Entertainment:
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The HBO Now app has made its way to the Apple TV and iOS as of
today
·
Viacom will take a $785MM pretax write-down/amortization for
Q2 in connection with its layoffs and restructuring
·
See below for an interesting article on how Sling TV was
bombarded with new subscribers for the Final Four basketball game, which
resulted in a shaky stream
·
All the existing Star Wars movies are finally being made
available as legitimate digital downloads beginning April 10, with pre-orders
already available on many platforms including iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Xbox
Video and Google Play, and more
·
Streaming video service Hulu is today launching its own tool
for fans of GIFs, with the debut of its own GIF search engine powered by Tumblr
·
Netflix unveiled Netflix Recommended TVs today, a new program
that will put Netflix logos on televisions that work optimally with its
streaming service
·
The French conglomerate Vivendi is trying to revamp the
fortunes of Dailymotion, a video-sharing website that has long struggled to
live up to its early promise as the next YouTube
·
By the end of June, Murdoch’s News Corp. will have invested
more than $1B in Amplify, its division that makes the tablets, sells an online
curriculum and offers testing services
·
USA Network is building a WWE franchise with three series
·
Turns out making fun of Justin Bieber is just as big on social
media as fans lathering him up, at least based on this week’s Twitter TV
ratings from Nielsen
·
The Weinstein Co is in talks to sell its TV division to ITV -
the deal could be worth as much as $950MM
·
The Tribeca Film Festival today announced jurors for the 2015
event, held in New York City April 15 to 26
·
MediaMation, a maker of 4D technology, has opened its first
location in China, one of several projects it hopes will come to fruition in
the People’s Republic
·
Steven Tyler has officially signed with Big Machine Label
Group, following a new solo album and a surprise appearance at the Grand Ole
Opry recently
·
See below for an interesting article on HBO and Netflix
·
The official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel has
achieved over one billion views since launching in 2006, chalking up around 200
million video views each year
·
The time for pay-TV providers to act against aggressive
competition is now, says ABI Research in its latest study warning of big changes
in the TV delivery stakes
Tech:
·
Twitter just officially launched its “retweet with comment”
feature, which it began testing last summer
·
Xiaomi is broadening its horizons in India with news that its
Mi devices will soon be available through two of the country’s major e-commerce
sites, and offline retailers for the first time
·
See below for an interesting article on how Google hires employees
·
Nintendo should aim to have as much of its first-party library
available on the Wii U and 3DS as possible: NES through N64, with any consoles
from Sega’s past serving as icing on the cake
·
Hours after police removed an illicit bust of Edward Snowden
from its perch in a Brooklyn park on Monday, artists replaced it with a
hologram
·
Getty Images has dropped its lawsuit against Microsoft over
alleged “massive” copyright infringement, announcing on Tuesday a plan to
amicably bring Getty’s photos to Microsoft’s Internet search engine and devices
Deals:
·
Permira and the Canada Pension Plan
Investment Board are acquiring Informatica, the enterprise software company, in
the biggest buyout of the year - $5.3B
·
Vidme, an anonymous video sharing
application which is a lot an Imgur for video, as it also has a strong
connection with the Reddit community, has raised $3.2MM in new funding, the
company is announcing this morning
·
Apple quietly bought a startup
called Ottocat some time ago, which had developed a system to organize and surface
apps on the app store based on “nested” categories of increasing specificity
·
Los Angeles-based automotive video
publisher TEN: The Enthusiast Network, said Monday that it has acquired
TORQUE.TV, and launched a new channel called Motor Trend OnDemand.
·
The FedEx Corporation said on
Tuesday that it had agreed to acquire the Dutch delivery company TNT Express in
a $4.8B deal that would greatly expand the American delivery giant’s presence
in Europe
Business:
·
Samsung Electronics' Q1 operating profit slumped a preliminary
31% to 5.9T won ($5.4B), although the figure represents a slowdown in the
company's earnings decline and topped analyst forecasts of 5.5T won
·
U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, extending two sessions of gains
for the S&P 500, with deals including a bid from FedEx for a Dutch peer
indicating companies still see value in the market.
Exec Moves:
·
ICM Partners just hired UTA’s head
of Music/Personal Appearances Rob Prinz, who’ll become a partner and share the
title of Co-Head of Worldwide Concerts with Steve Levine
o http://deadline.com/2015/04/icm-hires-rob-prinz-nikki-wheeler-jerry-seinfeld-celine-dion-1201405354/
·
Annapurna Pictures has named David
Kaminow, most recently president of Worldwide Strategic Marketing and Research
at Sony Pictures, as the indie company’s President of Marketing
Startups:
·
RealtyShares has taken the idea of
crowdfunding and applied it to the real estate market - the company has raised
$10MM in funding from Menlo Ventures to quickly grow the number of projects
made available to investors
·
Los Angeles-based Fliptu is today
launching its new social aggregation and brand enthusiasm platform today — and
announcing $1.2MM in seed funding
o http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/07/fliptu-scoops-up-1-2m-to-help-brands-scoop-up-fans-social-posts/
·
San Diego-based ScoreStream said
today that it has raised $2MM in a seed financing round, to bring scores,
pictures, and other information about high school and local sports online
Government:
·
The Reserve Bank of Australia has unexpectedly kept its
benchmark cash rate at a record-low 2.25%, although Governor Glenn Stevens
signaled that the RBA could cut in the future, "in order to foster
sustainable growth in demand and inflation consistent with the target."
·
Senator Rand Paul addresses his supporters as he sets up his Republican
presidential run
·
Rand Paul is accepting donations in Bitcoin
Other:
·
Thanks to an effort by Monotype designer Toshi Omagari, the
legendary Helvetica typeface is finally available as Neue Haas Unica, an
18-font family tuned-up for the digital age
·
The Space App Challenge, is taking place this weekend
simultaneously in 162 countries involving 136 cities and 10,000 participants,
who will be attacking a range of problems in categories such as ‘Print Your Own
Space Food’, ‘Robots, Robots, Robots’ and ‘Clean Water Mapping.’
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