Friday, March 6, 2015

3.6.15

Entertainment:
·         Sling TV has attracted 100,000 subscribers in just over a month since being introduced
·         Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Technologies Lead Bei Yang gave a talk about the work the entertainment giant has done with virtual reality
·         Santa Monica-based FameBit, the developer of a self-serve, YouTube marketing marketplace that helps brands connect with YouTube celebrities, has just passed 300 million subscribers
·         Yesterday, legendary actor Harrison Ford was injured when a WWII-era plane he was piloting crashed on a golf course in CA
·         Larry David’s “Fish In The Dark” his debut as a Broadway twofer—playwright and actor— received raving comedic reviews
·         Paramount Pictures is entering a a long-term agreement with Lotte, the Korean distribution and marketing company, which will include a number of the studio’s releases in Korea
·         Worldview Entertainment, one of the investors behind four-time Oscar winner “Birdman” has closed its offices in New York and has moved to New Jersey
·         Walden Media has come aboard to co-finance and co-produce DreamWorks Studios’ “The BFG,” the Steven Spielberg-directed adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1982 kids novel about a little girl
·         As the Chinese Communist Party steps up its crackdown on corruption, a senior film industry figure and adviser to the Beijing government, Wang Xingdong, has called on filmmakers to start making movies about graft-busters
·         Tribune Media, the entertainment company that was created by last year's split of the Tribune Co., on Friday reported higher fourth-quarter financials and unveiled a $650MM special dividend and plans for a regular quarterly dividend
·         Sony’s sci-fi adventure “Chappie” has opened with a modest $750,000 at late night Thursday showings in the U.S.
·         Dalian Wanda, China’s giant property to entertainment group, today took the wraps off its now-under construction studio complex in Eastern China
·         Japan Display is building a new manufacturing plant in an attempt to become the primary source for iPhone displays
·         Netflix insists its position on net neutrality hasn’t changed, despite comments made by a senior executive Wednesday morning that suggested otherwise
·         International online TV sport channel LAOLA1.tv has selected Octoshape's Infinite HD solution to ensure high quality over-the-top (OTT) delivery
·         In a recent survey, it was found that millennials prefer digital content to traditional TV
Tech:
·         Apple, the highest valued company in the world, will be added to the Dow Jones industrial average next month in yet another sign of how popular the computer giant has become for investors
·         Please see below for an article on what to expect from Apple’s March 9th event
·         Facebook is changing the way it’s counting likes, subtracting any accounts that have been either manually deactivated or “memorialized”
·         Apple’s streaming music service, which will be a totally overhauled version of Beats but with iTunes branding and tighter integration with Apple’s own devices and software, will make its official debut in June
·         Microsoft and Google are working together to help make Angular 2 — the next (and somewhat controversial) version of Google’s JavaScript web app framework — better
·         Twitter announced a new ad targeting feature today called partner audiences, allowing Twitter advertisers to aim their ads at audiences like “coffee buyers” and “cereal buyers”
·         Uber is running a promotion today and tomorrow with French startup MoiChef to deliver meal kits and recipes to users, the latest venture into food deliveries by the ride-sharing company
·         Santa Barbara-based Sonos, the maker of the user-friendly, whole home music systems, has released an updated set of apps for both iOS and Android
·         Amazon has opened an online store on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s fast-growing online marketplace, Tmall.com, as it seeks to expand in China
Deals:
·         Stance, a premium men’s sock brand based in San Clemente, raised $50MM in its Series B from big name VC firms
·         A former MySpace exec says the company tried to buy Spotify, its successor in terms of meshing streaming music and social
Business:
·         Steve Perlman wants to turn your apartment into an antenna for his new cellular phone network - he and his team of engineers have built a contraption that aims to significantly boost the speed of our cellular services
·         U.S. stocks retreated on Friday, with the S&P 500 poised for its second straight weekly drop, as a strong monthly jobs report cemented expectations for an interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve this year and possibly sooner than anticipated
·         Volkswagen is expected to announce an investment in Mexico of one billion dollars next week
Exec Moves:
·         Pivot has promoted exec Jennie Morris to executive vice president of acquisitions, research and network operations, the network’s general manager Kent Rees announced Friday
Retail:
Startups:
·         Henri is still an early-stage hardware model, but it’s a stab at making it so product designers can create light and sound without writing lines of code – a gadget for prototyping the Internet of Things
·         Please see below for an interesting article on Lady Gaga’s social network Backplane and how it has been in a free fall for years
·         KitSplit is a new startup is betting that the creative class will flock to rent drones, Google Glass headsets, high-end cameras, and Oculus Rift systems online
Government:
·         Yesterday, US Sec. of State John Kerry was in Saudi Arabia, trying to tell Arab countries to calm down over the US’s potential nuclear deal with Iran
·         U.S. employers added 257,000 jobs in January, capping off the best three months of consecutive employment growth in 17 years
Other:
·         Formula One driver Fernando Alonso was in a crash last month in Spain and had a concussion – he woke up at the hospital "believing that it was the year 1995."




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