Los Angeles – Video game developer Online Warmongers said on
Tuesday that it has raised $5 million in financing, led by Arktos Entertainment
Group.
Founded in 2009, San Francisco-based Online Warmongers creates online
games for console and PC platforms.
The developer’s first free premium title,
"War Inc Battlezone," is slated for release in North America this
winter.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/23efqjq
http://www.thewarinc.com
San Francisco – Video game publisher PlayFirst announced on
Tuesday that it has raised $9.2 million in new financing.
The company received
$5.2 million in venture capital from previous backers Mayfied Fund, Trinity
Partners, DCM and Rustic Canyon Ventures, in addition to $4 million in debt
financing from Comerica Bank.
San Francisco-based PlayFirst’s titles include
"Diner Dash" and "Chocolatier."
The company will use the
funds to continue its move into mobile and social games development.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2a3645b
http://www.playfirst.com
Burlington, Mass. – Avid Technology, a provider of audio
visual production technology, has obtained a $40 million line of credit with
Wells Fargo Capital Finance. The agreement includes an offer to provide
revolving credit facilities for the company of up to an additional $20 million
for Avid’s European subsidiary.
Related Links:
http://www.avid.com/US
Los Angeles – European streaming music service Spotify plans
to offer live streaming concerts as a means of enticing users to subscribe to
its premium subscription offerings. The first such live concert to be streamed
will be a performance by MGMT this evening in Paris.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/28djb4o
(Spotify blog)
Los Angeles – Spanish-language media firm Univision has
launched a new music-focused website, which will serve music videos and live
in-studio performances from emerging artists, AdWeek reports. The site launches
with 145,000 videos and over 40 Univision Radio stations.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/255nkqw
(AdWeek)
http://musica.univision.com
London – Songkick, the provider of an online database of
upcoming concerts, has inked a deal to bring its gig listings to Yahoo’s (NASD: YHOO) search
service, TechCrunch reported. The company also recently signed deals to provide
concert information to both YouTube and Vevo.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/348t46r
(TechCrunch)
http://www.songkick.com
Emeryville, Calif. – TubeMogul, the provider of a video
advertising and analytics platform, announced on Friday that it has raised $10
million in a second round of venture capital financing, led by Foundation
Capital.
Previous backers Trinity Ventures and Knights Bridge Capital Partners
also participated in the round, proceeds from which will go towards
accelerating growth and expanding international operations.
Emeryville, Calif.-based TubeMogul’s PlayTime ad platform has been used in more
than 200 campaigns since launching in March, for clients including Sony
Pictures, Activision, Fox and Microsoft.
The company has now raised a total of
$15 million to date.
Related Links:
http://tubemogul.com/about/press_release/64
New York – Apple (NASD: AAPL) continues to talk with the major record
labels about launching a subscription-based music service, to complement its
iTunes music download store, the New York Post reports, citing sources.
The
service could feature tiered pricing, ranging from $10 to $15 per month.
The
sources said details such as the amount of music allotted for each tier, and
how long consumers would enjoy access to the music, remain unclear.
Rumors of
an Apple music subscription service have been around since at least 2008.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2uos6nw
(N.Y. Post)
http://tinyurl.com/27qplkc
(DMW previous coverage)
London – Authorities in the U.K. have arrested who they
believe to be the operator of Mulve, an application for downloading music
stored on servers owned by Russian social network juggernaut VKontakte,
TorrentFreak reported.
The experience with law enforcement was apparently
enough to compel the Mulve operator to shut the site down.
"Just letting
you know that following arrests, we have decided to take Mulve offline for
good. We do not want to fight this," Mulve told TorrentFreak.
"Hell,
I am not prepared to spend the next 5 years in prison for a project that was
simply meant to be a little bit of fun. We would like to apologise to all those
who were affected by this."
TorrentFreak noted that the code behind Mulve
was released, so copycat applications may emerge.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2cm88p4
(TorrentFreak)
http://tinyurl.com/2epr4n2
(DMW previous coverage)
Novato, Calif. – Sonic Solutions (NASD: SNIC), the owner of the CinemaNow
online movie distribution service, said on Friday it has completed its $323
million acquisition of DivX, the San Diego-based developer of a video codec and
distribution service.
The cash and stock deal was first announced in June.
Sonic said the acquisition will allow it to broaden the technology it offers
for Internet-based video delivery, as well as expand its relationships with
retailers and consumer device makers.
DivX’s video format currently resides on
over 300 million shipped devices, including 8,500 models of digital TVs, DVD
and Blu-ray Disc players, and over 80 mobile handsets.
The company’s DivX web
properties also attract over 12 million unique monthly visitors.
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2b7wwys
http://www.sonic.com
http://www.divx.com
