Thursday, April 2, 2015

4.2.15

Entertainment:
·         Sling TV, Dish’s new over-the-top service designed for cord cutters, announced today that it will become the first Internet service to offer video-on-demand content from HBO starting this month, just in time for the “Games of Thrones” premiere.
·         The BBC launched an exclusive BitTorrent Bundle today to mark the 10-year anniversary of the new “Doctor Who”
·         Los Angeles-based InstaBrand, a startup focused on mobile influencer marketing, has raised $2.5MM in its Series A
·         Bringing the new Internet rules closer to reality, the FCC has sent its net neutrality regulations to the Federal Register, the nation’s official record of government actions
·         Legendary Entertainment has a $600MM credit facility with  JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America that matures next year, and could use cash to help fund its films – and might open a new $700MM loan
·         FX has made the entire fourth season of its Louis C.K. series “Louie” available for streaming via the FX Now app starting today through the premiere of Season 5 on April 9
·         Michael Bay’s new 451 Media Group has received a strategic investment from China's premier animation, toy, and entertainment group Alpha Animation and Culture
·         IFC today joined the pack of TV networks announcing it will wait for time shifted viewing numbers before reporting its show ratings because the metric a provides a more accurate reflection of audience size these days than the immediacy of Live+Same Day results
·         Over-the-top video services, such as Internet offers from HBO and CBS, will have an evolutionary rather than revolutionary effect on the pay TV sector, credit ratings agency Moody's said in a report on Thursday
·         CAA is considering its next moves, following the earth-shattering upheaval of 10 agents defecting for UTA, which depleted its comedy department of talent
·         Live Nation has signed a strategic partnership agreement as the exclusive concert-booking agent for two historic venues in Memphis, Tenn.: the New Daisy Theatre and The Palace
·         European regulators are scrutinizing Apple’s dealings with a number of record labels ahead of the planned summer launch of the company’s own steaming service, the Financial Times reports
·         The New York Daily News claims to have spoken to someone familiar with a police sting operation on Harvey Weinstein in which the movie mogul failed to deny allegations of sexual assault
·         A rapidly growing pay-TV market and increasingly digital savvy and content hungry consumers will drive a resurgence in the video entertainment landscape in 2015, says Futuresource Consulting
Tech:
·         Yik Yak plans to roll out a photo feature in the near future
·         Rithm is a standalone app that lets users send each other music-based messages, with clips from searchable songs, pics, text, and animated dancing emojis
·         Facebook’s new collaborative video app Riff was rolled out today worldwide in 15 languages on iOS and Android
·         Nintendo just announced that it’s bringing Nintendo 64 and Nintendo DS consoles to the Wii U’s Virtual Console, its app that lets you play older games through software emulation
·         Kickstarter has enabled a private beta feature that’s starting to show up for logged in project creators, offering a kind of community knowledge base that lets users ask questions and provide answers to other creators about crowdfunding and best practices
·         Square rolls out Open Tickets so you can keep your tab open at bars
·         Airbnb now offers properties for rent in Cuba, becoming one of the first U.S. companies to establish itself there since President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro announced in December that they would restore diplomatic ties after more than 50 years
·         Tashtego, backed by early Twitter Inc. investor Spark Capital, plans to raise a fund that will use consumer sentiment and trader behavior from social networks to bet on and against U.S. stocks, said Chief Investment Officer Arthur Mateos
·         Over 200 black leaders in Silicon Valley gathered in Palo Alto to discuss diversity in tech
Deals:
·         Twitter has acquired and will close TenXer, a platform for developers and engineers to work together better
·         Mobile website builder Wix, which went public in 2013, is buying Moment.me, for a price of $10MM
·         LinkedIn has acquired Refresh, a startup that helps people prepare for their meetings by collecting and sharing information on the people they’re meeting with
Business:
·         See below for an interesting section in the NYT where Wall Street and Silicon Valley intersect
·         McDonald's is planning to boost benefits and raise U.S. restaurant workers' pay by more than 10% amid frequent fast-food and retail worker protests calling for higher wages and better working conditions
·         Morgan Stanley gave James Gorman the biggest raise yet among Wall Street CEOs last year, hiking his pay 25% to $22.5MM
·         The European Union's antitrust arm is preparing to file charges against Google
Exec Moves:
·         Brothers Mark and Carl Fennessy are set to exit as joint CEOs of Shine Australia after their contract with the newly merged Endemol Shine Group expires later this year
Startups:
·         Hudl raised $72.5MM from Accel for its sports video coaching tool
·         Ello just landed a second funding round of $5 million, bringing it’s total money raised to around $11MM
·         Honor, an online service that connects in-home caregivers, seniors and their families, raised $20MM in its Series A
Government:
·         Yemen's Houthi fighters and their allies seized a central Aden district on Thursday striking a heavy blow against the Saudi-led coalition which has waged a week of air strikes to try to stem advances by the Iran-allied Shi'ite group
·         JPMorgan Chase is on track to meet its mandate to provide billions of dollars in consumer relief to struggling homeowners as part of a settlement it reached over shoddy mortgage bonds it sold before the financial crisis
Other:
·         The Germanwings co-pilot suspected of deliberately crashing an airliner allegedly lied to doctors, telling them he was on sick leave rather than flying commercial planes
·         The FBI has arrested two women who it says were planning to detonate an improvised explosive device in New York City


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