Eychaner fundraises for Clinton
Eychaner throws a fundraiser for Clinton in his Chicago home. He states:
Everybody working together needs to make Hillary the next president.
When asked if he would become a major donor to Priorities USA Action he responds:
I assume so. Nobody has approached me about a super-PAC yet. Don’t open up the floodgates, but nobody has called about the subject.
On the subject of the at least $25 million in contributions to the Clinton Foundation:
If you want to try to go to a sports analogy, that’s a career total for support starting in 2001, for the library and for HIV and for everything else along the way, for general operating support sometimes and for their endowment. So, it’s all reported. None of it is lacking in transparency.
About himself he says:
I’m not a billionaire and I’m not a mogul. I’m a retired media executive.
Clinton hires Praeli
Clinton hires Praeli, one of the most prominent activists among the Dreamers, to lead her Latino outreach efforts. Renteria, the Clinton campaign’s political director says:
Bringing Lorella into our campaign is the next step in making sure families aren’t living in fear of deportation, all students have the chance to go to college, and that any comprehensive immigration reform ensures full and equal citizenship.
Waco franchise agreement revoked
Corporate officials for the chain restaurant say they are revoking its franchise agreement.
We are in the people business, and the safety of the employees and guests in our restaurants is priority one. Unfortunately, the management team of the franchised restaurant in Waco chose to ignore the warnings and advice from both the police and our company, and did not uphold the high security standards we have in place to ensure everyone is safe at our restaurants. We will not tolerate the actions of this relatively new franchisee and are revoking their franchise agreement immediately. Our sympathies continue to be with the families of those who died and are very thankful on employees, guests, police officers of bystanders were hurt or injured.
Hires O’Hern
O’Malley hires O’Hern, a veteran field operative in Iowa, to be his caucus director, a position which oversees voter contact, according to multiple Democratic sources. Spokespeople for O’Malley’s political action committee do not respond to multiple requests for comment.
$150 million first fund
Gouw and Fonstad raise $150 million for Aspect’s first fund. Gouw:
We’re targeting $2 million to $5 million checks, but wanted to be small enough to also be able to work with a bigger platform firm if it’s a $10 million round — and there are a lot more of those now than there used to be. We’ll also devote around 20% of the fund to seed deals with the intention of then leading the A round.
Cross Culture VC raising $50m fund
Carter and Nichols are raising a $50 million fund for Cross Culture Ventures, according to a regulatory filing. The fund will target seed and Series A tech startups.
Stock crashes after early earnings release
The Company’s stock crashes after financial analytics firm Selerity posts a quarterly report before the stock market closes. The report shows revenue growth at 74 percent in the quarter, which is below the company’s own forecasts. Twitter shares plunge on the news, and trading briefly halts so the company can disseminate its results. The drop steepens and the stock ends the day down about 18 percent. Executives attribute the slowdown to a transition to an advertising model that prices certain ads based on the result, such as whether the viewer downloaded an app, instead of whether the person simply clicks on it.
First Quarter EPS below estimates
For the sixth straight quarter, Google’s earnings fell below analyst estimates, with earnings per share of $6.57 against analysts expectation of $6.61. But investors were pleased with a healthy bump in the number of paid clicks on Google ads and comments from executives about the growing popularity of ads on YouTube, sending shares up 4% to $567.45 in after-hours trading.
Oppose cable Merger
U.S. Sens. Markey and Warren urge the Obama administration to block Comcast’s proposal for a$45.2 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable, saying the merger is bad for consumers.The lack of competition will only “make things worse” for consumers already frustrated by increasingly high cable and Internet bills. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler:
Today’s world demands affordable access to high-quality Internet and TV services. Should the transaction survive the FCC’s and DOJ’s reviews, we believe that Comcast-TWC’s unmatched power in the telecommunications industry would lead to higher prices, fewer choices, and poorer quality services for Americans.
Chen out, Tonsdast CEO
Chen leaves the company to be replaced by Tonstad. Rumors that 25 staff have been fired are counterd by the company, which says they are “redundancies” and “streamlining” Company:
TIDAL’s new interum [sic] CEO is Peter Tonstad – a former CEO of parent company Aspiro Group. He has a better understanding of the industry and a clear vision for how the company is looking to change the status quo. He’s streamlining resources to ensure talent is maximized to enhance the customer experience. We’ve eliminated a handful of positions and refocused our company-wide talent to address departments that need support and cut redundancies. TIDAL’s offices globally will remain and grow: we are already hirinig [sic] for several new positions now. We’re excited about our future and what’s in-store for fans who want the best listening experience.
Tonstad:
I believe in TIDAL and what the team is doing to affect the change the music industry needs. We’re streamlining the company and refocusing our resources to ensure the platform continues to grow, and listeners can make a connection to their favorite artists. No one else is doing this.
Japan Today sold
GPlus Media, the company that publishes Japan Today, is sold to Fuji TV-Lab, a subsidiary of Fuji Media Holdings Inc. The sales also includes GPlus’ other internet properties, including GaijinPot and Real Estate Japan. Fuji TV-Lab:
The Japanese government has set an annual target of 20 million foreign visitors to Japan in 2020 for the Tokyo Olympic/Paralympics Games and Fuji Media Holdings expects this will increase the demand for media targeting foreign residents and visitors to Japan at an accelerated pace. In the context of this trend, Fuji Media Holdings understands that there is a favorable opportunity to create several inbound/outbound businesses and thus welcomes GPlus Media and REJ into the group to strengthen its ability to reach the foreign community in Japan.
