Wednesday, December 21, 2011

JumpStart Global Advisors Partners with 151 Ventures to Offer Sales and ... - PR Newswire (press release)

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NEW YORK, Dec. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --?A new alliance between JumpStart Global Advisors (www.jumpstartglobal.com) and 151 Ventures (www.151ventures.com) offers mobile, wireless, enterprise software and other growth-stage technology companies a highly cost-effective means of bringing their services to global markets.

JumpStart Global Advisors is a unit of New York-based strategic public relations firm Feintuch Communications (www.feintuchcommunications.com) and New York-based business development and professional services firm Gordon Global Associates (www.gordonglobal.com). JumpStart Global offers an integrated set of market-entry services to international companies seeking to establish operations in the United States and Canada as well as providing strategic services for North American and other global companies seeking to internationalize into other markets.

151 Ventures is a leading consulting and advisory firm for mobile and wireless technology and software companies. With more than 150 years of combined hands-on experience, 151 Ventures provides a blend of business development, sales, M&A support, distribution and channel development services to mobile and wireless software developers, enterprise software companies, hardware manufacturers and mobile operators.

"Our focus on helping established companies to enter new markets in a timely and efficient manner has allowed numerous Asian and European companies, including Singapore-based Pteris Global and Stratech Systems, to get right to business in the United States, minus much of the risk and cost uncertainty associated with internationalization," said Scott Gordon, managing director, JumpStart Global Advisors and president of Gordon Global Associates.? "Our new partnership with 151 Ventures kicks our service offering up a very important level to help growing companies to establish sales and distribution channels immediately, helping them to generate revenue and move into the black more quickly."

151 Ventures and JumpStart Global Advisors are targeting growth-stage technology companies based in Asia, Europe and North America, seeking to generate revenues and accelerate their time to market.

"151 Ventures is expert at quickly analyzing a client's sales and distribution strategy and then developing a winning strategy and execution plan to get their solutions into the market," said Bill Rom, managing partner, 151 Ventures. "Our team has provided our services to a wide range of companies ? from early and growth-stage startups to large multinational corporations ? in a variety of technology sectors including enterprise software, M2M technology, mobile software and applications, smartphone technology, IT security, consumer web services, interactive content and entertainment. This alliance with JumpStart Global Advisors now provides the full suite of services and support companies need as they position themselves for growth in the global marketplace."

For more information on JumpStart Global Advisors, and for inquiries about 151 Ventures support, visit www.jumpstartglobal.com or www.151ventures.com; or write to info@jumpstartglobal.com or call +1-212-808-4900.

About 151 Ventures

151 Ventures (www.151ventures.com) is a leading consulting and advisory firm that helps mobile software and technology companies build revenue and accelerate time to market through proven business development, sales, marketing, and distribution strategies. The firm helps clients develop a winning go-to-market strategy and then execute it to build revenue and drive profits. With experience from executive level positions at Fortune 500 companies and building successful, profitable technology startups, 151 Ventures leverages its extensive network of relationships around the world to position clients for growth and long term success.

About JumpStart Global Advisors

JumpStart Global Advisors (www.jumpstartglobal.com), based in New York City, is a next-generation business consultancy helping to meet the needs of companies seeking to enter the North American market or internationalize into other markets. It provides businesses with a speedy, efficient and cost-effective business model without the need for costly capital outlays. Core services include business establishment; legal, financial, accounting and back office support; recruitment, sales strategy and compensation solutions; and marketing, branding, Web/digital services and strategic public relations. JumpStart Global Advisors founding partners are Gordon Global Associates and Feintuch Communications.

This release is available online in the JumpStart Global Advisors press room (www.jumpstartglobal.com) and Feintuch Communications media room (www.feintuchcommunications.com/FC).?

SOURCE JumpStart Global Advisors

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Microsoft® RTV and Google® VP8 Codec Now Available in Damaka Xync™ Mobile ... - PR Web (press release)

Richardson, TX (PRWEB) December 21, 2011

Damaka®, a technology pioneer in Mobile Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC), today announced availability of Microsoft RTV and Google VP8 codec in its Xync product portfolio. Damaka is the first company in the world to optimize RTV codec to execute on mobile platforms. With the availability of RTV and VP8 codecs in Xync, Microsoft Lync/OCS R2 users can now participate in video conference sessions using their mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad and Android Smartphones/Tablets.

“Having a unique portfolio of video codecs allows Xync to interwork with multitude of endpoints,” said Rashmi Hiremath, VP Engineering, Damaka. “Addition of RTV and VP8 codecs will further enhance our product experience.”

In addition, Xync also supports H.263, H.263+, and H.264.

As part of its Enterprise Mobile Video Strategy (being the first in the industry to deliver mobile video), Damaka continues to bring advanced communication and collaboration solutions that enable today’s mobile workforce to be very productive. Damaka’s technology is available on Android, iPhone, iPad, Symbian®, Blackberry™, and Windows Mobile® platforms.

About damaka, Inc.

Damaka (http://www.damaka.com) is an innovator in mobile unified communication and collaboration (UCC) solutions. The company is changing the landscape of mobile UCC by providing secure, real-time mobile video calling and mobile collaboration solutions on all major smartphones, tablets and PC/MAC platforms, enabling collaboration on any device, any network, anytime and anywhere. Damaka's managed peer-to-peer SIP based software solutions feature Sweeping® technology, allowing users to seamlessly transfer in progress collaboration sessions to and from various devices, including laptops, netbooks, tablets and smartphones. Damaka was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Richardson, Texas. For more information on Damaka's Xync solution, please visit http://xync.damaka.com.

Contact:????Mrinal Rao
(972) 850-3002
xync.support(at)damaka(dot)net

###



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Myriad brings Android to TV - Rethink Wireless

Proprietary Java virtual machines, like Google's Dalvik for Android, defeat many of the cross-platform objectives of the technology (as highlighted by Oracle's lawsuits against the search giant). Mobile software firm Myriad has brought the portability back with its Alien Dalvik product, which combines the modern features of the Google VM with multi-OS support, allowing Android apps to run on other platforms. Its latest addition to the line is Alien Vue, which brings Android apps to televisions.

While a group of Japanese consumer electronics vendors has been working on an Android implementation for TV, and a variant of the OS underpins Google TV itself, the main focus of Android remains the mobile device. But, as Myriad's CTO Benoit Schilling says, Google's software reach and Android ecosystem need to go beyond a single OS or gadget. "It's an advantage for Google to run its apps everywhere, especially well beyond phones," he said in an interview.

Alien Vue is an end-to-end system which enables TV service providers to add apps to their existing managed service offerings, helping them fend off over-the-top video channels - among them, of course, Google's own. Google may not take too kindly to a solution which turns its own Dalvik against its content model, but Myriad sees a chance to appeal to conventional providers as well as extending Android's reach.

Alien Vue enables internet access via TV allowing Android apps to run alongside existing functions, in a unified user experience. Customers can use their existing TV and set-top box equipment, and the offering nods to the multiscreen trend, working with cellphones and tablets, which can be integrated into the TV view and used as remote controls or second displays.

Vue is powered by Alien Dalvik, which has previously been trialled on mobile Linux platforms like MeeGo. It includes a white label app store, co-developed with AppCarousel, which can be branded by service providers, and it also supports additional plug-in components like Myriad Connect & Share, providing multiscreen functionality for personal and premium content. It can run apps designed for GoogleTV and HTML5, including YouTube, Netflix and Twitter, which appear unchanged from their native environment, says the vendor.

CEO Simon Wilkinson said in a statement: "We have shown how Android apps can work seamlessly across non-Android devices, including mobile phones, tablets and iPads, and now, with Myriad Alien Vue, we have delivered Android to another key screen in people's lives, the TV."

