RealNetworks Lays Off 4% of Staff

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

Seattle
– RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) this week laid off 60 employees, or about 4% of its total
workforce, as the company undergoes a restructuring and the spin-off of its
Rhapsody music service, TechFlash reported.

The layoffs came in the marketing,
human resources and finance departments associated with the Rhapsody joint
venture, as well as its video games and media software and services divisions.

RealNetworks
previously laid off 70 employees in November, and saw the departure of founder
and CEO Rob Glaser in January.

In February, it announced it would spin-off its
Rhapsody music service joint venture with Viacom’s (NYSE: VIA) MTV Networks.  

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/v752j
(TechFlash)

http://www.realnetworks.com

Report: Amazon to Let Publishers Set E-book Prices

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

Seattle – Amazon.com (NASD:  AMZN) has caved on its policy of setting a
standard $9.99 price point for e-books, signing deals with CBS’ (NYSE:  CBS) Simon &
Schuster and News Corp.’s (NYSE:  NWS) HarperCollins that will let publishers set prices for
new releases at between $12.99 and $14.99, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A representative from Sony (NYSE:  SNE)
separately told BusinessWeek that, in addition to Simon & Schuster and
HarperCollins, publishing houses Macmillan, Hachette and Penguin will also
begin setting their own e-book prices.

Both reports cited Apple’s (NASD:  AAPL) recent e-book
deals with publishers for the iPad, which have reportedly included terms
allowing publishers to set prices.

While publishers will be able to raise
prices, some newer titles and many library e-book titles will continue to sell
for $9.99, the reports said.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/v74ox
(BusinessWeek)

http://snipurl.com/v74pb
(WSJ)

Hulu Profitable, Saw $100 Million in Revenues Last Year

By
Mark Hefflinger
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0

New York
– Hulu, the video portal joint venture between NBC Universal (NYSE:  GE), News Corp. (NYSE:  NWS) and
Disney (NYSE:  DIS), generated $100 million in revenue in 2009 and has posted profits in the
last two quarters, CEO Jason Kilar told The New York Times.

The positive
financial numbers come amid an environment where networks and studios
"want Hulu to earn more advertising dollars and set up a subscription
service, asking consumers to pay a monthly fee to watch at least some of the
shows on the site," The Times reported.

Recently, Viacom took the drastic
step of removing its popular Comedy Central programs "The Daily Show"
and "The Colbert Report" from Hulu.

"We’re certainly open to
subscriptions as a complement to an ad-supported model," Kilar told The
Times.

 

Related Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/technology/01hulu.html

http://www.hulu.com

Icahn Sells Blockbuster Shares, Reducing Stake to 2.5%

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

Dallas
– Activist investor Carl Icahn has sold 75% of his holdings in video rental
store chain Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI), Seeking Alpha reports.

Icahn sold some 14 million of
his 20 million shares in Blockbuster last week, reducing his stake in the
company from 10% to 2.5%.

The price Icahn received for his shares was just
$0.24-$0.25 per share.

The sale comes after Blockbuster announced that it may file
for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protections.

Icahn has recently been embroiled in a
battle with the management of film studio Lionsgate for control of the company,
and has also been buying shares to increase his stake in video game publisher
Take-Two Interactive.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/v7465
(Seeking Alpha)

http://www.blockbuster.com

Social Network hi5 Raises $23 Million

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

*Update: The company tells DMW that it has not raised $23 million in new financing, and that the filings mentioned in the linked article below reference previous financing, landed over a year ago.

San Francisco
– Online social network hi5 has raised $23 million in new funding, including $3
million in debt, VentureBeat reported, citing regulatory filings.

Details on
investors were not provided.

Founded in 2003, San Francisco-based hi5 counts
over 50 million monthly visitors, and claims to be the third-largest social
media site.

The company last year decided to focus more on social games,
acquiring developer Big Six and hiring Wild Tangent founder Alex St. John as
its president and CTO.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/v73rj
(VentureBeat)

http://www.hi5.com

Vidyo Lands $25 Million for Videoconference Platform

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Hackensack,
N.J. – Vidyo, a provider of
videoconferencing services, announced on Thursday that it has raised $25
million in its third round of venture capital financing.

Four Rivers Group led
the investment round; previous backers Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures,
Seven-Rosen Funds and Star Ventures also participated.

Founded in 2005, New
Jersey-based Vidyo offers desktop and room-based videoconferencing systems,
which can be used over the Internet, LTE, 3G and 4G networks.

The company will
use the funds to expand its sales and marketing efforts.

 

Related Links:
http://www.vidyo.com/news/news_fundingC_040110.php

Twitter Homepage Redesign Aims for User-friendliness

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Francisco
– Twitter on Wednesday unveiled a redesign of its homepage, intended to display
more real-time information, and be more friendly to new users and those
visiting the site without a Twitter account. The homepage now displays "a
sample of who’s here, what folks are tweeting about, and the big topics that
they’re discussing," and includes "a set of algorithmically-selected
top tweets that automatically appear every few seconds," the company said
in a blog post.


 

Related Links:
http://blog.twitter.com/2010/03/tweaking-twitter-homepage.html

http://www.twitter.com

Pharrell Williams Debuts Kids' News Site Kidult.com

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles – Songwriter and producer Pharrell Williams on Wednesday
debuted Kidult.com, a site billed as a news service designed for teenagers that
will cover politics and current events, science, health, sports and
entertainment, Billboard reports. The site also will feature a range of video interviews and other
video content. Kidult will also host a Kidult Youth Leadership Conference in
June in New York.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/v6kes
(Billboard)

http://www.kidult.com

Hulu Debuts First Exclusive Film Premiere

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles
– Hulu, the video portal joint venture between NBC Universal, News Corp. and
Disney, is currently offering its first feature-length narrative film to
premiere exclusively on the site, Mattoid Entertainment’s "In The
Darkness." Director Andrew Robinson told Variety that "cost
considerations as well as the chance for greater exposure" led him to
premiere the sixty-minute-long horror flick on Hulu.


 

Related Links:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118017098.html

Social Games Developer Hangout Industries Gets $2 Million

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Boston
– Hangout Industries, a Boston-based developer of online social gaming services
for children, has raised $2 million in venture debt, according to a new filing
by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hangout’s services
allow young users to create their own personalized avatars, play casual
mini-games, go shopping, throw parties for their friends, or just hangout in
virtual environments.

The company has raised a total of $12 million in venture
capital, according to published reports.

 

Related Links:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1396158

http://www.hangout.net

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