Seth Gilbert, 04-1-2008
Speculation about Apple products is always a popular pastime. Lately, two questions are dominating the discussion: how close are we to seeing the second generation iPhone? And, When it gets here, what goodies does it have in store? The answers depend on who you ask but they may be here sooner than largely expected.
When, When, When?
Regarding timing, the widely held consensus is that June will be home to D-day (delivery day). The theory is Apple will use their popular developer event to reveal a faster (3G), more feature laden phone. That timing would also match the planned rolled out date for software upgrades. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is among those taking that position. (He’s also predicting at least three models of iPhones will be sold globally in 2009 and the annual tally for that year could push 45m units sold globally).
Others are pointing to the newly revealed Samsung Instinct, a 3G, Touch-controlled phone with an uncanny resemblance to the iPhone. It has some of the things the current iPhone is missing like expandable memory and a haptic system that provides tactile feedback to touch. Apple will beat that phone to market, they say. They won’t let Samsung get to a 3G touch sensitive phone first. Accordingly, for these speculators it’s by June at the latest.
Another fork in the rumor path is being fueled by existing phone supplies which are currently dwindling. Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 03-31-2008
In 2006 talent agent and producer Peter Safran left Brillstein-Grey to start his own company. Now he’s taking the mix of talents and assets to the web. Like a growing list of Hollywood bigs doing similar, he’s signed a new deal to develop original online video content. In Safran’s case, however, there’s a catch. He is not setting out to create the next YouTube viral video sensation; he’s not looking to syndicate widely either. Instead he’s taking his productions and going Xbox.
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Seth Gilbert,
New Media tech writers (Metue included) usually reserve some airtime to cover the freshly funded. Such newly flush startups are powerful fuel for talking about developing trends or as barometers for the next (or not likely to be next) new thing. Every now and then though, when the funding size is extravagant or the recipient a peer, the financial press gets buzzing.
This relatively quiet news Monday, the blog side of tech news buzzed about the Series A financing of press-centric startup Publish2. Per the company’s own announcement, they closed a $2.75m first round with money from Velocity Group.
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Seth Gilbert, 03-28-2008
It’s game on for Paramount. The movie studio has plans to jump into gaming and has formed a division within their interactive department to fund the development (and publication) of gaming titles, according to Variety.
The game studio, about which information remains slight, will be largely run by Matt Candler who previously worked at Grind Games and Activision. His title will be VP of Interactive Development.
Sandi Isaacs, Paramount’s VP of interactive and mobile content told Variety that the studio will look to invest in all types of games from casual and mobile on up to possible console games.
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Seth Gilbert,
How low can it go for traditional print news media? Pretty low, according to a few recent reports.
The first, from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), pegged 2007 as the worst downturn in the newspaper print ad business in over 50 years. Revenue for the industry was down just under 8% to $45.3b. That’s not a surprise, it’s been long forecast, still a 50 year low is a significant milestone.
The silver lining is the online news machine continues to improve. Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert,
How much investment in social networking companies is enough? If you ask Facebook or new startup weplay.com, the answer may be there’s no such thing. Both have added to their coffers. $4.5m for Weplay, $60m for Facebook.
In the case of Weplay, talent agency Creative Artists had hinted they were serious about venture investment when they moved to set up their own funding structure. In contributing part of the $4.5m raised for the kid’s sports site, they officially stepped up to the plate. Major League Baseball’s Investment arm and Pequot Capital also contributed.
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Seth Gilbert, 03-27-2008
“The offer is inadequate and not in the best interests of the shareholders.”
That was the tagline when Take Two initially responded to EA’s public tender offer to acquire the company. Wednesday, the sentiment echoed anew from the boardroom and two brokerages when Take Two formerly rejected the offer.
Supporting the decision legally, the company filed a heavy load of documents with the SEC stating their case, along with supporting (albeit disclaimer laden) fairness opinion letters from Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers.
It took some time to digest all the paper and put together this detailed review Click to Read More