Closes temporarily
The O’Connors close the restaurant after receiving threatening phone calls and social media postings.
Sprint, Softbank invest at $250m valuation
Sprint and parent SoftBank buy a minority stake in Jay Z’s subscription music service. While the size of the investment couldn’t be learned, sources said the deal values Tidal at around $250 million. At the launch event, Tidal’s chief investment officer, Vania Schlogel, said the service had been working closely with Sprint’s CEO. Sprint is preparing to offer Tidal’s service on its phones although the details and the pricing are unclear.
Takes majority ownership
The NBA approves Jordan’s bid of $275 million to buy the Bobcats from majority owner Johnson. Jordan will assume about $150 million in debt in the deal. He becomes the second black majority owner of a major pro sports team.
Purchasing the Bobcats is the culmination of my post-playing career goal of becoming a majority owner of an NBA franchise. I am especially pleased to have the opportunity to build a winning team in my home state of North Carolina..I am especially pleased to have the opportunity to build a winning team in my home state of North Carolina…I plan to make this franchise an organization that Charlotte can be proud of, and I am committed to doing all that I can to achieve this goal.
Johnson:
The best decision I made since acquiring the Bobcats was to convince my friend Michael to become an investor in the Bobcats and to appoint him as managing member of basketball operations. As the new majority owner of the Bobcats, his dedication will be stronger now more than ever.
Aspiro acquisition complete
Jay-Z wins control of Aspiro after more than 90% of shareholders accepted the star’s $54m offer. A spokesman for Project Panther Bidco, says all the conditions for completing the acquisition have now been met. The offer is declared unconditional on Friday and Aspiro will be delisted from the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange.
Aspiro had 500,000 paying users for its streaming services at the end of 2014, which includes 35,000 subscribers for its “lossless” HiFi-quality music service that is available in the UK under the Tidal brand, a service that costs £19.99 a month – double the price of Spotify in the UK. The company had posted a net loss of $5m for the last three months of 2014, and admitted that it could run out of money at some point this year. The company plans to launch Tidal in 22 countries, mostly in Europe, by the end of March.
Joins YC
Thiel joins YC on Altman’s invitiation. Altman says Thiel won’t be able to invest in any companies while they’re in YC, or for 3 months after they present at Demo Day. Altman:
I’m delighted to announce Peter Thiel is joining YC as one of the (now 10!) part-time partners…He already works with a number of YC companies, and we’re very happy he’ll be working with more…We generally won’t bring on people that are involved with other investing firms given the obvious conflict, but Peter is so good we felt like we had to make an exception. We’re pretty paranoid about potential conflicts, and we’ll continually evaluate this and change it if it’s not working…On a personal note, Peter is one of the two people (along with PG) who has taught me the most about how to invest in startups. I am confident that Peter joining will be great for YC.
Closes Harpo Studios
Winfrey is closing Harpo Sudios in Chicago. All company business is transitioning into the OWN headquarters in Los Angeles.
[Chicago has] been everything for me. I’ve spent more hours in this building than I have any other building on Earth. … We were here when there was nothing but hoes and rats on the street, and now it’s one of the hottest neighborhoods [in Chicago]. The time had come to downsize this part of the business and to move forward. It will be sad to say goodbye, but I look ahead with such a knowing that what the future holds is even more than I can see.
Launches Smashd
Carter launches Smashd, (http://smashd.co/) an online news site dedicated to uncovering the personalities and trends in “tech, culture and hustle”. Smashd is the result of a six-month plan hatched between Carter and Kozlowski, a former writer-editor at Forbes who focused on covering entrepreneurs and the L.A. startup scene. Carter:
It came from internal conversations we’d been having around the office about where we get our news and information from in the morning. You’d go through blog after blog, and for us — living between the tech, music and pop-culture worlds — it just didn’t feel like there was one place where we could call home or a hub, especially as told through a very original lens.
The initial content is a mix of stories and videos that meet what Carter calls a mix of “Forbes meets Fader”
It’s very rare when you can get a real glimpse inside the life of an entrepreneur. So for us, most of the stories we’re gonna be covering, like through a series called ‘In Residence,’ will give a glimpse inside their environment.
Investment
Lionsgate invests in Telltale Games to create entertainment that is part video game, part television show. Peter Levin of Lionsgate:
Our partnership with Kevin Bruner and his team at Telltale continues to accelerate our momentum in the game space. The convergence between premium filmed entertainment brands and original game properties is a natural direction in which to continue diversifying our content business, and Telltale is the perfect partner with whom to explore this dynamic area of growth.
Happy to welcome Lionsgate and John Ricitiello into the Telltale family. Trust me, these heavyweights really get what we're trying to do.
— Kevin Bruner (@kevbru) February 24, 2015
Updates logo
The Browns franchise introduces its updated logo. Changes include a different shade of orange on the helmet and a brown facemask.
Our updated helmet logo is reflective of today’s modern Cleveland – the design honors the past while evolving into the future. The iconic brown and white stripes stand tall over the orange helmet – a new orange color that matches the passion of the Dawg Pound. The new brown facemask represents the strength and toughness of Cleveland.
Browns unveil updated logos. See them here >> http://t.co/zAAJMSMDOu pic.twitter.com/xBhmTojxiv
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) February 24, 2015