"World of Warcraft: Cataclysm" Sells Record 3.3M Units on Day 1

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Irvine, Calif. – Video game publisher Activision (NASD: ATVI) announced
on Monday that "World of Warcraft: Cataclysm," the third expansion
for its massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, sold 3.3 million copies
during its first 24 hours of release — making it the fastest-selling PC game
of all time.

The previous record for single-day PC game sales was set in 2008
by this expansion’s predecessor, "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich
King."

The new expansion sales tally includes pre-orders; the game went on
sale simultaneously in North America, Argentina, Chile, Europe, Russia,
Southeast Asia, Australia and Taiwan on Dec. 7.

Blizzard, the game’s developer,
said 15,000 fans attended official launch events hosted by retail partners
worldwide.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/25o2jv8

http://www.blizzard.com/games/cataclysm

Report: U.S. Online Holiday Spending Up 12% So Far This Year

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Reston, Va. – U.S. online holiday spending is up 12% so far
this year from the same point a year ago, to $22 billion, according to a report
from comScore.

Last week’s spending totaled $5.15 billion, up 11% from the
corresponding week a year ago.

The firm also noted that today — the Monday of
the second week of December, dubbed "Green Monday" — is likely to
also be among the heaviest online spending days of the year.

"Cyber
Monday" this year, on Nov. 29, figured as the only billion-dollar online
spending day on record.

"With more than $5 billion in spending this past
week, it’s clear that while deal-seeking shoppers may have driven stronger than
anticipated spending early in the season, Americans continue to demonstrate a
significantly greater willingness to spend online this year than in seasons
past," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

"This coming week,
beginning with Green Monday, should see some of the heaviest online shopping
activity of the season and we expect at least one more day to surpass the
billion dollar spending threshold."

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/29we3wv

Gay Social Net Fabulis Raises $1.75 Million, Rebrands as Fab.com

1

Los Angeles – Fabulis, an online social network targeted at
gay men, has raised $1.75 million in a first round of venture capital
financing, and changed both its company and domain name to Fab.com.

Investors
in the round included First Round Capital, The Washington Post Company, Baroda
Ventures and Zelkova Ventures.

Fab was launched earlier this year by former
Jobster CEO Jason Goldberg, and had already raised over $625,000 in angel
funding.

The site also launched a number of new features, including a database
of "gay-friendly" businesses worldwide.

Fab currently counts some
112,000 members.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2aahgnd

(TechCrunch)

http://www.fab.com

BlueBeat

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Judge: BlueBeat.com Violated Copyrights Selling Beatles Tunes

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Los Angeles – A federal judge has found that BlueBeat.com, a
website that began selling Beatles songs online for 25 cents each in 2009,
guilty of copyright infringement, the Associated Press reported. BlueBeat had
argued that it actually owned new copyrights on the "psycho-acoustic
simulation" versions of the Beatles recordings it created, but U.S.
District Judge Josephine Staton Tucker rejected this claim in her ruling last
week.

"[The] obscure and undefined pseudo-scientific language appears to be
a long-winded way of describing ‘sampling,’ i.e. copying, and fails to provide
any concrete evidence of independent creation," Tucker wrote.

In November
2009, another judge ordered a preliminary injunction that got the tracks removed,
but not before BlueBeat had distributed more than 67,000 Beatles songs, AP reported,
citing court documents.

The owners of the Beatles’ copyrights, including EMI
and others, are now likely to seek monetary damages on those illegal
distributions.

The Beatles’ catalog finally became available for legal digital
purchase on Apple’s iTunes only just recently, on Nov. 16.

 

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/26hvfx4

(Bloomberg)

http://tinyurl.com/yhnq674
(DMW previous coverage)

http://www.bluebeat.com

Report: Terra Firma May Lose EMI to Citi by Year's End

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London – Private equity firm Terra Firma may have to cede control
of struggling major record label EMI to Citigroup — the bank that loaned it billions
to help buy the label — by year’s end, the New York Post reported.

The private
equity firm is now reportedly telling its backers it may have to give up EMI,
should the backers opt not to provide additional financing to help pay back
Citigroup’s loans.

