RealNetworks Acquires Varia Mobile

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Seattle
– RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK), a provider of media delivery technology, has acquired mobile
content distribution firm Varia Mobile, TechFlash reported.

Financial terms of
the transaction were not provided, although Real took a minority interest in
the company last year.

Varia was created in 2007 as a spin-off from Tegic
Communications.

The company powered Real’s Ibiza Rhapsody MP3 player; other technologies
offer wireless syncing and cloud computing for mobile devices.

Varia Mobile CEO
John McQueen will become a vice president of business development and OEM at
RealNetworks.

 

Related Links:
http://techflash.com/seattle/2010/01/realnetworks_buys_varia_mobile.html

http://realnetworks.com

http://www.variamobile.com

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Report: 2009 U.S. Box Office Beats Home Video Spending

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Los Angeles – For the first time since the mid-’90s, Americans
spent more on movie tickets than they did on DVD and Blu-ray discs in 2009,
according to a report from Adams Media Research cited by Video Business
Magazine. Spending at the box office totaled $9.87 billion, up 9.8% from 2008,
while sales of DVD and Blu-ray discs was $8.73 billion, down 13.3% from the
prior year.

"In part, the reversal of fortunes of the theatrical and
retail businesses can be laid at the feet of the recession," said Adams Media
Research president Tom Adams.

"Going to the movies is the value option
compared to other options for going out. For in-home entertainment, though,
rental, not purchase is the value option."

Overall, U.S. spending
on movies in 2009 was flat at $28.4 billion, although the total number of
transactions rose 3.5% to nearly 5 billion.

In addition to box office and
retail movie purchases, Adams also tracks
pay-per-view, video-on-demand and online movie rentals and purchases.

 

Related Links:
http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6713272.html?nid=3513

http://snipurl.com/tyqis
(Adams Media Research)

Quantcast Secures $27.5 Million for Web Audience Measurement

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San Francisco
– Quantcast, a provider of Internet audience measurement services, announced on
Monday that it has closed a $27.5 million third round of financing, co-led by
Cisco (NASD: CSCO) and Polaris Venture Partners.

Previous backers Founders Fund and
Revolution Ventures also participated in the round.

Founded in 2006, San
Francisco-based Quantcast provides free audience measurement services that
monitor more than 10 million Web destinations.

The company said it will use the
new funds to support adoption of its Quantcast Media Program, which it says
offers "a standardized means to measure, organize, buy and sell real-time
audiences, all based on the distinctive characteristics of a marketer’s
proprietary customer data."

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/tyqf7

http://www.quantcast.com

Video Encoding Firm Envivio Raises $1 Million

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San Francisco
Envivio, a provider of video delivery technology, has raised $1 million in
new funding, PaidContent reported, citing a regulatory filing.

Founded in 2000,
San Francisco-based Envivio’s video encoding technology is available for
mobile, IPTV and broadcast platforms.

The company is currently working on a
live streaming application for Apple’s iPhone.

Backers of Envivio, which has to
date raised over $30 million, include Atlantic Bridge,
Crescendo Ventures, Innovacom, Intel Capital, NTT Finance and Samsung Ventures
America.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/tyqcx

(PaidContent)

http://www.envivio.com

ChaCha Lands $7 Million for Mobile Answers Service

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Indianapolis,
Ind.
– ChaCha, a text
message-based search engine service, announced on Monday that it has raised $7
million in its fifth round of venture capital financing.

The company, which has
now raised $52 million to date, is backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Morton
Meyerson, Rod Canion, Jack Gill, Don Aquilano, and members of the Simon Mall
family, among others.

Founded in 2005, Indiana-based ChaCha offers a free
"answers" service accessible on mobile phones that has answered over
300 million questions in the past two years.

Advertisers on the service have
included Palm, IKEA, Coca-Cola and the Obama presidential campaign.

 

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/tyq9q

http://www.chacha.com