archives

o Sega President Offers Own Shares Worth $722 Million to Cover Dreamcast
o IUMA Lays Off Staff, Will Cease Accepting New Musical Acts
o Content Distributor Amplified Holdings Lays Off 50% of Staff
o Musician Bruce Springsteen Loses Domain Name Dispute with Cybersquatters
o Ubi Soft Entertainment Acquires German Game Publisher Blue Byte
o EMusic to Take $1 Million Charge Related to Restructuring
o Launch.com Partners With Qualcomm For Wireless Music Delivery
o Briefly Noted: LicenseMusic.com - Net4Music.com, RealNetworks, NetValue,
MusicState.com, "Private Property"
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> Digital Media Wire Panel: "Interactive Gaming on the Internet"

Interactive gaming is a $6.5 billion market with sales rivaling those of
the motion picture box offices. Forrester Research forecasts that
interactive gaming will be a $26 billion market by 2005. Which
technologies and business models will drive this expanding market? Will
entertainment companies profit from gaming on the Internet? Digital Media
Wire will hold a dinner and panel discussion: "Interactive Gaming on the
Internet: Recent Developments and New Opportunities" on Thursday, February
15, 2001 at the Argyle Hotel in Los Angeles. Moderator: Victor Hwang, COO,
larta. Confirmed panelists: George Alexander, VP Media & Entertainment,
CAP Gemini Ernst & Young; Jim Charne, Attorney and former President,
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences; Brian Dearth, CEO, Hollywood
Stock Exchange; Chris Kantrowitz, CEO, The Groove Alliance; Mark
Kapczynski, Principal Consultant, Microsoft Media & Entertainment Group.

For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/panel1.html
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> Job Postings: VP Biz Dev/Sales, Senior Web Designer, Tech Writer, Account
Exec./Sr. Account Exec.

> Events: "The DIY Convention"

Full Job/Event descriptions listed below "Briefly Noted" section or at
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/postings.html

To Post a Job: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html
To Post an Event: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html
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o Sega President Offers Own Shares Worth $722 Million to Cover Dreamcast

London -- Sega president Isao Okawa has presented the company with 19.87
million shares of Sega and other stocks, as an honorable attempt to cover
the company's losses resulting from ending production of its Dreamcast
game console, U.K.-based news site The Register reported on Thursday. The
shares are worth over $722 million. Sega estimated that costs related to
terminating the console would amount to about $686 million. In addition to
shares in Sega, Okawa also turned over holdings in NextCom, CSK and Ascii.
"The gift is a very clear indication of the Japanese sense of honour,"
wrote The Register's Kieren McCarthy, "but given the fact that several
executives have committed suicide over business errors in the past, Mr.
Okawa's admittedly very expensive decision is certainly preferable."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/50/16747.html
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o IUMA Lays Off Staff, Will Cease Accepting New Musical Acts

Redwood City, Calif. -- IUMA (the Internet Underground Music Archive)
announced on Thursday that it has laid off the majority of its staff and
will accept no more submissions from unsigned bands wanting to promote
their music within the company's network. Redwood City-based IUMA was
acquired by EMusic.com in 1999; the company said it would fund IUMA
through the end of 2000. "Severe cutbacks in funding from EMusic in early
January have made it impossible to maintain the quality and consistency of
many IUMA services," IUMA founder Jeff Patterson wrote in an email to
registered members. "Since then, we have made exhaustive attempts to find
another partner, but the short timeframe has made this extremely
difficult, and we have been forced to scale operations to the bare
minimum." The company will end CD sales, customer support and new artist
submissions, but said that artist pages and bulletin boards may still be
maintained by the artists themselves.
http://www.iuma.com/Letter
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o Content Distributor Amplified Holdings Lays Off 50% of Staff