This report examines the emergence of digital money from the perspective of the convergence of card-based proximity payments to the... This report is based on interviews with device OEMs, retailers and resellers and provides a comprehensive analysis of the new cloudbook...

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HP opens webOS mobile software to others - Reuters

Members of the media and corporate staff wait outside the Herbst Pavilion at the Fort Mason Center for the HP/Palm webOS event in San Francisco February 9, 2011. REUTERS/Beck Deifenbach

Members of the media and corporate staff wait outside the Herbst Pavilion at the Fort Mason Center for the HP/Palm webOS event in San Francisco February 9, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Beck Deifenbach

By Poornima Gupta

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Dec 9, 2011 5:18pm EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett Packard Co has decided to open its webOS mobile operating system to developers and companies, potentially taking on Google Inc's free Android platform that is popular with handset makers.

HP, which acquired webOS in a $1.2 billion purchase of Palm in 2010, had been trying to figure out how to recoup its investment after a failed foray into the smartphone and tablet market.

HP Chief Executive Meg Whitman said the company looked at a number of options for webOS, including a sale and shut down of the division.

The technology giant will make webOS available under an open source licensing agreement, but it has still not hashed out the terms of the licensing deal it plans to offer.

There are a number of open source projects that can be used as examples for deciding the structure of licensing, including Android and browser Mozilla.

The company plans to solicit ideas from developers before deciding on the licensing terms, Whitman said.

"We like the adoption of Android. It's growing like wildfire with a big developer community and hardware community," Whitman said, adding that HP would like to avoid fragmentation of the software that currently plagues Android.

Whitman also said HP may get back into the consumer tablet market in 2013 but it will not be making any more smartphones.

The future of webOS had been in limbo since August after HP killed its flagship webOS-based TouchPad tablet following poor sales.

While Google has the world's most-used mobile system with over 550,000 devices activated every day, HP's webOS could be an alternative to companies apprehensive that the Web search giant may compete with them directly in the smartphone handset market through its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility.

The webOS platform, which had been HP-only software, is widely viewed as a strong mobile platform, but has been criticized for having few applications -- an important consideration while choosing a mobile device.

Most developers prefer to work on Apple Inc's iOS or Google's Android because both are on millions of devices -- unlike webOS.

"Making it open source changes the rules of the game and has the potential to make (webOS) more appealing," said Van Baker, an analyst with Gartner. "It presents a potential challenge to Android, but I wouldn't call it a real challenge until we get a little further down the road."

HP still has to make sure the code is available and the tools for developers are as robust as those provided by Android to succeed, he added.

HP has not revealed its plans for any mobile hardware after the TouchPad was killed.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; editing by Gary Hill and Andre Grenon)


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Secret mobile software 'logs texts and searches' - Ninemsn

Secret software installed on millions of mobile phones secretly reports almost everything the user does on their device, a phone security expert has claimed.

In a video posted online, Android developer Trevor Eckhart has revealed how the Carrier IQ software ? which is installed on most HTC, BlackBerry and Nokia phones ? logs text messages, Google searches and encrypted web searches.

Carrier IQ, which denies it logs keystrokes from mobile phones, has threatened the 25-year-old with legal action and money damages.

But the Electronic Frontier Foundation sided with Mr Eckhart and the software company was forced to back down.

The software giant told Wired.com that any logging of information was for "gathering information off the handset to understand the mobile-user experience, where phone calls are dropped, where signal quality is poor, why applications crash and battery life."

In the video, Mr Eckhart types "hello world" into a HTTPS version of Google, which is supposed to keep searches private.

But the software can access the search and logs each letter before sending it to Carrier IQ's servers.

The application cannot be turned off unless the operating system is replaced.

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Yandex buys mobile software maker SPB Software - Boston.com

NEW YORK?Yandex, the most popular search engine in Russia, on Monday said it bought mobile software maker SPB Software as it grows its mobile business.

No price was given for the deal.

SPB Software, which is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia, makes software for smartphones and tablets. Yandex said it will integrate its "cloud" services into SPB's software, and its search engine will be accessible on a variety of mobile devices after the acquisition.

Yandex also said buying SPB could help it partner with other companies involved in Internet-enabled mobile devices.

"Mobile is a vital part of our growth strategy. The acquisition of SPB Software creates new market potential for us and a plethora of possibilities for innovative solutions for our partners," said Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh in a statement.

Yandex last week said that it would be the default search engine on phones running the Windows operating system in Russia.

The company also operates in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey.

Shares rose $1.32, or 6.7 percent, to $21.07 in afternoon trading. The broader market was up sharply, with the Standard & Poor's 500 index gaining 3 percent.

Yandex went public in May at $25 per share.


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Software Tools Optimized for TriCore Microcontrollers in Complex Automotive ... - ECNmag.com

Wind River, a world leader in embedded and mobile software, is collaborating with Infineon Technologies as part of a multi-year partnership to extend its integrated software tools portfolio by optimizing Wind River Diab Compiler for the TriCore microcontroller architecture of Infineon Technologies, including the latest AUDO MAX and future TriCore families. Wind River has released an update to Wind River Diab Compiler that includes enhancements for TriCore architecture resulting in increased performance and smaller software footprint for TriCore developers.?


Infineon TriCore 32-bit microcontrollers provide high performance and real-time capabilities and are widely used for compute-intensive automotive applications such as power train, passive safety systems, engine control, energy management, and chassis control.


Wind River Diab Compiler is an embedded software tool suite that includes a C/C++ compiler, assembler, linker, ANSI C and C++ libraries, and an instruction-set simulator that supports a variety of processor architectures including ARM, Power, SuperH and TriCore. Diab compiler technology is widely used in mission-critical applications, such as automotive, industrial, and aerospace and defense systems for over 25 years and is tested for quality and performance with millions of test cases.


“Given the growing complexity in automotive electronic systems as well as the emergence of new safety standards such as ISO 26262, software quality is paramount,” said Tomas Evensen, chief technical officer at Wind River and creator of the original Diab Compiler. “Automotive electronic control unit makers are under continuing pressure to increase functionality in their devices while saving power and costs. This requires close alignment between software and semiconductor vendors. Alongside Infineon, we are working to provide an optimized software development environment and deliver Wind River Diab Compiler for AUDO MAX and future TriCore automotive microcontrollers. With the code optimization that Diab Compiler brings, electronic control unit makers are able to add more functionality in the same or less memory footprint, without increasing power consumption.”


“Together, Wind River and Infineon are optimizing Wind River Diab Compiler for TriCore architectures and the improvements in code performance and software footprint can lower hardware costs for automotive system suppliers,” said Peter Schaefer, vice president and general manager, Microcontrollers, Automotive division at Infineon Technologies. “Infineon’s powerful TriCore microcontrollers are designed for highly complex electronic systems and it is essential to partner with an expert commercial compiler supplier with safety-critical expertise to ensure we provide a solution that meets the demanding needs of the automotive industry.”


Wind River and Infineon will also continue to collaborate on automotive-specific compiler requirements such as the need for compiler compliance with the latest ISO 26262 standard. The new standard is an adaptation of the Functional Safety standard IEC 61508 for automotive electric/electronic systems. ISO 26262 applies to functional safety aspects of the development process, including such activities as requirements specification, design, implementation, integration, verification, validation and configuration.


More information about Wind River Diab Compiler is available at http://www.windriver.com/products/development_suite/wind_river_compiler/.


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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A Chat With BusinessWeek's Editor-To-Be

Josh Tyrangiel, who was named this morning to be editor of a Bloomberg-owned BusinessWeek, says it's too early to lay out specific plans for the magazine but his goal is to create "a great indispensable business weekly."

In a brief interview, Tyrangiel, 37, says he plans to meet soon with BW staffers as a group and individually to gather their input so "we can formulate a strategy for the magazine together." Tyrangiel has been serving as a deputy managing editor of Time magazine and as the top editor of its online operations.