Terra Firma recently lost a court battle with Citigroup,
where it had essentially alleged that the bank fraudulently goaded Terra into
buying EMI.

Since Terra Firma’s $6.7 billion acquisition of EMI in 2007, the
label under new leadership has undertaken a range of cost-cutting measures.

Should Citi eventually gain control of EMI, it’s likely to put the label up for
sale.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2a8cm32

(N.Y. Post)

http://tinyurl.com/2bye9e8
(Hypebot)

Discovery to Buy Back $500M in Stock from Advance/Newhouse

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Silver Spring, Md. – Discovery Communications (NASD: DISCA), the media
firm behind the Discovery Channel, TLC and other pay-TV networks, said on
Monday it will spend $500 million to repurchase more than 13.7 million shares
of preferred stock from Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership.

The deal,
which was expected to close on Monday, represents less than 10% of
Advance/Newhouse’s stake in the company, and is separate from Discovery’s $1
billion stock buyback program.

Advance/Newhouse will remain Discovery’s largest
shareholder, with a 31% stake.

"This transaction… reflects the company’s
commitment to effectively using our capital and our confidence in the long-term
growth prospects for Discovery Communications," said David Zaslav, the
president and CEO of Discovery.

Donald Newhouse, the president of Advance
Publications, said his company has no plans to reduce its ownership any
further.

"Our goal is to take a small percentage of our investment in
Discovery and diversify into new acquisitions and investments that will
hopefully turn out to be as meaningful," said Newhouse.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2cufmmk

http://www.discoverycommunications.com

Report: AOL Abandons Quest to Merge with Yahoo

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New York – Following weeks of posturing, AOL (NYSE:  AOL) appears to have
given up on its quest to merge with Yahoo (NASD:  YHOO), Crain’s New York Business reported.
"AOL tried to either get enough backing to make a run at Yahoo, or get
Yahoo interested in buying it," an unnamed "industry insider with
knowledge of the situation" told the publication.

"Yahoo didn’t bite,
and AOL didn’t have its ducks lined up to be a buyer."

It was only a week
ago that reports surfaced about AOL’s plan to seek a buyer for its dial-up
Internet service, then combine its advertising and content businesses with
Yahoo’s.

AOL has struggled to reinvent itself since splitting from former
parent Time Warner a year ago.

The company in recent months has put a strong
focus on building its local properties, including Patch, City’s Best, MapQuest
and Wow! Deal of the Day.

 

 

Related Links:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20101212/FREE/312129976#

Gawker Media Hacked; Site Users Urged to Change Passwords

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New York – Gawker Media was hacked over the weekend, reportedly
in response to the blog publisher’s critical coverage of 4chan, an online
message board favored by hackers. The company’s Web infrastructure was
compromised, and a hacker dubbed "Gnosis" released a 500MB file that
contained the company’s source code, passwords of employees and site
commenters, and internal company correspondence.

The security breach affected
Gawker’s flagship site, in addition to its Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Jezebel, io9,
Jalopnik, Kotaku, Deadspin and Fleshbot sites.

"We’re deeply embarrassed by this breach," the
company wrote in a blog post.

Gawker Media also posted a notice on all of its
sites urging readers to change their passwords, linking to a post with
additional details on its Lifehacker site.

"We’re bringing in an
independent security firm to improve security across our entire
infrastructure," the company wrote.

"Additionally, we will continue
to work with independent auditors to ensure we maintain a reliable level of
security, as well as the processes necessary to ensure we maintain a safe
environment for our commenters."

 

 

Related Links:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/12/gawker-hacked

http://tinyurl.com/37mgo5e
(The Next Web)

http://lifehacker.com/5712785

Media6Degrees Lands $17 Million for Social Ad Targeting

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New York – Media6Degrees, a provider of social media
audience data for targeted advertising, announced on Monday that it has raised
$17 million in its second round of venture capital financing.

Investors
included Menlo Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners and Venrock.

New York-based
Media6Degrees said it will use the funds to invest in staff and technology, to
extend its platform beyond display advertising to optimization services for
marketers and publishers.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/286rbt8

http://www.media6degrees.com