Apple Acquires Mobile Ad Firm Quattro Wireless
Waltham,
Mass. – Quattro Wireless, a
provider of mobile advertising services, announced on Monday in a blog post that
it has been acquired by Apple (NASD: AAPL). While financial terms of the transaction were
not disclosed, PaidContent’s source pegged the purchase price at $270 million.
Founded in 2006, Quattro offers a mobile Web and in-application ad network
utilized by clients including Netflix, CBS Interactive, Disney and Microsoft.
The company’s network partners include Gawker, NFL, NHL, Hachette, Time, imeem
and Slacker.
"We remain focused on delivering more engaging, relevant and
useful ads to mobile devices, and improving the measurement and execution of
digital campaigns," said Quattro co-founder and CEO Andrew Miller — who was
named a vice president of mobile advertising at Apple.
"Together with
Apple, we look forward to developing exciting new opportunities in the future
that will benefit our customers."
Quattro raised over $28 million in
funding, from backers including Highland Capital Partners and Globespan Capital
Partners.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/tz1mw
http://snipurl.com/tz1q3 (PaidContent)
PowerReviews Secures $4.9 Million for User Product Reviews
San Francisco
– PowerReviews, a site that aggregates user-generated product reviews and makes
them available to online retailers, has raised $4.9 million of an anticipated
$9 million round of new funding, PaidContent reported, citing a regulatory
filing.
Founded in 2005, San Francisco-based PowerReviews provides
user-generated product reviews to more than 3,000 online retail clients,
including Orbitz, Staples, REI and Warner Home Video.
The company’s last round
of funding in 2007 was led by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/tz1lu
U2's Bono Decries File-Sharing, "Rich Service Providers"
New York
– U2 frontman Bono took to the Op-Ed page of The New York Times over the
weekend, in part to rail against the sharing of music on peer-to-peer networks,
and ISPs — the "rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly
mirror the lost receipts of the music business." "A decade’s worth of
music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the
creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off
ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us," Bono wrote.
The band’s manager, Paul McGuinness, has taken a vocal stance against
file-sharing, and in particular called on ISPs to do more to police the
practice.
Related Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/opinion/03bono.html
Redbox Rents Record 2 Million DVDs on New Year's Eve
Oakbrook Terrace,
Ill. – Redbox, a unit of
Coinstar (NASD: CSTR) that operates automated DVD rental kiosks, announced on Mondy that
consumers rented more than two million DVDs on New Year’s Eve from the
company’s kiosks, breaking its previous one-day rental record by more than
170,000 rentals. The company, which operates more than 19,000 locations
nationwide, reported more than 350 million rentals in 2009.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/tytd3
Hulu User Base Grows 95% in '09; Streams Up 307%
New York
– Hulu, the video portal joint venture between News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) and
Disney (NYSE: DIS), said that its monthly users grew by 95% in 2009, to over 43 million,
while monthly streams increased 307%, to 924 million. Over 6.4 million Hulu
players were embedded on third-party websites, up 237% from 2008, while the
company’s library of content grew to 14,000 hours. The most popular clip of
2009 was SNL’s "Motherlover," while the most popular full episode was
Family Guy’s "Stew-Roids."
Related Links:
http://blog.hulu.com/2009/12/30/thank-you-for-a-very-big-2009/
RealD, Samsung Partner on 3D Televisions
Los Angeles – RealD, a
provider of 3D digital cinema projection systems, announced on Monday that it
has partnered with Korea’s
Samsung Electronics, and will integrate its 3D technology into Samsung’s line
of 3D televisions. The companies will also work jointly on "active eyewear
technology and New Passive Display technology." RealD’s systems have to
date been installed on over 4,800 movie theater screens worldwide, and are
currently being used to screen "Avatar" in 3D. "Avatar"
became the fourth highest-grossing movie of all time over the weekend, when it
reached a worldwide total of $1.02 billion.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/tytev
Google Begins Favoring MySpace in Music Stream Links
Mountain View,
Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) appears to have
shifted the bulk of its new music streaming links on search results to
MySpace-owned iLike, pushing Lala — recently acquired by Apple (NASD: AAPL) — lower in the
queue, according to reports by TechCrunch and PaidContent. A number of links to
streaming music services are typically presented when a user searches for a
song, but it seems that now News Corp.’s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace is favored, whereas before the ranking was
more random. PaidContent found 19 of 20 songs it searched for on Google linking
to MySpace streams, while TechCrunch was directed to MySpace for 28 of 30 songs
it searched.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/tythu
(TechCrunch)
http://snipurl.com/tytf7
(PaidContent)
Warner Music Brining Artist-focused Channels to Hulu
New York
– Major record label Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) has signed a deal to feature its
artists’ content on Hulu, the video portal joint venture between News Corp.,
NBC Universal and Disney. The deal will see Warner created artist-focused
channels on Hulu featuring music videos, interviews, live concerts and rare
footage. Hulu signed a similar deal with fellow major label EMI in November.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/tys96
Flurry, comScore Team on Mobile Application Ratings
San Francisco
– Flurry, a provider of mobile application analytics that recently merged with
fellow analytics firm Pinch Media, said on Monday that it has partnered with
comScore to launch a joint mobile application audience measurement service. The
service will offer insights on the usage of applications across mobile
platforms including iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/tyt97
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