While he earned kudos for his work online at Time, Tyrangiel says he is committed to long-form journalism in print. "Listen, the big mistake magazines made was trying to imitate the Web," he said. "Magazines are read reclining, and that lends itself to longer, more in-depth stories."

Tryangiel has edited business stories in the past but he acknowledged that he is not a traditional business journalist. He says his background is an "opportunity" for the magazine. "I need help," he said, "and I am going to rely on the staff. I want the staff to stay in their lanes and be experts on their subjects."

He believes a big reason that Bloomberg LP Chief Content Officer Norman Pearlstine and Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief Matthew Winkler recruited him is that "I am a good person at bringing people together. We are going to work on this as a team."


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Robert Downey, Jr. Superstar


It suddenly occurred to me today ? after my wife and I were forced to head back to the theater twice in the same weekend to catch Sherlock Holmes -- that Robert Downey, Jr. has suddenly become the hottest actor on the planet. That’s right, Robert Downey, Jr., who six years back had to drop out the Woody Allen film Melinda and Melinda because the costs to insure him were too high after several well-publicized arrests and a trip to the drug rehab clinic.

But Robert Downey, Jr seems able to do no wrong these days at the box office. As I found when I couldn’t get into his flick on Saturday, he has his third mega-hit on his hands with Sherlock Holmes, which opened second this weekend to Avatar but still clocked a steep $65.4 million.

The flick is certain to pass $100 million, which would give the 45-year old Downey roles in three $100 million performances in the last two years ? his breakout starring role as Tony Stark in Iron Man, which grossed $318 million in the US and $585 million worldwide, and the comedy Tropic Thunder, for which he was nominated for an Oscar for his hilarious turn as an Australian method actor who undergoes surgery to play an African-American. (Oh, and the film also grossed more than $110 million in the U.S.)

So, why is Robert Downey, Jr. so hot? Well, the camera clearly loves him these days. He mugs, smirks and plays the smart aleck with such style that he can pull of the role of a snarky corporate exec in Iron Man or the equally smarmy Sherlock Holmes. But chalk one up for Hollywood. For once they’ve got it right, casting a bad boy gone straight in the role of ? well ? a bad boy who has more or less gone straight.

So, surround Downey’s bad boy acting with enough pyrotechnics --- Iron Man taking out Arab terrorists with his pulse beams or Sherlock Holmes escaping a fiery warehouse ? and you’ve got a special effects-fueled superstar. It’s worked before: Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible series, or Christian Bale in the Batman movies. Add in that Downey comes cheap these days ? he got a “mere” $6 million for starring in Iron Man ? and he’s the kind of superstar Hollywood loves these days as well.

Now, will he stay cheap? Uh, no. The crowd with whom I saw Sherlock Holmes roared when the trailer for Iron Man 2 came on the screen before the main attraction. And Downey was at his smirking best on screen when he faced down a congressional inquiry in his role as the defiant Tony Stark. The crowd ate him up. And they’ll do the same this May, when Iron Man 2 opens.


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Marvel Studio Chairman to Jet Off to New Adventure

David Maisel will soon be an ex-super hero. The Chairman of Marvel Studios, who helped build the comic book company into an action movie powerhouse, is leaving the New York-based company once its $4 billion deal with the Walt Disney is finalized, BusinessWeek has learned. Maisel confirmed his departure, which could come shortly after the acquisition is finalized, expected to be Dec. 31.

Maisel, a one-time talent agent, says he intends to stay on as executive producer for three of the films that Marvel has put into production, Iron Man 2, Captain America and Thor, and will also be a part of Marvel’s effort to resurrect a Broadway show based on Spider-Man. “I couldn’t ask for a better six year ride,” says Maisel, "but now I get to work on projects that I like and explore other opportunities.” He would not say what he intends to do next.

Maisel was the first Marvel executive to discuss the notion of a sale with Disney, according to documents that Marvel filed with the SEC. Maisel and Iger, who knew each other from Maisel’s year at Disney in the mid-90s, would often do lunch. Iger broached the notion of a deal and Maisel took to Marvel's brass. The deal was finally agreed upon on August 31 for $50 in Disney stock and cash. Maisel, who made $5,2 million in cash, stock and incentives in 2008, is to collect an estimated $20.3 million in accelerated stock options and other benefits tied to the sale.

At Marvel, Maisel was instrumental in helping to build Marvel into a separate production entity, rather than continuing to license its films to other studios. In 2005, he engineered a $525 million film production facility that gave the company the funds to bankroll its own films and which Paramount would distribute for the company. Marvel’s first film under that agreement, the 2008 flick Iron Man, grossed more than $318 million at the US box office.

Kevin Feige, president of the studio and its top creative executive, is expected to stay with the studio after the deal is completed. Marvel and Disney both had no comment on the pending deal.


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GE, Vivendi Move Closer to NBC Deal

General Electric (GE) and French telecommunications company Vivendi(VIVDY) are inching back toward a deal for GE to buy Vivendi’s 20% stake in NBC Universal, sources say. The movement comes a week after talks between the two sides seemed near collapse, with the sides at one point being as much as $1 billion apart. GE needs to buy the minority stake in order to complete its planned sale of its NBC Universal media assets to cable giant Comcast. (CMCSA).

A source with knowledge of the talks say the two sides resumed pointed negotiations over the Thanksgiving weekend and hope to have an agreement announced this week, but in no case later than Dec. 10. That’s when Vivendi’s annual window for selling the stake back to GE expires. The source says that the two sides narrowed their differences to less than $500 million and are now pointing toward an agreement around $5.4 billion, although that number still appears fluid. These sources ay the deal could still fall apart altogether, although they are more optimistic than they have been in weeks.

GE had initially offered $5 billion for the stake, which Vivendi has held since selling an 80% stake in the Universal film studio and theme park to GE in 2004. The industrial giant’s tentative agreement with Comcast to merge GE’s media assets with the cable company’s cable channels had valued the combined company at roughly $30 billion, which would have indicated a price tag for Vivendi's 20% stake at just under a $6 billion, including NBC debt.

GE had offered less than that amount, however, thinking that Vivendi couldn’t fetch as much as it planned in an IPO. Under its agreement with Vivendi, GE can also preempt any planned IPO of the shares by buying them at a price to be determined by a third party.

Vivendi had valued its NBC stake at $6.3 billion in a June 30 securities filing, but the value had fallen closer to $6 billion. As part of any agreement with GE, the French company is believed to have insisted upon ? and gotten ? an agreement from the U.S. conglomerate to pay for part of its stake before the deal closes to guarantee against a lengthy regulatory review that might delay the deal’s closing.


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Mr. Zucker, Comcast On Line Three

The rub on Jeff Zucker, who heads NBC, has always been that no one could ever figure out what he did to get to the top. The 44-year old was a creature of General Electric. He rose from nowhere, starting as a researcher for the 1988 Olympics, and then as Katie Couric’s producer at The Today Show.

Using a combination of moxie and managing upward he jumped to run The Today Show, then sit atop NBC’s entertainment operations, and finally to run the entire NBC operation when Bob Wright retired in early 2007.

Well, Jeff, it looks like your luck has run out. The Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien mess will be your undoing, if not within the next few months then when Comcast takes over controlling interest in NBC Universal in the next year or so.

Your aim might have been laudable ? to fix the wobbly network TV business model by cutting programming costs -- but by putting Leno in the 10 pm prime time slot you’ve accelerated all of the business’ ailments. Menacing cable channels have picked off Leno defectors, NBC’s TV affiliates are steaming mad, and now NBC is at the mercy of just about every agent in Hollywood. If NBC wants a hot new David Kelly show (as it recently said it does) the network is going to pay through the nose for it.

