Wednesday, March 4, 2015

3.4.15

Entertainment:
·         Sling TV announced this morning the addition of two more channels, AMC and IFC, which will now become available as part of its $20 core package aimed at cord cutters
·         Continuing its aggressive expansion into film and entertainment content, Alibaba has invested 2.4B yuan ($382.67MM) in TV program producer Beijing Enlight Media
·         Leonardo DiCaprio is setting his Appian Way banner in a multi-year first look deal with Netflix for non-fiction projects that will air exclusively on the streaming service
·         Nvidia today unveiled its plan to further its push into user hardware with a new device aimed at the Apple TV and Roku, which it’s calling the Shield
·         NBC to reportedly launch its own subscription video service
·         HBO announced this morning that its streaming service HBO GO is now available on the PlayStation 4
·         Orange Is The New Black is returning on June 12, according to Netflix
·         Hulu, along with Disney-ABC Television Group, inked a deal to bring Disney Junior's content to Hulu
·         Regal will continue to use Fandango, and add MovieTickets.com for online ticket sales at its 572 theaters with 7,356 screens
·         Sony Pictures just landed ‘Captain America’ filmmaking brothers Joe Russo and Anthony Russo for a three-year, first-look features deal with the studio
·         BBC TV boss Danny Cohen may have thought his detailed public dismissal last week of a $155MM bid for the U.K. public broadcaster’s BBC Three channel – due to move online as part of budget cuts – was the final say regarding the matter
·         Major theater chains are refusing to show “Beasts of No Nation,” the Cary Fukunaga drama that Netflix bought this week for $12MM, because the company is debuting the film simultaneously on its streaming service
·         Shareholders of Aspiro AB - the streaming company Jay Z recently bid $56MM on, via Shawn Carter Enterprises subsidiary Project Panther Bidco - are preparing to reject his offer
·         Freeplay Music has filed a counterclaim that Machinima and Collective Digital Studios (CDS) used their tracks without properly licensing them
·         Dubai announces plans for 'Museum of the Future' to highlight human innovation
·         Ben Kingsley mind-jumps into Ryan Reynolds in the first trailer for ‘Selfless’
·         Please see below for an interesting article on why ‘House of Cards’ should stop trying to be ‘The West Wing’
·         Digital video recorder maker TiVo’s quarterly revenue rose about 7%, helped by higher subscriptions
·         Telefónica is to introduce its mobile TV platform Movistar TV GO on devices with Windows Phone OS, following an agreement with Microsoft which is also to see the integration of Cortana's voice technology into the video service
·         Australian telco Telstra has sealed a deal to re-sell Presto's subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service to its mobile, broadband and IPTV customers
·         Indian online video streaming platform YuppTV has added spiritual channel Aastha TV to its library of live and on-demand content
Tech:
·         The YotaPhone 2, an innovative Android smartphone with a standard full-color display on the front, and a low-power e-ink screen on the back, will finally make its way to the U.S. market beginning this summer with an Indiegogo campaign
·         Valve continues its push into hardware, as the company has announced that it plans to release a new gadget later this year that will let Steam users stream games from their PCs to any room in the house
·         Last August, payments startup Square acquired San Francisco-based food delivery startup Caviar for a reported $90MM – the company has tripled its order volume and doubled its employee count
·         Yahoo is rolling out new identification cards in its mail service, so you know exactly who is on your email chain
·         Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has been looking to the cloud for its next wave of growth, and today marks the launch of company’s first data center in the U.S
·         Apple Inc. is pursuing a resolution to the lawsuit filed by battery maker A123 Systems Inc. over Apple’s efforts to poach high-level battery engineers and chemists
·         John Doerr, the most famous venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins and the most involved in the employment of Ellen Pao, testifies today in her discrimination and retaliation case against the firm for the second day running
Deals:
·         Uber acquired deCarta, a mapping software business that was founded back in 1996 – demonstrates growing tensions with Google
·         IBM Watson bought Denver-based AlchemyAPI
·         Docker, the startup that has spearheaded a revolution in application development by popularizing container technology for packaging up application code, has added networking talent to its team by acquiring a months-old startup laser-focused on networking for containers, Socketplane
Business:
·         Three large private equity firms are lending to small and midsize investors who are buying single-family homes
·         Eight of the biggest U.S. technology companies added a combined $69B to their stockpiled offshore profits over the past year, even as some corporations in other industries felt pressure to bring cash back home.
·         Target is planning to eliminate several thousand positions, mainly from headquarters locations, as part of a restructuring that will cut $2B in costs over two years
·         Actavis sold the second-biggest corporate-bond offering in history yesterday, with a $21B deal fueled by investors' desire for income-generating investments when yields on government debt remain low
Exec Moves:
·         Los Angeles-based TEN: The Enthusiast Network, the online ad network focused on the automotive and action sports areas, said today that it has named Scott Bailey as President, Automotive
·         Skydance Productions has hired Anne Globe to be its first Chief Marketing Officer
·         Jet.com has hired the E-Trade CMO
Retail:
Startups:
·         On-demand shipping company Shyp is launching an “Uber, but for” feature where users push a button and Shyp will come to your door, take the stuff you ordered online, and send it back
·         Nextdoor, a startup that has built a private social network for people to connect with their neighbors, has raised $110MM in new funding at a $1.1B valuation
Government:
·         The Supreme Court heard arguments on a second major challenge to President Barack Obama's healthcare law, but no clear majority was immediately apparent in the case
·         The Reserve Bank of India surprised markets on Wednesday by cutting rates for the second time this year, joining a world-wide trend of monetary easing that is driving global interest rates to multi-year lows
·         Justice Kennedy reportedly said there is a "serious constitutional problem" with the way the challengers read the Affordable Care Act during oral arguments in King v. Burwell on Wednesday
Other:
·         Reebok is resurrecting the Pump as the foundation of its strategy to stop a long, slow slide toward obscurity


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