Activist Investor Icahn Looks to Increase Lionsgate Stake

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Santa Monica,
Calif. – Activist investor Carl
Icahn has made a bid to buy shares that would increase his stake in Canadian
film studio Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) to 29.9%.

Icahn made an unsolicited offer to acquire 13.2
million shares of Lionsgate for $6 per share, or about $79 million; the
company’s shares closed at $5.45 on Friday.

Lionsgate said in a statement that
its board will review Icahn’s proposal and make a recommendation to
shareholders promptly.

The Associated Press noted that Icahn has "fought
for control" of Lionsgate with his former chief investment adviser, Mark
Rachesky, who controls nearly 20% of the studio and is on the company’s board.

Icahn
has made similar purchases of shares in companies he believes are undervalued
or whose management he believes is underperforming, including Yahoo and
Take-Two Interactive.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/yhplxuf
(AP)

http://www.lionsgate.com

Reed Business Sells Two Library Titles to MediaSource

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York
– Publisher Reed Business Information on Monday sold its Library Journal and
School Library Journal titles to Ohio-based MediaSource, PaidContent reported.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Reed Business announced last
July that it would put a significant portion of its U.S.
trade publications up for sale, while keeping Hollywood
trade magazine Variety in its stable.

The company has since sold off
Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News, and TWICE publications, and
shuttered its Video Business title.

The company’s Publishers Weekly title was
also put up on the block in July, but to date no buyer has been announced.  

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/ycmyna8
(PaidContent)

http://tinyurl.com/yh9nusy
(DMW previous coverage)

http://www.reedbusiness.com

ConnectedMedia Acquires Notus Digital Network

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Miami
– ConnectedMedia Technologies, a Miami-based digital multimedia firm targeting
the U.S. Hispanic market, announced on Monday that it has acquired a
controlling stake in Notus Digital Network, a developer of video-on-demand
services.

Financial details of the deal, which will see ConnectedMedia emerge
with 52% control of Notus, were not disclosed.

The NotusWOW platform integrates
providers of Spanish-language content with advertisers for online video.

Notus
also soon plans to launch Notus.tv, an ad-supported portal offering recent and archived
Spanish-language TV programming.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/yamtm9g

http://www.notus.tv

Report: Nintendo to Release New Zelda for Wii This Year

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Redmond, Wash.
– Nintendo looks poised to release a new "Zelda" title for the Wii
this year, considering comments Nintendo America vice president of marketing
Cammie Dunaway made to Wired.com. Based on Dunaway’s comments, PC World infers
that Nintendo will prominently feature the new Zelda title at the E3 trade
show, and is likely to release the game in the second half of 2010.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uja5x
(PC World)

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/02/nintendo-dunaway/

Boxee Beta Adds Support for Apple TV

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Brooklyn,
N.Y. – Boxee, the developer of a
free, open-source service that streams Web video content to a television, said
this week that it has added support in the beta version of its software for
Apple TV. The move means that users will be able to stream content available on
Boxee through the Apple TV to their televisions.  


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uj9ud
(Boxee blog)

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/boxee-beta-now-on-apple-tv

"Top Chef" Finalists, EQAL Create VoltaggioBrothers.com

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles
– The two highest-placing contestants on the recent season on Bravo’s "Top
Chef," brothers Michael and Bryan Voltaggio, have partnered with Web
studio EQAL on a website featuring cooking videos and community forums,
NewTeeVee reported. The VoltaggioBrothers.com site is powered by EQAL’s
Umbrella platform, and features videos such as the brothers offering tips on
cooking sous vide, and how to make applesauce using only a blender and
microwave.


 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uj9zp
(NewTeeVee)

http://www.eqal.com

http://www.voltaggiobrothers.com

Facebook Awarded Patent on "News Feed" Technology

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Palo Alto,
Calif. – Facebook this week was
awarded a patent on technology related to the "news feed" or
"stream" concept, where a user’s online activities are broadcast to a
customized group of contacts.

The implication could be that Facebook will
choose to pursue licenses of its newly patented technology from a raft of other
social networks and services who offer news feeds of the type covered in the patent.

All Facebook reports that the patent in question does not cover "status
updates" as they have come to be known.

 

Related Links:
http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/02/facebook-feed-patent/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10460150-36.html

Proposed Legislation Would Grant U.S. Visas to Entrepreneurs

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

Washington – A new proposal
on Capitol Hill would grant visas to immigrant entrepreneurs launching new
companies in the U.S.,
provided they have commitments to secure a minimum amount of investment
capital. The Startup Visa Act, sponsored by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and
Richard Lugar (D-Ind.), is being supported by signatures from more than 100 U.S. venture
capital and angel investors.

To qualify, entrepreneurs would need to land
capital from a qualified U.S.
investor of at least $100,000, as part of an equity financing of not less than
$250,000.

A previous incarnation of the act enables investors from other
countries to earn visas in exchange for starting a business in the U.S. with $1 million in capital and creating at
least 10 U.S.
jobs.

"We applaud Senators Kerry and Lugar for recognizing the importance
of foreign born entrepreneurs to U.S. economic growth," said
Mark Heesen, president of the Arlington-based National Venture Capital
Association.

"These individuals want to build their companies in the United States,
but many have been discouraged in the past by difficult immigration laws. Today
entrepreneurs can build their companies and create jobs anywhere. This bill
sends the right signal that we want them here."

 

Related Links:
http://startupvisa.com/2010/02/24/kerry-lugar-startup-visa-act/

http://startupvisa.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/startup-visa-act_-final-final-1.pdf

http://snipurl.com/uj9p9
(NVCA statement)

Pirate Bay Bidder Hans Pandeya Plans New Digital Media Venture

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

New York – Hans Pandeya, the Swedish entrepreneur whose
attempt to acquire file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay for $8 million fell through
after investors backed out, is now working on a new "secret" digital
media venture, he told CNET News.com at Digital Media Wire’s Digital Music
Forum East conference in New York this week.

"I have a lot of secret plans
I’m working on," Pandeya told CNET, adding that he is setting up U.S. operations for the stealth venture in Boston.

"If Pandeya
manages to launch a successful operation in the U.S. or indeed does acquire The
Pirate Bay, it will rank among the most unlikely tech comebacks in some time,"
CNET reported.

 

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10460366-261.html

http://dmwmedia.wpengine.com/tags/hans-pandeya

EU Opposes '3-Strikes' on File-sharing in Intl. Copyright Treaty

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Brussels
– The European Commission has issued a statement indicating that it will take
steps to ensure an international intellectual property treaty currently being
negotiated does not include a "three-strikes" provision that would
sever the Internet connections of copyright infringers on file-sharing
networks, ZDNet reported. "We are not supporting and will not accept that
an eventual Acta agreement creates an obligation to disconnect people from the
internet because of illegal downloads," John Clancy, a spokesman for EU
trade commissioner Karel De Gucht, told ZDNet.

"The ‘three-strike rule’ or
graduated response systems are not compulsory in Europe.
Different EU countries have different approaches, and we want to keep this
flexibility."

Several reports on a leaked draft of the ACTA
(Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) in question indicate that it does contain
three-strikes provisions.

More recent reports question this assertion, and
further indicate that the ACTA appeared very similar to the U.S. Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in its scope.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uj8y0
(ZDNet)

http://snipurl.com/uj942
(DMW previous coverage)

http://snipurl.com/uhhjt
(DMW previous coverage)

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