The irony is that Zucker rose to the top at NBC on the basis of a prime time schedule that frankly stunk. The numbers of new shows that were created while he headed the prime time unit is few ? in fact, I can think of just one, The Office, and that one was a British import.

Somehow Zucker never got tarred with the failure. Instead, he got the top job, and got out while the getting was good. (Of course, he did hire Ben Silverman before moving upstairs, and Silverman never really found his way to a hit, either).

The General Electric folks loved Zucker, it seemed, because he gets the credit for pushing NBC into the brave new world of cable channels. And under him NBC enjoyed steep ratings growth at its Bravo, USA and SyFy (formerly the Sci-Fi) Channel.

But nothing rivets the viewers’ attention like the happenings at a major network. You can bet that, as the Leno and Conan sagas play out, the guys at Comcast are glued to their sets.


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Will The Fox and Time Warner Cable Spat Rekindle The A La Carte Debate?

As surely as the ball drops in Manhattan’s Times Square, another certainty on New Year’s Eve now seems to be that a tv programmer and a cable distributor will be locked in a public feud over money that almost certainly goes right down to the wire at midnight.

This year’s warring contenders are executives from News Corp.’s Fox Network and those from Time Warner Cable, the country’s second largest cable operator with 14 million customers. Fox is threatening to pull its programming at midnight tonight and leave those subscribers staring at black on their flat screens unless Time Warner Cable agrees to pay Fox a buck a month for every subscriber.

These kinds of disputes are nothing new. Time Warner Cable and Viacom did the same dance last New Year’s Eve before an 11th hour resolution was worked out.

But even if Fox and Time Warner Cable iron out a deal before midnight, the year-end spat may just have greater repercussions this time. The two sides may see negotiating in public as a necessary tactic, but being front and center with consumers, and pandering politicians, could come back to bite them.

Whatever Time Warner Cable agrees to pay Fox will surely be passed on to subscribers in their monthly bills. Consumers are already fed up with escalating cable bills, threatening to drop their service and instead watch free video offerings on the Internet. In this economy, the possibility that cable bills will rise even further can only mean that a campaign to mandate something called the a la carte model will be rekindled. Under this model, subscribers would have the choice of receiving, and paying for, only the channels they want. That may mean you would only get 30 channels instead of 500, but they would be the channels you know you will watch on a regular basis. If the Internet has taught consumers anything, it’s that choice on their own terms is a great thing. If, once the dust settles and Fox gets anywhere near a buck, the battle with Time Warner Cable may serve to push frustrated consumers to the breaking point.

A la carte was a big deal about five years ago when then-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin supported giving consumers this choice. Cable companies and programmers vehemently opposed a la carte, saying it would destroy the economics of their business. By unbundling cable offerings and fragmenting audiences, they argued, advertising rates would plummet and niche programming could not be supported. At the same time, distribution fees would rise even more, they posited.

Congressional hearings were held on the matter, but the a la carte debate faded away after Martin’s FCC reports on subject were called into question. The current FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, busy with plans to expand broadband access in the country, has said little about his position on a la carte. But with politicians like Sen. John Kerry taking a deep interest in the Fox- Time Warner Cable standoff (he’s threatening to intervene to make Fox stay on the air), can it only be a matter of time before Congress along with consumer groups make a la carte headlines once again?


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The Icahn Saga: The Poison Pill That Isn't


Carl Icahn is a reporter's dream. When things get a little slow, the 74-year old dealmaker always does something to spice it up. Which is what he did today when he said he was launching a tender offer for shares of Lionsgate(LGF)in a bid to give him a 30% stake in the company that makes the Saw and Tyler Perry movies.

So why is Icahn making his move on Lionsgate now, nearly a year after he last tried to win control of the company through a failed tender offer to buy the studio's convertible bonds? Among the reasons is this tasty little morsel: in 2009, when the company mounted a successful defense against Icahn, it went out of its way to remind investors that if Icahn got enough of the convertible notes he could be considered to control more than 20% of the company. That would trigger a bank covenant and "could result in a cross-default and acceleration of Lionsgate's payment obligations," the company said back then in a press release. Translation: the company might have to cough up a chunk of cash to pay off its $340 million revolving line of credit to its banks.

Well, that defense doesn't seem to be very potent right now. While no one was looking - no one except Icahn, it appears - Lionsgate but paid down that line of credit. As of Dec. 31, it said in its most recent financial filings, it had drawn only $12 million. So, if Icahn triggered the 20% threshold, it would only cost Lionsgate $12 million to pay off the line, not much for a company that had revenues of nearly $1.2 billion in the nine months that ended Dec. 31.

Neither Icahn not Lionsgate would comment. But Icahn is apparently worried that Lionsgate was keeping its powder dry so that it could use that credit line to make an acquisition, and both MGM and Disney's (DIS)Miramax library are on the market right now. He worried that they might overpay, I am told by sources who understand Carl Icahn's thinking on this issue. And without that line of credit, Lionsgate might not have the money to mount a bid at all, or at least that's what Icahn may be thinking.

Then again, the credit line is cheap money, priced at 2.5% above "adjusted LIBOR" or 2.73% as of Dec. 31, the company's filing says.. That's super cheap money that Lionsgate would no longer have at its disposal. And don't you think for a minute that Lionsgate's management won't make that point to shareholders in an effort to dissuade them from tendering their shares of Icahn.

Yup, here comes Lionsgate-Icahn, the sequel.


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Byrne Leaving BusinessWeek to Start Digital Media Company

John A. Byrne, for years one of BusinessWeek's most prolific writers and later one its most admired editors, is leaving the magazine to launch his own digital media company.

Byrne, 56, an executive editor and editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek.com, said he will officially step down when the sale of the magazine to Bloomberg is completed, as expected, on Dec. 1. (see Byrne's full memo to staff below). In two separate stints, Byrne spent 22 years at the magazine. In between, he served as editor-in-chief of Fast Company magazine from 2003 to 2005.

He will be re-locating to the San Francisco area. Byrne was recently married to Kate Rodler, who resides in Marin County. Byrne did not elaborate on what kind of media company he was interested in launching, or whether he had any financial backers.

During his tenure as a writer at BusinessWeek, Byrne penned a record 58 cover stories while also authoring eight books. His last book was a collaboration with GE Chairman Jack Welch, Jack: Straight From The Gut. Former BusinessWeek Editor-in-Chief Steve Shepard once jokingly referred to Byrne as Johann Sebastian Byrne because of the substantive body of work he created while at the magazine. Byrne also earned a reputation as a patient mentor over the years to lots of young BusinessWeek staffers.

Byrne was instrumental in launching BusinessWeek's Best Business Schools rankings, and as executive editor, he and his team created three additional annual franchises, including the highly successful Customer Service Champions and the Best Places to Launch a Career. In addition, Byrne recruited to the magazine such weekly columnists as Jack and Suzy Welch, Maria Bartiromo, and renowned wine critic Robert Parker.

Under his leadership of BusinessWeek's web operations, which he assumed in 2007, traffic and user engagement, with monthly unique visitors has risen by 40% to 10.4 million (more than twice the size of the magazine’s audience). Under his leadership, BW.com has won two consecutive National Magazine Awards. What's more, Byrne was inducted last year by Media Industry News into the Digital Hall of Fame and this year min named him one of 21 “Superstars of Social Media.” Byrne has nearly 18,000 followers on Twitter, under the handle JOHNABYRNE.

“John brought his prodigious energy, credibility, and creativity to BusinessWeek.com after a stellar, award-winning career in print and truly outdid himself," says Stephen J. Adler, editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek who will be leaving the magazine as well on Dec. 1. "He leaves as one of the most exciting innovators in the entire digital world, and I’m eagerly awaiting his next venture.”

