Seth Gilbert, 08-20-2008
When watching old movies, there’s always a prominent credit for Technicolor. When future generations look back on movies from our era, they may be shown a similar credit for Intel. The company known for being “Inside” our computers appears to be working just as diligently “behind”the scenes of Hollywood to advance the cause of 3D-Movie Making.
At the Intel Developers conference Wednesday, the 800lb Gorilla of the chip industry reaffirmed their deal with DreamWorks Animation. Jeffrey Katzenberg, the co founder and CEO of the studio was on hand to demonstrate what their joint venture is yielding.
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Seth Gilbert, 08-6-2008
With most of the big names in the media/tech space reported, it’s been an up and down earnings season. There have been some hits and some misses. There’s been some positive guidance and some suspect. Now three of the remaining big names have reported their performances. Summing them up, here’s the tally from News Corp., Marvel Entertainment and Time Warner:
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Seth Gilbert, 07-31-2008
In January, Netflix announced the first of several ambitious partnerships to integrate the software behind their “Watch Now” streaming video service into TV-connected consumer electronics. The deal, they revealed just prior to the Consumer Electronics show, was with LG for a set-top box. At the time, the battle for next-gen DVD standards was still ongoing so it was unclear if “set top box” meant we might see a DVD player (HD DVD or Blu-ray) or some other device. Little clarifying information was provided. Today, long after the standards war ended, the mail-order DVD pioneer and the South Korean electronics giant filled in the blanks with detail.
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Seth Gilbert, 07-30-2008
The monthly NPD reports tend to give a decent macro perspective on the video game industry economy in the U.S. market but there’s nothing like earnings season to unwrap the details. Yesterday, Sony and Electronic Arts opened their books. Sales were up. Today, Nintendo, THQ and Capcom rounded out the story. They and Disney, all reported results. Here’s the earnings wrap up for all four consolidated to a single Metue report:
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Seth Gilbert, 07-29-2008
Earnings season is always a busy time in the corporate finance world but for those watching the media and entertainment sectors, Tuesday was a day of particular information overload. DreamWorks Animation, Electronic Arts, Sony and Viacom all reported quarterly results. The news was mixed. There were some bright spots and some unpleasant surprises too. One by one we’ve got the four consolidated into one place; a single stop to summarize all four quarterly performances.
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Seth Gilbert, 07-25-2008
Streaming movies online can be expensive but not so much so that Netflix has any reason to worry. The mail-order-DVD pioneer came out Friday with better than expected Q2 earnings and up-adjusted guidance for 2008.
By the numbers, overall, Q2 net income rose 3.8% to 26.6m (42 cents a share), up from $25.6m or 37 cents a share for the same period a year ago. Total sales were up 11% to $337.6m. Netflix had previously forecast revenue in the range of $334m to $339m. Excluding special items, profit was 45 cents a share, ahead of Reuters analyst estimates by about 4cents.
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Seth Gilbert, 07-23-2008
Gaming’s love of Hollywood and Hollywood’s love of gaming seems to be blossoming into quite an affair. About a week ago, Ubisoft acquired Hybride Technologies, the Canadian special effects shop behind movies Sin City and 300. Yesterday, Paramount and Legacy Interactive revealed the first games to come from their partnership will be remakes of past Paramount films. Now Electronic Arts has signed up an agent. They’ll look to United Talent Agency (UTA) to help them navigate Hollywood and create movies from games.
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