producers of some of TV’s most interesting programs
·         The film and TV industries contributed some $2 billion to the economy of Hong Kong, according to an economic impact report
·         Relativity Media has revealed a slew of plans for the Indian market as part of its wide-ranging deal with B4U Network
·         See below for the new “Entourage” trailer
·         The worldwide pay-TV market grew 4% annually at the end of 2014 to reach 923.5 million subscribers, and will surpass a billion by 2020, says a survey from ABI Research
·         Globecast has launched a Los Angeles Media Centre, offering broadcasters and content providers a converged workflow to prepare, deliver and playout content to any kind of distribution platform
Tech:
·         Intel engineers developed three depth-sensing cameras for its RealSense range—one for PCs, one for tablets (an as-yet-unreleased product), and a special Snapshot edition for the ultra-thin Dell Venue tablet
·         Leap Motion and the OSVR open-source ecosystem announced a partnership that would allow Razer’s OSVR HDK (hacker development kit) to ship later this year with a Leap Motion sensor embedded in its faceplate
·         Fantastical, one of the more popular calendaring applications designed for Apple users on iOS and Mac, has this morning rolled out its long-anticipated upgrade to its Mac app with the release of Fantastical 2
·         Canary, the all-in-one smart home monitoring system that launched on Indiegogo in summer of 2013, is today available in retail locations for the first time
·         Car-hailing apps Uber and Ola have received a new warning from the New Delhi transport authorities, ordering both to stop operations until their applications for taxi licenses have finished processing
·         A notification just sent out by the official app for Facebook’s F8 conference later today reads “The Garage and Demo areas are now open! Just revealed: Parse for IoT, Messenger as a Platform, and the Teleportation Station”
·         The cofounder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, says he has doubts about expensive Apple Watches, sees cars as a natural fit for Apple, and believes that machines will pose a serious threat to humans in the future
·         Music creation service Zya will unveil Ditty, a singing telegram that Auto-Tunes personal messages to a select library of licensed songs and shares them through Facebook Messenger
·         Amazon blasted federal regulators on Tuesday for being slow to approve commercial drone testing, saying the United States is falling behind other countries in the potentially lucrative area of unmanned aviation technology
Deals:
·         Warren Buffett and the private-equity firm 3G Capital announced they would be merging H.J. Heinz with Kraft Foods.
·         Apple has acquired FoundationDB, a company that specializes in speedy, durable NoSQL databases
·         Telefonica has officially announced it will sell U.K. mobile carrier O2 to rival Hutchison Whampoa
Business:
·         See below for an interesting article on US private equity firm’s reception in Australia
·         See below for an article on how Silicon Valley has been drawing much of its most valuable new talent from Wall Street
Exec Moves:
·         President Obama announced this morning that Jason Goldman, a longtime tech industry executive best known for his work alongside Ev Williams during the formative years of products such as Blogger, Twitter, and Medium, has been named the White House’s first-ever “Chief Digital Officer”
·         The BBC has fired "Top Gear" host Jeremy Clarkson for his involvement in a "fracas" with one of the show's producers
·         Zygi Kamasa has signed a new long-term agreement to continue as chief exec of Lionsgate UK
·         Gracenote, the Tribune Media-owned company that provides data for digital video and music services, has hired industry veteran Ethan Kaplan to run its music unit
Startups:
·         Helpling, the Rocket Internet on-demand home cleaning startup, has closed a $45MM Series B round led by Lakestar, Kite Ventures, Lukasz Gadowski and Rocket Internet
·         WP Engine, a startup that hosts websites based on the open-source WordPress content-management system, said today that it’s taken on $20MM in new funding
·         Santa Monica-based parking information provider ParkMe said Tuesday that it has expanded the depth of its information in the Los Angeles area, by adding parking information in Hollywood and Venice
·         OYO Rooms, which is a technology driven chain of standardized budget hotels in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Bangalore and Mumbai, raised $25MM in its Series A
·         Realm, a mobile database, enables its users to develop applications that are fast and craft amazing user experiences, raised $20MM in its Series B
Government:
·         Australia is "well and truly" disposed to become a member of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said
·         Early Wednesday morning, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko dismissed oligarch Igor Kolomoisky from his position as governor of Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region
Other:
·         Mark Stevens, who made his name as a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital, along with his wife Mary, have given $50MM in a gift to the University of Southern California, to go towards an institute focused on brain research


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