Not to be overlooked is Byrne's tireless support of the BusinessWeek softball team, which has appeared in all three championship games of the New York Media Softball League, which was formed in 2007. BW captured the crown in 2008 after a record-breaking undefeated streak.


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Leno Leaves, NBC's Wobbly Business Model Returns

Announcements don’t get much more dramatic than the one NBC made today about yanking The Jay Leno show from its 10 o’clock time period just three months after the former host of The Tonight Show began his one-hour comedy, skit show.

Yes, NBC TV honcho Jeff Gaspin told an overflow gathering of reporters on Sunday’s TV Critics Tour in Pasadena, Calif., NBC’s 200-odd affiliates had forced the change because prime time ratings tanked. The reason? Their 11 pm news programs, a nice little profit center for most stations, was suddenly hemorrhaging through no fault of their own.

But what Gaspin didn’t say ? at least not so boldly ? was that NBC had also made an abrupt u-turn on its plans to remake a broken business model for making TV shows. Prime time pilots are made for $10 million, shows for $3 million or so, and viewing audiences are going south. Gaspin’s predecessor, Jeff Zucker, had made the fateful decision to bring in Leno, and to shuttle Law and Order and other 10 pm shows out of their time slots, by arguing that ratings would go down but so would costs.

So much for that idea. Coupled with the announcement that Leno was taking his $500,000 a week show off the air at 10 pm., was the announcement that NBC was going back to the good old ways that networks have always operated. Namely, big producers, big stars, and cross your fingers the shows work. How about these for some biggies to whom NBC said it is throwing its bucks the next few weeks in hopes of finding TV lightning in a bottle ? Jerry Bruckheimer, David E. Kelly and J.J. Abrams, who will direct a pilot called “Undercovers” about CIA agents. The last time Abrams directed a pilot, it only cost $13 million.

Of course, that pilot was Lost, which was an immediate and big (although not terribly long lasting) hit on ABC. Clearly, that’s what NBC is hoping Abrams will bring to NBC as well. Then again, they’re hoping the same thing for a remake of “The Rockford Files” that they’ve also ordered for what’s going to be a pricey sum. We all know how their last retread effort -- i.e. “Knight Rider” -- turned out.


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So Long AOL Time Warner, Old Friend

For media reporters everywhere, Thursday will be one wistful day. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is expected to climb the podium and ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. With that, AOL will officially be unleashed from Time Warner. The divorce marks the end of an era. The soap opera representing the union of AOL and Time Warner was the media story that just kept on giving for a glorious and tumultuous decade.

When I took over the media beat at BusinessWeek in October, 2000, my first story was a commentary that said Time Warner executives were already questioning whether merging with AOL made sense, this three months before the deal would close. The piece was illustrated with storm clouds looming over a photo of Time Warner CEO Jerry Levin and AOL CEO Steve Case. That prompted an angry call from the Time Warner PR denizens to our then editor-in-chief Steve Shepard. The worst was still to come for AOL Time Warner, the best for those of us covering media. Accounting scandal. Corporate politics. Management shakeups. Government investigations. Parent company name change. Strategy Shifts. Turf battles. Plunging share price. Shareholder lawsuits. Sweeping layoffs.

The story's lasting legacy for journalism outfits is that the AOL Time Warner merger broke down newsroom silos. It really was the first big story that made technology and media reporters work together because AOL in those days was typically covered by the tech side. And, boy, were we suspicious of each other. I partnered for years with Cathy Yang, our AOL reporter, but it took a while before we worked well as a team. Today, the overlay between technology and media is so common that teaming up is no big deal.

Now, tens of thousands of column inches later, three books and I am sure a script has been optioned somewhere, we’ve come to the end of the AOL and Time Warner thread. We’re going to miss the worst corporate merger in history. They say the recent NBC Universal-Comcast partnership will become the new AOL Time Warner. Maybe. But I just can’t imagine it will dish out the same Sturm und Drang that kept us rich in bylines all these years.


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Can AOL Be Saved?

In less than a week, AOL's corporate overlords at Time Warner will spin out the Internet unit, ending what is arguably the worst corporate marriage ever. Here's our take in this week's magazine, the first edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, on what CEO Tim Armstrong is up against.

What do you think? Does Armstrong have a chance of turning around AOL?


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Dow Jones Executive Recruited To Be Bloomberg BusinessWeek President

A Dow Jones executive charged with boosting revenues across the company's various print and online properties will become the first president of Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Paul Bascobert, 45, will be responsible for finding new revenue opportunities for the magazine, as well as boosting circulation and reversing the losses that BusinessWeek has posted during the past several years. He begins his job on Jan. 4. (see below for a staff memo announcing Bascobert's hiring from Bloomberg CEO Daniel Doctoroff and Bloomberg BusinessWeek Chairman Norman Pearlstine). Bloomberg's acquisition of BusinessWeek closed on Dec. 1.

Despite the dire shape of the media industry, Bascobert says he is optimistic "because I see a real demand for a well-written global business product." He says it is too early to articulate what his concrete plans will be for the magazine, but "I am encouraged by the forward thinking at Bloomberg."

Bascobert did say that he believes a weekly magazine is a better complement to a business news website than a daily newspaper. Providing a daily news digest online and then a deeper, more analytical take on business weekly, he says, serves readers more fully.

At Dow Jones, where he served as chief marketing officer of its Consumer Media Group, Bascobert's accomplishments included everything from lowering operating costs by streamlining distribution and outsourcing certain IT functions to helping launch local editions for The Wall Street Journal. He also managed to do the unthinkable in this depressed newspaper market: boost circulation revenues.


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Byrne Leaving BusinessWeek to Start Digital Media Company

John A. Byrne, for years one of BusinessWeek's most prolific writers and later one its most admired editors, is leaving the magazine to launch his own digital media company.

Byrne, 56, an executive editor and editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek.com, said he will officially step down when the sale of the magazine to Bloomberg is completed, as expected, on Dec. 1. (see Byrne's full memo to staff below). In two separate stints, Byrne spent 22 years at the magazine. In between, he served as editor-in-chief of Fast Company magazine from 2003 to 2005.

He will be re-locating to the San Francisco area. Byrne was recently married to Kate Rodler, who resides in Marin County. Byrne did not elaborate on what kind of media company he was interested in launching, or whether he had any financial backers.

During his tenure as a writer at BusinessWeek, Byrne penned a record 58 cover stories while also authoring eight books. His last book was a collaboration with GE Chairman Jack Welch, Jack: Straight From The Gut. Former BusinessWeek Editor-in-Chief Steve Shepard once jokingly referred to Byrne as Johann Sebastian Byrne because of the substantive body of work he created while at the magazine. Byrne also earned a reputation as a patient mentor over the years to lots of young BusinessWeek staffers.

Byrne was instrumental in launching BusinessWeek's Best Business Schools rankings, and as executive editor, he and his team created three additional annual franchises, including the highly successful Customer Service Champions and the Best Places to Launch a Career. In addition, Byrne recruited to the magazine such weekly columnists as Jack and Suzy Welch, Maria Bartiromo, and renowned wine critic Robert Parker.

Under his leadership of BusinessWeek's web operations, which he assumed in 2007, traffic and user engagement, with monthly unique visitors has risen by 40% to 10.4 million (more than twice the size of the magazine’s audience). Under his leadership, BW.com has won two consecutive National Magazine Awards. What's more, Byrne was inducted last year by Media Industry News into the Digital Hall of Fame and this year min named him one of 21 “Superstars of Social Media.” Byrne has nearly 18,000 followers on Twitter, under the handle JOHNABYRNE.

“John brought his prodigious energy, credibility, and creativity to BusinessWeek.com after a stellar, award-winning career in print and truly outdid himself," says Stephen J. Adler, editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek who will be leaving the magazine as well on Dec. 1. "He leaves as one of the most exciting innovators in the entire digital world, and I’m eagerly awaiting his next venture.”

