Headlines from Digital Media Wire: Creative Planet Raises $38 Million
in Fifth Round; Vulcan Ventures Takes Stake in TheStreet.com;
Lieberman Holds Conservative Positions on Digital Media; Alchemedia
Raises $17.5 For Image Protection Technology; Streaming Message
Company iClips Raises $6.4 Million; Star Trek Book Series To Be
Published Exclusively In Digital Format
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Creative Planet Raises $38 Million in Fifth Round Vulcan Ventures Takes Stake
in TheStreet.com Wired: Lieberman Holds Conservative Positions on Digital Media
Alchemedia Raises $17.5 For Image Protection Technology Streaming Message
Company iClips Raises $6.4 Million Star Trek Book Series To Be Published
Exclusively In Digital Format Briefly Noted: Music piracy, online
advertising, MP3Board.com, Ecast - Eveo, MarsMusic.com, eUniverse, iBEAM, Hughes -
AEI,Sonic Sounds - PlayJ.com, Intel - Matsushita, AudioRamp, Cybars.com,
JimiHendrix.com
______________________________________________ Planet Raises $38
Million in Fifth Round
Los Angeles -- Creative Planet, a provider of technology services and
Internet applications for the entertainment industry, announced today
that it has raised $38 million in its fifth round of equity
financing. Times-Mirror Chandler Trust Ventures led the investment.
Other investors included J & W Seligman Funds, Chase Capital
Partners, Waterview Advisors, PaineWebber Capital, SunAmerica
Investments, East River Ventures, Ares Management and Trekk
Opportunity Partners. Los Angeles-based Creative Planet uses the
Internet and technology in a variety of different ways to save money
-- and time -- for entertainment companies. Creative Planet has also
entered into an e-commerce venture with Commerce One, a leading
business-to-business company. Jack Valenti, CEO of the Motion Picture
Association of America, and Frank Biondi, former CEO of Viacom and
Universal, are on Creative Planet's board of directors. www.creativeplanet.com
Ventures Takes Stake in TheStreet.com
New York -- TheStreet.com, Inc., an online financial news service that
has seen its stock price plummet over the last year, announced
Tuesday that it has raised $7.5 million by selling a 5% stake in the
company to Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures and GO2Net. Under the deal,
Vulcan and GO2Net also have an option to acquire an additional 7.5%
stake in the company. New York-based TheStreet.com, which saw its
stock soar to over $70 after its IPO last year, ended today at $6, up
20% on the day. In many respects, the funding reflects the low
valuation of one of the Internet's leading content brand names.
Thomas Clarke, CEO of TheStreet.com, called the deal "a vote of
confidence in our financial strength, our brand, and our new business
model." This new model includes the addition of several new
subscriber-based niche sites, and the gradual movement away from a
subscription model for its general content offerings. www.thestreet.com
Lieberman Holds Conservative Positions on Digital Media
Washington, D.C. -- A WiredNews article published today said that
Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, who has a
reputation as a liberal on many issues, has taken a conservative
stance on a number of digital media issues. In May, Lieberman
sponsored the Media Violence Labeling Act, which caused the videogame
and motion picture industries to fall under a single national rating
system. WiredNews reported that a month later Lieberman said that the
legislation "sets the stage" for a rating system for web sites. In
June, Lieberman told a Congressional advisory panel that the
government should consider creating a new top-level domain such as
".sex" or ".xxx." "This idea, which would in effect establish a
virtual red-light district ... has a lot of merit," the article
quoted Lieberman as saying. "For rather than constricting the Net's
open architecture, it would capitalize on it to effectively shield
children from pornography."
www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,38055,00.html
Raises $17.5 For
Image Protection Technology
San Francisco -- Alchemedia, a developer of "image protection"
technology, announced today that it has received $17.5 million in its
third round of funding. The investment was led by The Carlyle Group
of Washington DC. San Francisco-based Alchemedia said its technology
"protects images from Napsterization (peer-to-peer sharing of digital
content), and promotes image-based commerce by preventing copying,
printing and screen capturing of images." The company said its
"Clever Content" product is used by sites including Variety.com and
Terraserver.com.www.alchemedia.com/company/releases/080800.html
Message Company
iClips Raises $6.4 Million
New York -- iClips, a developer of streaming video messaging
technology, announced that it has raised $6.4 million in its first
round of funding. The investment was led by Opticality Ventures, and
also included Schoffstall Ventures. New York-based iClips said it has
developed a service that allows users to send messages using
streaming video, instead of text. iClips said it generates revenue
from streaming advertisements in the video messages. The company has
raised a total of $5.4 million to date. www.iclips.com
Trek Series To Be
Published Exclusively In Digital Format
New York -- Simon & Schuster, the publishing division of Viacom,
announced today that its Pocket Books division has launched a new
Star Trek series that will only be available in electronic format.
The new series, called Star Trek S.C.E., will initially be readable
only using Microsoft Reader, but will later become available on a
variety of eBook software platforms. Yesterday, Microsoft announced a
major partnership with barnesandnoble.com, which will also use the
Microsoft Reader software. Simon & Schuster said it publishes about
40 Star Trek books each year. www.startrek.com Noted:
(Los Angeles) "Let's face it, most streaming video on the Web stinks,"
wrote a Red Herring article on music piracy that was published today.
"The picture is fuzzy, ill synchronized with sound, and small. So why
are some big Hollywood studios afraid of average Joes watching
pirated movies on the Web? Maybe it's because hackers are offering
more on the web than some multibillion dollar entertainment
conglomerates." The article notes that a growing number of services
-- including Gnutella, iMesh, Hotline, Carracho, and Freenet -- allow
users to exchange full length movies.
www.redherring.com/industries/2000/0808/ind-shoptalk080800.html
(San Francisco) A CNET article today reported that online advertising
is booming, despite the conventional wisdom among many Internet
analysts. The article cites two reports that "show that online ad
spending has maintained its robust pace."
news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2463112.html?tag=st.ne.1002.srchres.ni
(Dulles, Va.) Upside Magazine reported today that America Online, which
is merging with Time Warner, has launched an MP3 search service just
as Time Warner sues another company for offering a similar service.
AOL's search engine is run by its Winamp division, which makes a
popular software program for playing MP3 files. "In late June, Time
Warner's Warner Bros. Music joined the other major record labels to
sue MP3Board.com, a small search company, for offering the same sort
of search engine (as AOL's)," Upside reported.
www.upside.com/News/398f50560.html Francisco) Ecast, Inc., a San
Francisco-based provider of broadband entertainment tools, today
announced a partnership with Eveo, an online video company. The
partnership will bring short films to the Ecast entertainment
network. The Eveo short films will consist of submissions from
aspiring filmmakers. www.eveo.com Park, Md.) Florida-based MarsMusic.com, a web
site for musicians, said it will produce a live webcast of the final
round of competition at the Drum Corps International World
Championships, on Saturday, Aug. 12, at the University of Maryland in
College Park, Maryland. www.MarsMusic.com
(Los Angeles) eUniverse, an online entertainment network, said today
that it has hired Shawn Gold as its co-President and chief strategic
officer. Gold was formerly vice president of marketing and
communications at WhatsHotNow.com. biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000808/ca_euni_ne.html