San Francisco -- Digital content distributor Amplified Holdings will lay
off 50 percent of its employees, cutting its staff from 80 to 40 as a
result of duplicate jobs created by its acquisitions of OneBigCD.com and
Checkout.com, CNET reported on Thursday. "We are evolving our business
model to deliver infrastructure technology and services to online content
and retail sites," Amplified spokeswoman Ann Garrett told CNET. "This
restructuring has unfortunately led to layoffs in the company."
Atlanta-based Amplified Holdings provides hosting services, as well as
streaming and download services with digital rights management to labels,
studios and destination sites.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-4747712.html?tag=ch_mh
http://www.amplified.com
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o Musician Bruce Springsteen Loses Domain Name Dispute with Cybersquatters

Geneva -- Musician Bruce Springsteen has lost a bid with the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to cybersquatters who own the
domain name brucespringsteen.com, Reuters reported on Thursday. The
three-member panel ruled that cybersquatter Jeff Burgar -- who runs a
Springsteen fan club -- "demonstrated that he has some rights or
legitimate interests in respect of the domain name, and (Springsteen) has
failed to demonstrate that the domain name was registered and has been
used in bad faith." The ruling is seen as a setback for celebrities, who
are often the target of fans and opportunists looking to make money off of
their identities. Similar cases have resulted in the turning over of
domains to celebrities including Madonna, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and
the estate of Jimi Hendrix.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-4746137.html?tag=ch_mh
http://www.wipo.org
http://www.brucespringsteen.com
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o Ubi Soft Entertainment Acquires German Game Publisher Blue Byte

Paris -- Ubi Soft Entertainment, a producer, publisher and distributor of
interactive entertainment products, announced on Thursday that it has
acquired German video game developer Blue Byte. Terms of the transaction
were not disclosed. Blue Byte has developed economic and combat strategy
simulation titles mainly for the PC format. The company has also designed
multiplayer games that can be played on the Internet. Paris-based Ubi Soft
says it will develop these games for Sony's Playstation 2 and other game
consoles.
http://www.ubisoft.com
http://www.bluebyte.net/eng/default.asp
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o EMusic to Take $1 Million Charge Related to Restructuring

Redwood City, Calif. -- Downloadable music retailer EMusic.com said that
it will take a charge of $1 million for the quarter ending March 31 that
result from costs associated with the company's restructuring, which was
announced in January. The company laid off 36 percent of its staff, or 66
employees as part of the restructuring. Redwood City-based EMusic.com said
that the $1 million charge is related to severance packages for laid off
employees and other cash-based costs. "Despite the well-publicized
challenges of the online music and Internet advertising markets, we
continue to believe we are well-positioned for long-term success in both
categories," said Gene Hoffman, EMusic president and CEO.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010207/ca_emusic_.html
http://www.emusic.com
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o Launch.com Partners With Qualcomm For Wireless Music Delivery

Santa Monica, Calif. -- Following a similar announcement from MP3.com on
Wednesday, music site Launch.com announced a partnership with wireless
developer Qualcomm on Thursday, whereby the company will become a
developer of Qualcomm's software that delivers digital music over wireless
networks. Santa Monica-based Launch will use the software to make its
streaming radio station Launchcast available to cell phone and PDA users.
The devices will come equipped with San Diego-based Qualcomm's BREW
(Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) software. "We believe that the
Qualcomm BREW platform is a major step forward for wireless delivery and
essential for Launch as we move Launchcast from being just
terrestrial-based Internet radio," said Dave Goldberg, CEO of Launch.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010208/ca_launch_.html
http://www.launch.com
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o Briefly Noted:

(San Francisco) LicenseMusic.com, a provider of online music licensing for
film, TV, radio and advertising production, has announced a partnership
with online sheet music provider Net4Music.com. The two companies will
cross-promote their complementary services to their respective users in an
effort to increase awareness in the music publishing community. San
Francisco-based LicenseMusic.com represents the catalogs of over 200
record labels, while New York-based Net4Music offers sheet music from
publishers including EMI Music Publishing and Schott Musik International.
http://www.licensemusic.com/company/displaystory.asp?nid=43
http://www.net4music.com

