10th Anniversary
YouTube turns ten years old. The site was created by three Paypal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, who registered the domain name on February 14, 2005. The first video ever uploaded on YouTube on April 23, 2005 was made by Karim’s friend Yakov Lapitsky and titled “Me at the Zoo”. It has since been viewed more than 17 million times.
Lapitsky comments on his moment in internet history:
It’s neat, but I don’t think that much of it.
It is estimated that around 300 hours of video are now uploaded every hour.
Purchases skin care chain
Macy’s purchases beauty and skin care chain Bluemercury, Inc. for $210 million in cash. Macy’s CEO. Lundgren.
Bluemercury is a growth vehicle for us. There is tons of runway.
Aspiro Acquisition Bid
Jay Z, though his company, Project Panther, will buy Aspiro, a Swedish music streaming service WiMP for 464 million Swedish crowns ($56 million) in cash. Shares in Aspiro leap 59 percent in early trading, to the bid level of 1.05 crowns per share. Norwegian media house Schibsted, Aspiro’s main shareholder, says it had accepted the offer, while Aspiro’s board said it is united in recommending the bid, virtually ensuring its success. Project Panther:
Panther believes that the recent developments in the entertainment industry, with the migration to music and media streaming, offers great potential for increased entertainment consumption and an opportunity for artists to further promote their music. Panther’s strategic ambition revolves around global expansion and up-scaling of Aspiro’s platform, technology and services.
Launches presidential exploratory committee
Graham officially launches his presidential exploratory committee named ‘Security through Strength’ to look into his prospects for 2016 presidential elections.
I’m going to take a look at the presidential primary on the Republican side. We’ll have an organization up and running today…This organization will allow people to donate money and their time and resources to see if there is a pathway forward for me.
Launches PAC
Christie launches a political action committee (PAC) in his first step towards presidential bid. The PAC is named Leadership Matters for America. Christie’s chief political adviser DuHaime:
We believe there’s a void right now in leadership throughout the country…We aim to support candidates who are willing to take on tough problems and make tough decisions.
Launches Right to Rise PAC
Bush launches the Right to Rise political action committee (PAC) to lay the groundwork for his 2016 presidential run. His allies also form a super PAC which allows to raise and spend unlimited sums of money.
We are setting up Right to Rise PAC which is a PAC to support candidates who believe in conservative principles to allow all Americans to rise up.
Appointed to Enterprise Florida board
Gov. Scott announces Biter is to take one of the governor’s seats on the board of directors at Enterprise Florida (subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate). Biter has already been serving the organization as an appointee of the Speaker of the Florida House since 2011. He succeeds Henry Rodriguez, and is appointed for a term from today through Sept. 30, 2018. Scott:
Jesse has been a leader in the Florida business community, and I’m confident he will work tirelessly to make Florida the best state for job creation.
$18.5 million funding
Revolution Growth invests another $18.5 million into sweetgreen bringing its total to $40.5 million.
The words ‘seasonality’ and ‘fast food’ are rarely used together, but at sweetgreen, we believe that the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive — it just takes a commitment to standing behind our food ethos and working with farmers that share the same values.
They currently have 27 stores on the east coast.
Reddit $50m Series B funding
Altman leads Reddit’s $50 million Series B round with Andreesen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, as well as individual investors including Leto, Dogg, Kushner, Livingston, Kevin and Julia Hartz, Mariam Naficy, and Reddit CEO Yishan Wong. Valuation is $500 million. Altman:
I’m willing to be very patient. I don’t have any particular timeframe in mind. I believe that the community is very valuable and that the value will continue to increase. Up to the company if they want to share cashflow details, but they run the company efficiently.
Donations top $100 million
The ice bucket challenge raises over $100 million to date for ALS. During the same period last year, July 29, 2013 to August, 29 2013, the ALS Association raised $2.8 million. In the fiscal year 2014, the organization raised approximately $26.3 million in total, which means the amount raised in several months is quadruple that of what was raised last year. ALS President and CEO Barbara Newhouse:
The word gratitude doesn’t do enough to express what we are feeling right now.
More restaurants closed
Russian authorities close eight additional restaurants, bringing the total number of closed restaurants to twelve. The official reason for the closings is a concern for food safety, although many believe that they are politically motivated, related to the situation in Crimea and American sanctions against Russia. Company officials are looking into the concerns Russian officials have about their restaurants, and are working to reopen them as soon as possible:
Our main priority is to serve our customers with top-quality menu items
Purchases Twitch for over $1 billion
Amazon acquires Twitch, the live stream video gaming site, for over $1 billion after Google withdraws from the purchase. The deal includes a cash pay of $970 million, nearly 20 percent of Amazon’s reserve revealed in the latest quarterly report. Amazon now owns a “YouTube” type platform with the ability to reach the young men. During 2013, over half of the total viewership watched video game playing for 20 hours weekly. Bezos:
Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of games each month.
New logo
WWE unveils a new logo, replacing the scratch mark styling they’ve used since 1997. This is only the fourth time the logo has changed since 1982.
Acquires Zofari
Yahoo acquires Zofari, an application that recommends places users might enjoy based on places they have already been. Yahoo:
Zofari and Yahoo share a common goal to make the world an easier place to explore for as many people as possible. We’re thrilled to welcome the team to Yahoo, where they will join our growing Search organization and continue to build amazing discovery experiences.
Oculus acquisition complete
Regulators approve Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion in March 2014, but it takes time for state and local anti-trust teams to approve the acquisition. The companies release a joint statement:
We’re looking forward to an exciting future together building the next computing platform and reimagining the way people communicate.
Acquires RayV
Yahoo buys the video streaming platform RayV for an undisclosed amount. The company focuses on developing technology for delivering high quality broadcasts to a large number of people at once. An announcement is posted on the RayV website:
Our RayV adventure now comes to a pivot, and we couldn’t be more excited. We believe Yahoo will be a perfect fit for our people and capabilities, as Video and Mobile offerings are a central part of Yahoo’s vision.
Acquires LiveRail
Facebook acquires LiveRail, an advertising technology company that creates video ads for websites and apps. LiveRail customers include companies such as Major League Baseball, Gannett, DailyMotion and ABC Family.
We believe that LiveRail, Facebook and the premium publishers it serves have an opportunity to make video ads better and more relevant for the hundreds of millions of people who watch digital video every month.
Acquires Songza
Google acquires Songza, a service that creates soundtracks tailored to people’s changing moods, and plans to blend Songza’s technology into its own music streaming service. This service will cost $10 per month. Financial terms of the deal are not disclosed. Songza:
We can’t think of a better company to join in our quest to provide the perfect soundtrack for everything you do.
$90M investment
The investment firm announces a $90 million investment in the enterprise management, that helps IT professionals secure and manage devices.
https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/480848821535010817
Acquires SnappyTV
Twitter announces its acquisition of SnappyTV, a platform for clipping and editing small segments of TV shows. This allows Twitter users to easily share TV clips with their followers:
As Twitter has grown as the companion to live events and broadcast media, SnappyTV will help partners and brands bring the best videos into the conversation, when it matters most.