Not to be overlooked is Byrne's tireless support of the BusinessWeek softball team, which has appeared in all three championship games of the New York Media Softball League, which was formed in 2007. BW captured the crown in 2008 after a record-breaking undefeated streak.


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Ryan Kavanaugh May Make Believers out of Hollywood Yet

For most of the last five years, it seems, Hollywood’s favorite game has been handicap when ? not if ? Ryan Kavanaugh would come crashing down. Kavanaugh, who runs Relativity Media, is the 35-year old wunderkind who raised more than $8 billion from private equity investors since arriving on the scene in 2005. His company finances most of the movies made by Universal Pictures (GE) and several by Sony Pictures (SNE) as well.
But Relativity has also been quietly becoming a production studio in its own right, and this weekend seems to have hit the big time. Its romantic drama Dear John scored big at the box office, generating a larger than expected $32.4 million opening weekend that made it the first film in nearly two months to knock Jim Cameron’s 3D space epic Avatar from the top rung of box office performers.

For Ryan Kavanaugh critics, and Hollywood is crawling with them, this can’t be good news. The whisper campaign has been that Kavanaugh is all show and now go, that he has used smoke and mirrors to make his numbers look good, and that investors would soon be lining up to sue the financier.
Well, folks, is doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon. His slate deals with Universal and Sony have had both winners (Universal’s It’s Complicated) and losers (Sony’s The International) but no more or less than any other fund in town. But what Ryan Kavanaugh has right now is a bone fide hit. And, whether he’s saying it or not, odds are that he’s plenty happy to make some people eat their words.

Dear John, which stars young actors Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfriend in a young love tear-jerker of a couple who find one another before an army soldier ships out, is among a group of films that Relativity is making on its own. (It’s a separate business from its financing of so-called “slate deals” with Universal and Sony.) And Dear John proved to be a huge hit with young women under 21, according to exit polls. Better yet, it was made for around $20 million, meaning that Kavanaugh and his investors will see some heady profits from the flick.


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First Bids in MGM Auction Expected Soon

How’s the modern day “data room” work? Forget the locked conference room in a law firm, where the dealmakers of old used to pour over reams of facts, figures and assumptions while contemplating whether to bid for a company. MGM, the fabled but debt-hobbled studio, has set up an online site with its data and is parceling out access as it prepares to launch an auction pressed by its debt holders.

A first round of bids are expected shortly after Thanksgiving from companies that have been given access to the online site ? so far that’s Warner Brothers(TWX) and Fox (NWS), according to a source with knowledge of the bidding. But even if Warner and Fox submit bids, those bids aren’t likely to be the end of the MGM drama. Instead, holders of the studio’s $3.7 billion in debt are expected to use what are expected to be all-cash bids from those studios as the starting point in their decision as to the “strategic alternatives” they choose to take. An MGM spokeswoman did not return requests for comment.

MGM said on Nov. 13 that it was “beginning a process to explore various strategic alternatives, including operating as a standalone entity, forming strategic partnerships and evaluating a potential sale of the company.” It also said that it had received an extension from Dec. 15 to Jan. 31 of the forbearance agreement from its lenders that has allowed MGM to postpone debt payment that threatens to throw the studio into bankruptcy. Sources with knowledge of the online data room say that MGM and its investment bankers haven’t as yet opened access to the wide range of parties that might consider bidding on the company, instead choosing to see how high competing studios might value the company. The studios are expected to value the company on the basis of its 4,100 film library and the rights to the James Bond, Pink Panther and other franchises.

Getting a potential price tag for the studio would enable the 140-odd debtor group to determine whether they might hang onto the studio or launch a formal auction process.
At least one private equity fund, Qualia Capital, is said to be interested in joining the bidding but would do so with a structured plan that would include injecting some capital into MGM, converting some of its debt into equity and operating the company as a standalone venture n hopes of increasing its value for a sale further down the road. Another studio, Lions Gate(LGF) is also said to be interested in taking a look at MGM’s financials and might try to structure a bid. Lions Gate declined comment. Media dealmaker John Malone(LMBIA) has said he’d like to look at the data. But the Liberty Media chairman says he isn’t likely to bid on the entire studio.


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News Corp, Time Warner Play to DC Not The Viewers


Was there ever any doubt that News Corp. and Time Warner would come to an agreement that would allow Time Warner’s cable unit to continue showing News Corp’s cable or broadcast properties on its system? The announcement on Jan. 1 that the two sides had averted a showdown that would have kept the BCS football game on the sidelines for 11 million folks is, well, a yawner.

It’s become almost an annual kabuki dance among cable or satellite operators and content providers to show which side ? content or distribution ? has the most muscle when it comes to such talks. Guess what fellas? Neither of you really have what it takes any longer to force your will on the other.

The last time we had a showdown anywhere near this size was back in 2000, when Time Warner, in the midst of a similar showdown with ABC, allowed Regis Philbin and his then-hit show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” to go dark for some 3.5 million homes. The cries from Washington were deafening. Hearings were held, fingers slapped.

So when the chorus started again in Washington on Dec. 30 on the current impasse you knew that Fox and Time Warner were destined to do whatever they could to avoid having DC on their backs. First, Sen. John Kerry urged the sides toward arbitration, and then FCC commissioners started encouraging peace. If there is anything that a media company wants less than a shutdown in the ad markets, it’s to have the feds on their backs. So Time Warner and News Corp. wisely extended the Dec. 30 deadline, then scurried to cut a deal that you know is less than the monthly $1 per subscriber fee that News Corp. had all but insisted was their right to get from cable operators.

One thing News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, who owns TV stations, newspapers and internet sites, understands is that he sure as heck doesn’t want an angry FCC looking over his shoulder. In the past, he’s done back flips to keep them happy, whether it was striking a deal that allowed him to own the New York Post and New York area TV stations, or to get his deal to buy DirecTV passed a few years back. As for Time Warner, do you think they want the feds thinking bad thoughts about them when the FCC is still contemplating rules on such things as “net neutrality” ? that is, whether Time Warner’s online offerings are to be regulated? Uh, no.

Sure, it was good theater. News Corp. told America that it might not get the NFL, American Idol or Glee. Time Warner said it was fighting to keep consumer prices from zooming if Fox high jacked higher fees from them. Yeah, yeah. A good show boys. It sure played in Washington.


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Monday, December 19, 2011

A Chat With BusinessWeek's Editor-To-Be

Josh Tyrangiel, who was named this morning to be editor of a Bloomberg-owned BusinessWeek, says it's too early to lay out specific plans for the magazine but his goal is to create "a great indispensable business weekly."

In a brief interview, Tyrangiel, 37, says he plans to meet soon with BW staffers as a group and individually to gather their input so "we can formulate a strategy for the magazine together." Tyrangiel has been serving as a deputy managing editor of Time magazine and as the top editor of its online operations.

While he earned kudos for his work online at Time, Tyrangiel says he is committed to long-form journalism in print. "Listen, the big mistake magazines made was trying to imitate the Web," he said. "Magazines are read reclining, and that lends itself to longer, more in-depth stories."

Tryangiel has edited business stories in the past but he acknowledged that he is not a traditional business journalist. He says his background is an "opportunity" for the magazine. "I need help," he said, "and I am going to rely on the staff. I want the staff to stay in their lanes and be experts on their subjects."

He believes a big reason that Bloomberg LP Chief Content Officer Norman Pearlstine and Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief Matthew Winkler recruited him is that "I am a good person at bringing people together. We are going to work on this as a team."


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Leno Leaves, NBC's Wobbly Business Model Returns

Announcements don’t get much more dramatic than the one NBC made today about yanking The Jay Leno show from its 10 o’clock time period just three months after the former host of The Tonight Show began his one-hour comedy, skit show.