(Seattle) Streaming media company RealNetworks announced on Thursday the
appointment of Larry Jacobson to the positions of president and COO.
Jacobson was most recently president and COO of Ticketmaster Corporation,
and also served as president of FOX Television from 1997 - 1999. Jacobson
will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of Seattle-based
RealNetworks.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010208/wa_realnet.html
http://www.realnetworks.com

(London) 2.5 million Internet users in the U.K. -- or about one fifth of
all those online -- visited a games site in December, but only 194,000
actually stayed to play a game, according to figures released on Thursday
by Internet monitoring company NetValue. In comparison, 28 percent of all
users in the US visited a games site in the same period, or 23,814,000
unique visitors. More than 4,800,000 actually played games over the
Internet, evidence that the online gaming market in America is more
mature, where fast Internet access is more widespread.
http://www.netvalue.com

(London) MusicState.com, an online music licensing service, has announced
the launch of its site and services. London-based MusicState.com -- which
is very similar to LicenseMusic.com -- lets audio production professionals
sample and purchase licensed music for use in film, TV, radio and
advertising. Songs are catalogued according to tempo, mood, genre and
instrumentation.
http://www.musicstate.com

(San Francisco) Wired News on Thursday ran a feature on "Public Property,"
an U.K.-based Internet/TV reality show where ordinary people are followed
by camera crews, and Web and TV viewers can vote on decisions that will
affect their lives. "It's real life 'Sims' (simulation game) and you can
make their lives for the better or for the worse," said Grant Bremner,
manager of interactive television at Pearson Television. "If they turn out
to be arrogant and annoying and you want to ruin their lives, fair
enough." ABC has bought the rights to the show in the U.S.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,41615,00.html
http://www.publicproperty.tv

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Job Postings:
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To Post Jobs: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/jobs.html

> Sonata, Director/VP Biz. Dev./Sales - Wireless Internet - New York City

Venture-backed wireless company specializing in the next generation of
location-based applications and wireless advertising seeks executive to
initiate, negotiate and close deals. Cultivation of business contacts,
structuring deals, negotiation of contracts and being part of an effective
business development team will be essential. Familiarity with advertising,
high-tech software or Internet products. Must have a passion for
emerging technology. Send resumes to hr@sonatainc.com.
http://www.sonata.com
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> Lucid Designs, Senior Web Designer - Los Angeles

This is an opportunity to join a young, growing company with established
high-profile clients. Should have a minimum of two years design
experience, and a thorough knowledge of web standard design software such
as Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. Experience with Dreamweaver, DHTML,
CD-ROM or print production are pluses, but not required. Position includes
benefits and generous salary. Send resumes and examples of on-line work to
jobs@luciddesigns.com
http://www.luciddesigns.com
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> Static, Tech Writer - Los Angeles

Software company that transforms the desktop into a peer-to-peer
distributed network for businesses and consumers seeks writer to document
cool software. Needs to have moderate programming/coding skills
(especially C/C++), as well as clear, concise and creative writing skills.
Experience with some sort of document layout software is needed. Send
resumes and tech-writing samples to cooljobs@static.com
http://www.static.com
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> Ruder Finn, TECHNOLOGY-Account Exec./Sr. Account Exec. - San Francisco

Global independent public relations agency seeks executives to help handle
explosive new business growth in dynamic and fast-moving office. Requires
excellent written/oral communication, organizational and problem-solving
skills, as well as a passion for client service. Sr. level positions
require strong program planning, client counseling and staff mentoring
skills. Great accounts, smart programs, competitive compensation and
benefits. Send resumes to careers@ruderfinn.com
http://www.ruderfinn.com

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Event Postings:
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To Post Events: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/events.html

> The DIY Convention - Do It Yourself in Film, Music & Books - Los Angeles

A one-day showcase examining the DIY Digital Revolution. The Convention
will educate attendees -- entertainment professionals, indie labels and
production companies, musicians and content creators -- on the steps
necessary to bring their vision to the worldwide audience. Panels will
address all the legal, business and creative steps needed to produce,
exploit and distribute books, music and film.
Registration: http://www.diyconvention.com
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