Metue.com

Yesterday, NBC announced the planned launch of Didja, an  “All Ads, All the time” Internet video site.   In the press announcement introducing the new site, it was noted Didja would not launch until some time in early 2008.  That schedule was set to insure the much larger YouTube targeting Internet video joint venture between News Corporation and NBC would launch first.

Today, that joint venture (which was announced in March and is still referred to as New Co) received an added shot of working capital.    Providence Equity Partners, a media-centric investment company based in Rhode Island, confirmed they’d take a ten percent stake in the joint venture for $100m.

That investment sets the pre-money valuation for the as yet unlaunched effort at a staggering $1b.   It’s an enormous number for a company that does not yet have its product on the market. Click to Read More

Wednesday, News Corporation, the media empire of Rupert Murdoch and newly minted owner of the Wall Street Journal, reported their fiscal 4th quarter and year end financial results.  The numbers were impressive and suggest, at present stock prices, that the company, which is trading at about 15times projected 2008 earnings per share, is undervalued.

By the numbers, News Corp. reported net income for the period ended June 3oth of $890m (28c/share) up from a year ago return of $852m (27c per share or 23c/share less one time gain from sale of Sky Radio Ltd.)   Revenue was in at $7.37b, up from $7.78b.  Consensus analyst expectations were for revenue of $7.27b and earnings of 28c per share. Click to Read More

About a year ago, around June 2006, Movielink, the Windows only movie download service owned by a consortium of movie studios planted a sign in the yard and put itself up for sale.  As hot as Internet video has been, and despite the success of some download services like iTunes, Movielink has sat on the market like a house needing major repairs in a bad real estate market.

Late Wednesday, after months of talk, rumor and innuendo, rental company Blockbuster stepped in to buy the unwanted property.  Terms weren’t disclosed but reports have estimated the deal was well below $50m and possibly as low as $20m. Click to Read More

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire spans the globe (for a map see here).  With such breadth and scope (and in the wake of the $5b purchase of Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones)  it was easy to almost overlook another acquisition but sometimes the little things can be as  telling than the big.

For $11.3m, NDS Group (Nasdaq: NNDS) , an UK based subsidiary of News Corp, is buying a small Israeli streaming video company called CastUP. 

Click to Read More

It was a busy day at the courts.  In unrelated intellectual property cases Google saw its list of adversaries expand and Microsoft received a $1.5b dollar judicial reprieve.  (a Metue article on the Microsoft news is here.)

For Google, it’s been copyright, copyright, copyright.   For months, the company has been battling with Viacom over YouTube and the claim that the popular video-sharing site is a conduit for copyright infringement; essentially a service encouraging copyright violation.

The billion dollar infringement suit was filed in New York as a class action complaint on May 4th.  Since then, plaintiffs have been lining up to participate.  Now, in addition to Viacom (which is the parent of MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures) and the English Premier League (soccer/football), eight new plaintiffs were revealed Monday. Click to Read More

Over the years, the courts haven’t always been kind to Microsoft.  Monday, the technology giant had their day in court, and this time the day was good: $1.5 billion good. 

Back in February, a jury found Microsoft guilty of infringing on two patents held by French telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent relating to MP3 technology. The patents, which focus on MP3 Compression, date back to when Lucent was known as Bell Labs.   For the violation, the jury awarded Alcatel damages in the amount of $1.52billion.  It was the largest patent verdict in US history (and not a good day at Microsoft).

Microsoft, needless to say, appealed that verdict, especially the assessment and calculation of damages. Yesterday, in San Diego, U.S. District Court Judge Rudi Brewster, after spending about two weeks deliberating, gave the damage ruling a toss to the circular file.  Click to Read More

Most people are familiar with the cliché: if at first you don’t succeed, try try again. What happens, though, if it at first you did succeed? Does practice make perfect?  Do you still try again?

Eric Baker seems to think so.   In 2004, Mr. Baker walked away from then rapidly growing secondary ticket marketplace StubHub (of which he was co-founder).  Seeking opportunity and adventure, he packed his bags and,  in 2005, moved across the Atlantic and in London, started Viagogo, a similar ticket reseller aimed at capturing the European marketplace.

StubHub sold to eBay last January for  about $310m, making Eric, who reportedly held 10 percent of the company, a sizable windfall.  That, however, didn’t slow him down or stifle his ambitions. Click to Read More