Yes, NBC TV honcho Jeff Gaspin told an overflow gathering of reporters on Sunday’s TV Critics Tour in Pasadena, Calif., NBC’s 200-odd affiliates had forced the change because prime time ratings tanked. The reason? Their 11 pm news programs, a nice little profit center for most stations, was suddenly hemorrhaging through no fault of their own.

But what Gaspin didn’t say ? at least not so boldly ? was that NBC had also made an abrupt u-turn on its plans to remake a broken business model for making TV shows. Prime time pilots are made for $10 million, shows for $3 million or so, and viewing audiences are going south. Gaspin’s predecessor, Jeff Zucker, had made the fateful decision to bring in Leno, and to shuttle Law and Order and other 10 pm shows out of their time slots, by arguing that ratings would go down but so would costs.

So much for that idea. Coupled with the announcement that Leno was taking his $500,000 a week show off the air at 10 pm., was the announcement that NBC was going back to the good old ways that networks have always operated. Namely, big producers, big stars, and cross your fingers the shows work. How about these for some biggies to whom NBC said it is throwing its bucks the next few weeks in hopes of finding TV lightning in a bottle ? Jerry Bruckheimer, David E. Kelly and J.J. Abrams, who will direct a pilot called “Undercovers” about CIA agents. The last time Abrams directed a pilot, it only cost $13 million.

Of course, that pilot was Lost, which was an immediate and big (although not terribly long lasting) hit on ABC. Clearly, that’s what NBC is hoping Abrams will bring to NBC as well. Then again, they’re hoping the same thing for a remake of “The Rockford Files” that they’ve also ordered for what’s going to be a pricey sum. We all know how their last retread effort -- i.e. “Knight Rider” -- turned out.


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Robert Downey, Jr. Superstar


It suddenly occurred to me today ? after my wife and I were forced to head back to the theater twice in the same weekend to catch Sherlock Holmes -- that Robert Downey, Jr. has suddenly become the hottest actor on the planet. That’s right, Robert Downey, Jr., who six years back had to drop out the Woody Allen film Melinda and Melinda because the costs to insure him were too high after several well-publicized arrests and a trip to the drug rehab clinic.

But Robert Downey, Jr seems able to do no wrong these days at the box office. As I found when I couldn’t get into his flick on Saturday, he has his third mega-hit on his hands with Sherlock Holmes, which opened second this weekend to Avatar but still clocked a steep $65.4 million.

The flick is certain to pass $100 million, which would give the 45-year old Downey roles in three $100 million performances in the last two years ? his breakout starring role as Tony Stark in Iron Man, which grossed $318 million in the US and $585 million worldwide, and the comedy Tropic Thunder, for which he was nominated for an Oscar for his hilarious turn as an Australian method actor who undergoes surgery to play an African-American. (Oh, and the film also grossed more than $110 million in the U.S.)

So, why is Robert Downey, Jr. so hot? Well, the camera clearly loves him these days. He mugs, smirks and plays the smart aleck with such style that he can pull of the role of a snarky corporate exec in Iron Man or the equally smarmy Sherlock Holmes. But chalk one up for Hollywood. For once they’ve got it right, casting a bad boy gone straight in the role of ? well ? a bad boy who has more or less gone straight.

So, surround Downey’s bad boy acting with enough pyrotechnics --- Iron Man taking out Arab terrorists with his pulse beams or Sherlock Holmes escaping a fiery warehouse ? and you’ve got a special effects-fueled superstar. It’s worked before: Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible series, or Christian Bale in the Batman movies. Add in that Downey comes cheap these days ? he got a “mere” $6 million for starring in Iron Man ? and he’s the kind of superstar Hollywood loves these days as well.

Now, will he stay cheap? Uh, no. The crowd with whom I saw Sherlock Holmes roared when the trailer for Iron Man 2 came on the screen before the main attraction. And Downey was at his smirking best on screen when he faced down a congressional inquiry in his role as the defiant Tony Stark. The crowd ate him up. And they’ll do the same this May, when Iron Man 2 opens.


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Mr. Zucker, Comcast On Line Three

The rub on Jeff Zucker, who heads NBC, has always been that no one could ever figure out what he did to get to the top. The 44-year old was a creature of General Electric. He rose from nowhere, starting as a researcher for the 1988 Olympics, and then as Katie Couric’s producer at The Today Show.

Using a combination of moxie and managing upward he jumped to run The Today Show, then sit atop NBC’s entertainment operations, and finally to run the entire NBC operation when Bob Wright retired in early 2007.

Well, Jeff, it looks like your luck has run out. The Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien mess will be your undoing, if not within the next few months then when Comcast takes over controlling interest in NBC Universal in the next year or so.

Your aim might have been laudable ? to fix the wobbly network TV business model by cutting programming costs -- but by putting Leno in the 10 pm prime time slot you’ve accelerated all of the business’ ailments. Menacing cable channels have picked off Leno defectors, NBC’s TV affiliates are steaming mad, and now NBC is at the mercy of just about every agent in Hollywood. If NBC wants a hot new David Kelly show (as it recently said it does) the network is going to pay through the nose for it.

The irony is that Zucker rose to the top at NBC on the basis of a prime time schedule that frankly stunk. The numbers of new shows that were created while he headed the prime time unit is few ? in fact, I can think of just one, The Office, and that one was a British import.

Somehow Zucker never got tarred with the failure. Instead, he got the top job, and got out while the getting was good. (Of course, he did hire Ben Silverman before moving upstairs, and Silverman never really found his way to a hit, either).

The General Electric folks loved Zucker, it seemed, because he gets the credit for pushing NBC into the brave new world of cable channels. And under him NBC enjoyed steep ratings growth at its Bravo, USA and SyFy (formerly the Sci-Fi) Channel.

But nothing rivets the viewers’ attention like the happenings at a major network. You can bet that, as the Leno and Conan sagas play out, the guys at Comcast are glued to their sets.


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Ryan Kavanaugh May Make Believers out of Hollywood Yet

For most of the last five years, it seems, Hollywood’s favorite game has been handicap when ? not if ? Ryan Kavanaugh would come crashing down. Kavanaugh, who runs Relativity Media, is the 35-year old wunderkind who raised more than $8 billion from private equity investors since arriving on the scene in 2005. His company finances most of the movies made by Universal Pictures (GE) and several by Sony Pictures (SNE) as well.
But Relativity has also been quietly becoming a production studio in its own right, and this weekend seems to have hit the big time. Its romantic drama Dear John scored big at the box office, generating a larger than expected $32.4 million opening weekend that made it the first film in nearly two months to knock Jim Cameron’s 3D space epic Avatar from the top rung of box office performers.

For Ryan Kavanaugh critics, and Hollywood is crawling with them, this can’t be good news. The whisper campaign has been that Kavanaugh is all show and now go, that he has used smoke and mirrors to make his numbers look good, and that investors would soon be lining up to sue the financier.
Well, folks, is doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon. His slate deals with Universal and Sony have had both winners (Universal’s It’s Complicated) and losers (Sony’s The International) but no more or less than any other fund in town. But what Ryan Kavanaugh has right now is a bone fide hit. And, whether he’s saying it or not, odds are that he’s plenty happy to make some people eat their words.

Dear John, which stars young actors Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfriend in a young love tear-jerker of a couple who find one another before an army soldier ships out, is among a group of films that Relativity is making on its own. (It’s a separate business from its financing of so-called “slate deals” with Universal and Sony.) And Dear John proved to be a huge hit with young women under 21, according to exit polls. Better yet, it was made for around $20 million, meaning that Kavanaugh and his investors will see some heady profits from the flick.


