Chinese Video Site Xunlei Preps $200 Million IPO; Murdoch Invests

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

Los Angeles – News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng Murdoch invested $29.4 million in Chinese video site Xunlei, which is prepping for a $200 million initial public offering (IPO), PaidContent reports.

“Wendi and I recently made a personal investment in the Chinese video and music internet company Xunlei Limited, through RW Investments,” Rupert Murdoch told PaidContent.

“We believe in the talented entrepreneurs who launched this company and we are confident they can build a successful entertainment offering that respects the rights of copyright holders and artists. They have committed to us that they will do so.”

Other investors in Xunlei have included Google, which pumped $5 million into the company back in 2007 and holds a 2.8% stake.

Launched in 2004, Xunlei reported profits of $25.7 million in 2010, mostly generated from advertising.

The video site will use funds raised in the offering for additional data centers, content acquisition, game licenses, technology development, working capital and potential acquisitions.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3nzfaeb (PaidContent)

http://www.xunlei.com

Roblox Lands $4 Million for Gaming Site for Kids

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

San Francisco – Roblox, a gaming site for kids, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $4 million in a second round of venture capital financing, led by previous backers ALTOS Ventures and First Round Capital.

Founded in 2006, San Francisco-based Roblox offers a massively multiplayer online game environment and virtual economy designed for kids aged seven to 16 years.

The company counts 5.7 million unique monthly visitors, 650 million monthly page views, and said kids are spending 19 million hours per month on Roblox.

The company will use the funds to boost its hiring budget.

 

Related Links:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110614005770/en

http://www.roblox.com

Discovery to Raise $650M in Notes Offering

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

Silver Spring, Md. – Discovery Communications, the media company behind such cable television channels as the Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet, said it plans to raise $650 million through an offering of senior notes, due in 2021.

The deal is expected to close next Monday.

Discovery said it plans to use the net proceeds for possible acquisitions, as well as to repay debt, repurchase stock or utilize as working capital.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3rwwf4d

Apple Employee Forming Union Against 'Unfair' Wages

By
Lindsey Compton
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0

San Francisco – A part-time employee at an Apple store in San Francisco is working to form a union due to what he feels are “unfair practices in the company’s glass-and-steel retail showrooms,” Cory Moll told Reuters.

Making $14 an hour for the past four years of his employment, Moll’s move to form the campaign is unusual considering Apple’s strong reputation for employee satisfaction and loyalty — having more than
30,000 retail employees in their 325 stores worldwide.

“It’s kind of a feeling of David versus Goliath,” of trying to start a union movement in a $320 billion company, Moll told Reuters.

The minimum wage in San Francisco — one of the most expensive cities in America — is $9.92. Although Apple confirmed Moll as an employee, the company declined to comment on his unionizing efforts for Reuters.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3doqw2q (Reuters)

Facebook’s Monthly Active Users Decrease in U.S.

By
Lindsey Compton
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0

Palo Alto, Calif. – Facebook’s progress towards reaching a goal of 1 billion monthly active users is slowing, as the number of users in both the United States and Canada have dropped in recent months,
Inside Facebook reports.

The report finds that Facebook lost 6 million users in the U.S. in May, now counting 155.2 million, while the number of users in Canada fell 1.52 million, from 16.6 million. Nearing 700 million users,
Facebook reached their current 687 million at the start of June.

Although there has been a decrease from May to June, Inside Facebook noted their continual watch to see what long-term trends emerge, and what effects play a role in the increase and decrease of monthly
active users.

Related Links:

http://tinyurl.com/3wycpc9 (Inside Facebook)

iCloud Sues Apple Over Trademark Infringement

By
Lindsey Compton
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0

Phoenix, AZ — iCloud Communications is suing Apple for trademark infringement over the use of their name, in association with the company’s new online storage service, also called “iCloud.”

The voice over IP provider based out of Phoenix says Apple has a history of using the trademark rights of others, alleging that the company “copies its name and causes confusion over competing products,” CNET reported.

Although an Apple representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment by CNET, in late May, Apple filed for the trademark rights to iCloud’s name and reportedly spent $4.5 million to
obtain the iCloud.com domain.

iCloud’s lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Arizona, seeks an injunction against Apple’s use of the iCloud trademark, and unspecified damages.

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3fcd739

GroupM to Cease Ad Buys on Sites With Pirate, Unlicensed Content

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

London – Advertising giant WPP’s GroupM unit, which handles some $3.5 billion in annual website ad buys for clients such as AT&T, Unilever and IBM, has announced that it will no longer purchase ads on over 2,000 sites that offer pirated or unlicensed content, TorrentFreak reported.

The blacklist — created in partnership with GroupM media clients including Universal Music Group and Paramount Pictures — includes sites such as RapidShare.com, Kickasstorrents.com, Vkontakte, and Free-TV-Show.com.

“We’re serious about combating piracy and protecting our clients’ intellectual property as forcefully as we possibly can,” Rob Norman, global chief executive of GroupM Interaction, told the Guardian.

“This policy extends to digital media buyers at all GroupM agencies, as well as other WPP companies like Team Detroit, which manages Ford’s media business.”

TorrentFreak has published GroupM’s full website blacklist at a link below.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/68nbtmr (TorrentFreak)

http://tinyurl.com/68o5pwq (Guardian)

http://www.groupm.com

Digital Music Firm eMusic to Launch Cloud Service This Year

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

New York – Digital music subscription service eMusic plans to launch a cloud-based storage and streaming service later this year, Billboard reported.

eMusic CEO Adam Klein told Billboard the service will let subscribers upload songs they own, and stream them to multiple devices.

The move follows the recent introduction of similar cloud music service offerings from Apple, Google and Amazon.com.

Next month, the company will add “elements of streaming for the purposes of previewing [songs] in a much more comprehensive way,” eMusic’s Klein told Billboard.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3tlaa9c (Billboard)

http://www.emusic.com

Report: Spotify Signs Universal Music for U.S. Launch

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

Los Angeles – European streaming music service Spotify has signed a licensing deal with Universal Music Group covering the U.S., leaving only Warner Music among the four major record labels to have not yet approved the service for distribution in the U.S., All Things D reported, citing multiple sources.

Spotify signed licensing deals with Sony Music and EMI Music earlier this year.

The ad-supported service lets users stream songs on demand from a library of millions of tracks, while a premium, ad-free tier offers unlimited streaming and is expected to cost about $10 per month.

Spotify has been angling to launch in the U.S. for some time now, but has been hamstrung by thorny licensing negotiations with record labels.

All Things D speculated that the signing of Universal could provide enough momentum to see the service launched in the U.S. yet this summer.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/6gpxmeb (All Things D)

http://www.spotify.com

TellApart Raises $13 Million for 'Transactional Retargeting' Ads

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

Burlingame, Calif. – TellApart, a provider of “transactional retargeting” services that help e-commerce sites increase revenue by mining their customer data, said on Monday that it has raised $13 million in its second round of funding, led by Bain Capital Ventures.

Founded in 2009 by a pair of former Google executives, Burlingame, Calif.-based TellApart says its platform helps e-commerce firms “tell apart” their best customer prospects, and target personalized, product-specific display ads in real-time.

The company said the average click-through rate for its ads is 7.5%, with an average conversion rate of 4.5%. Customers include Drugstore.com, Diapers.com and eBags.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3ortupk

http://www.tellapart.com

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