Thursday, March 5, 2015

3.5.15

Entertainment:
·         HBO is talking with Apple as a launch partner for its streaming service, to be called "HBO Now," which rolls out next month for $15 per month
·         Lionsgate is teaming with Buena Vista International for the Russian theatrical release of ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2’
·         California’s long-awaited expansion of the Film and TV Tax Credit Program is still months away, but things are starting to look up for the state in the high stakes of broadcast pilot production
·         Mayor Eric Garcetti today unveiled further measures to make L.A, the friendliest city in America for production
·         Rock Band 4 is coming to Xbox One and PS4 this fall
·         Hulu is continuing to build up its lineup of kids' programs, saying Wednesday that it has signed a deal with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, as the exclusive, U.S. premiere home of series 2 of the Wiggles' television program
·         The mobile app ‘Game of War’ has been grossing more than $1MM a day, according to Think Gaming, double what it was bringing in just last spring
·         Disney/Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ opens on May 1, tickets are already going on sale at Fandango today
·         Netflix has struck a global deal with FremantleMedia Intl. on supernatural thriller “The Returned”
·         India has banned “Fifty Shades of Grey”   
·         David Geffen has donated $100MM for the renovation of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, which will be renamed for the showbiz mogul in the fall.
·         Europe’s top entertainment business, RTL Group, kept revenue stable in 2014 at €5.81B ($6.42B), the company reported Thursday
·         The company behind the Fuse and NUVOtv networks will launch in the fall a new network, to be called FM, with music at its core and a focus on up-and-coming, young talent
·         Premiering first in Mexico, the native country of its director Alejandro González Iñárritu, the Oscar-winning ‘Birdman’ is to be distributed through Latin America by video-on-demand (VOD) platform Clarovideo
·         Mexican company Televisa Group has surpassed the ten million pay-TV subscriber mark during Q4 2014 for the first time in its history
Tech:
·         Twitter has been in talks to purchase live streaming app Periscope, which many private beta users have compared to Meerkat
·         Apple has a patent application in with the USPTO (via AppleInsider) that describes a few different methods for waterproofing electronic devices like the iPhone
·         Imgur has returned to mobile apps after it launched a new iOS app for its library of addictive photos and GIFs
·         Oculus’ first big consumer push for its virtual reality technology will come at the end of this year with the next iteration of the Samsung Gear VR for mobile, the company’s CTO John Carmack said at Game Developers Conference
·         Instagram will start showing clickable links, but only in its new multi-photo carousel ads that can tell a story by letting you swipe through four branded images in sequence
·         Kik has added native video capture to its service as it lays the groundwork to offer more interactive content options for its 200 million registered users
·         Intel announced that it will work with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) to double the number of women working in gaming
·         Apple is reportedly delaying production of the 12.9" iPad to September due to supply issues
·         Please see below for an interesting article on Ron Conway
·         Mark Cuban thinks we’re in a tech bubble and it is far worse than back in 2000
·         A half-dozen current and former Twitter executives have banded together to form #Angels, an investment group looking to bet on interesting tech startups
Deals:
·         On Wednesday, 10 years after launching a website for buying and selling all sorts of handmade goods, Etsy filed for its initial public offering
·         Fitbit could soon acquire FitStar, a startup which makes apps that might help motivate Fitbit customers to actually be more active
·         Los Angeles-based Total Beauty Media Group, the beauty products focused site founded by Emrah Kovacoglu, has been acquired by Evolve Media
·         Abbvie surprised investors by acquiring cancer biotech Pharmacyclics with a bid of about $21B
Business:
·         The private equity group CVC Capital Partners and other investors have raised about $750 million by selling down their shares in HKBN, a broadband Internet provider, in Hong Kong’s biggest initial public offering so far this year
·         U.S. investors have pulled $16.8B from equity-based ETFs in 2015 and sent $16.9B to bonds
·         Standard Chartered PLC on Wednesday cheered investors by saying it has no plans to sell new shares but laid out a bleak view for future growth after profit fell sharply in 2014
·         The slump at the world’s biggest casino hub deepened in February as gambling revenue in Macau plunged 49% from a year earlier, rocked by China’s crackdown on corruption
Exec Moves:
·         Youku Tudou, one of China’s top online video platforms, has hired Edward Su as group chief operating officer
Retail:
Startups:
·         Mustbin, the mobile application that began as a secure organizer for personal documents and other information captured by your smartphone’s camera, is today making a larger move to compete in the private mobile messaging space
·         Buffer is launching a tool specifically for sharing images on social networks, complementing its existing messaging-scheduling platform
·         Clearbit, which develops a suite of business intelligence APIs for modern day firms, raised $2MM in seed
Government:
·         The Hazzm movement was once central to a covert CIA operation to arm Syrian rebels, but the group's collapse last week underlines the difficulties of who to support in the country
·         North Korea described the knife attack on U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert as “just punishment” for joint U.S.-South Korea military drills
·         Michael Brown's family said it plans to bring a civil lawsuit for the wrongful death of their son against Darren Wilson and the city of Ferguson
·         Chris Christie's office reportedly cut deal with Exxon, costing New Jersey billions
·         Hillary Clinton asks State Department to publicly release her emails
Other:
·         Delta flight 1086 from Atlanta skidded off of the snow-covered runway at LaGuardia Airport this morning around 11:00 am
·         Tomorrow, NASA's Dawn spacecraft will reach Ceres, an icy dwarf planet that lies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

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