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GE, Vivendi Move Closer to NBC Deal

General Electric (GE) and French telecommunications company Vivendi(VIVDY) are inching back toward a deal for GE to buy Vivendi’s 20% stake in NBC Universal, sources say. The movement comes a week after talks between the two sides seemed near collapse, with the sides at one point being as much as $1 billion apart. GE needs to buy the minority stake in order to complete its planned sale of its NBC Universal media assets to cable giant Comcast. (CMCSA).

A source with knowledge of the talks say the two sides resumed pointed negotiations over the Thanksgiving weekend and hope to have an agreement announced this week, but in no case later than Dec. 10. That’s when Vivendi’s annual window for selling the stake back to GE expires. The source says that the two sides narrowed their differences to less than $500 million and are now pointing toward an agreement around $5.4 billion, although that number still appears fluid. These sources ay the deal could still fall apart altogether, although they are more optimistic than they have been in weeks.

GE had initially offered $5 billion for the stake, which Vivendi has held since selling an 80% stake in the Universal film studio and theme park to GE in 2004. The industrial giant’s tentative agreement with Comcast to merge GE’s media assets with the cable company’s cable channels had valued the combined company at roughly $30 billion, which would have indicated a price tag for Vivendi's 20% stake at just under a $6 billion, including NBC debt.

GE had offered less than that amount, however, thinking that Vivendi couldn’t fetch as much as it planned in an IPO. Under its agreement with Vivendi, GE can also preempt any planned IPO of the shares by buying them at a price to be determined by a third party.

Vivendi had valued its NBC stake at $6.3 billion in a June 30 securities filing, but the value had fallen closer to $6 billion. As part of any agreement with GE, the French company is believed to have insisted upon ? and gotten ? an agreement from the U.S. conglomerate to pay for part of its stake before the deal closes to guarantee against a lengthy regulatory review that might delay the deal’s closing.


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Can AOL Be Saved?

In less than a week, AOL's corporate overlords at Time Warner will spin out the Internet unit, ending what is arguably the worst corporate marriage ever. Here's our take in this week's magazine, the first edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, on what CEO Tim Armstrong is up against.

What do you think? Does Armstrong have a chance of turning around AOL?


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Dow Jones Executive Recruited To Be Bloomberg BusinessWeek President

A Dow Jones executive charged with boosting revenues across the company's various print and online properties will become the first president of Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Paul Bascobert, 45, will be responsible for finding new revenue opportunities for the magazine, as well as boosting circulation and reversing the losses that BusinessWeek has posted during the past several years. He begins his job on Jan. 4. (see below for a staff memo announcing Bascobert's hiring from Bloomberg CEO Daniel Doctoroff and Bloomberg BusinessWeek Chairman Norman Pearlstine). Bloomberg's acquisition of BusinessWeek closed on Dec. 1.

Despite the dire shape of the media industry, Bascobert says he is optimistic "because I see a real demand for a well-written global business product." He says it is too early to articulate what his concrete plans will be for the magazine, but "I am encouraged by the forward thinking at Bloomberg."

Bascobert did say that he believes a weekly magazine is a better complement to a business news website than a daily newspaper. Providing a daily news digest online and then a deeper, more analytical take on business weekly, he says, serves readers more fully.

At Dow Jones, where he served as chief marketing officer of its Consumer Media Group, Bascobert's accomplishments included everything from lowering operating costs by streamlining distribution and outsourcing certain IT functions to helping launch local editions for The Wall Street Journal. He also managed to do the unthinkable in this depressed newspaper market: boost circulation revenues.


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So Long AOL Time Warner, Old Friend

For media reporters everywhere, Thursday will be one wistful day. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is expected to climb the podium and ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. With that, AOL will officially be unleashed from Time Warner. The divorce marks the end of an era. The soap opera representing the union of AOL and Time Warner was the media story that just kept on giving for a glorious and tumultuous decade.

When I took over the media beat at BusinessWeek in October, 2000, my first story was a commentary that said Time Warner executives were already questioning whether merging with AOL made sense, this three months before the deal would close. The piece was illustrated with storm clouds looming over a photo of Time Warner CEO Jerry Levin and AOL CEO Steve Case. That prompted an angry call from the Time Warner PR denizens to our then editor-in-chief Steve Shepard. The worst was still to come for AOL Time Warner, the best for those of us covering media. Accounting scandal. Corporate politics. Management shakeups. Government investigations. Parent company name change. Strategy Shifts. Turf battles. Plunging share price. Shareholder lawsuits. Sweeping layoffs.

The story's lasting legacy for journalism outfits is that the AOL Time Warner merger broke down newsroom silos. It really was the first big story that made technology and media reporters work together because AOL in those days was typically covered by the tech side. And, boy, were we suspicious of each other. I partnered for years with Cathy Yang, our AOL reporter, but it took a while before we worked well as a team. Today, the overlay between technology and media is so common that teaming up is no big deal.

Now, tens of thousands of column inches later, three books and I am sure a script has been optioned somewhere, we’ve come to the end of the AOL and Time Warner thread. We’re going to miss the worst corporate merger in history. They say the recent NBC Universal-Comcast partnership will become the new AOL Time Warner. Maybe. But I just can’t imagine it will dish out the same Sturm und Drang that kept us rich in bylines all these years.


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Byrne Leaving BusinessWeek to Start Digital Media Company

John A. Byrne, for years one of BusinessWeek's most prolific writers and later one its most admired editors, is leaving the magazine to launch his own digital media company.

Byrne, 56, an executive editor and editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek.com, said he will officially step down when the sale of the magazine to Bloomberg is completed, as expected, on Dec. 1. (see Byrne's full memo to staff below). In two separate stints, Byrne spent 22 years at the magazine. In between, he served as editor-in-chief of Fast Company magazine from 2003 to 2005.

He will be re-locating to the San Francisco area. Byrne was recently married to Kate Rodler, who resides in Marin County. Byrne did not elaborate on what kind of media company he was interested in launching, or whether he had any financial backers.

During his tenure as a writer at BusinessWeek, Byrne penned a record 58 cover stories while also authoring eight books. His last book was a collaboration with GE Chairman Jack Welch, Jack: Straight From The Gut. Former BusinessWeek Editor-in-Chief Steve Shepard once jokingly referred to Byrne as Johann Sebastian Byrne because of the substantive body of work he created while at the magazine. Byrne also earned a reputation as a patient mentor over the years to lots of young BusinessWeek staffers.

Byrne was instrumental in launching BusinessWeek's Best Business Schools rankings, and as executive editor, he and his team created three additional annual franchises, including the highly successful Customer Service Champions and the Best Places to Launch a Career. In addition, Byrne recruited to the magazine such weekly columnists as Jack and Suzy Welch, Maria Bartiromo, and renowned wine critic Robert Parker.

Under his leadership of BusinessWeek's web operations, which he assumed in 2007, traffic and user engagement, with monthly unique visitors has risen by 40% to 10.4 million (more than twice the size of the magazine’s audience). Under his leadership, BW.com has won two consecutive National Magazine Awards. What's more, Byrne was inducted last year by Media Industry News into the Digital Hall of Fame and this year min named him one of 21 “Superstars of Social Media.” Byrne has nearly 18,000 followers on Twitter, under the handle JOHNABYRNE.

“John brought his prodigious energy, credibility, and creativity to BusinessWeek.com after a stellar, award-winning career in print and truly outdid himself," says Stephen J. Adler, editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek who will be leaving the magazine as well on Dec. 1. "He leaves as one of the most exciting innovators in the entire digital world, and I’m eagerly awaiting his next venture.”

Not to be overlooked is Byrne's tireless support of the BusinessWeek softball team, which has appeared in all three championship games of the New York Media Softball League, which was formed in 2007. BW captured the crown in 2008 after a record-breaking undefeated streak.


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