archives

o Online Ad Firm L90 Loses CEO, CFO; Merger Terminated; Trading Halted
o Amid Costly Court Battle, Napster Lays Off 10% of Staff
o Japanese Retailers Resume Sales of Microsoft's Xbox
o Liquid Audio Signs Deal With BMG for Downloadable Digital Music
o Sound Card Maker Creative Technology Acquires 3DLabs for $103.7 Million
o Digital Bridges Acquires Wireless Media Download Technology From GR8
o Broadband Services Provider Williams Communications Delisted From NYSE
o Briefly Noted: Comcast - TVN, Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment
Wireless Services, Fonix - Bantam Interactive, Ebrary - international
organizations, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto
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>DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE PANEL DISCUSSION SERIES:
"Interactive Games on the Internet: Recent Developments"

Register to join leading executives at our upcoming breakfast panels in
San Francisco (March 12) and New York City (March 14).

San Francisco: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/SFgames2.html
New York City: http://www.digitalmediawire.com/NYCgames2.html
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o Online Ad Firm L90 Loses CEO, CFO; Merger Terminated; Trading Halted

Los Angeles -- EUniverse, a network of entertainment-related newsletters
and websites, announced on Monday that it has terminated its agreement to
acquire online ad firm L90. "We believe that based on the preliminary
terms we have reached with L90 governing the termination of the merger
agreement, coupled with the uncertainty of the conclusion of L90's pending
SEC investigation, it is in the best interest of our shareholders at this
time to terminate the existing merger agreement with L90," said EUniverse
CEO Brad Greenspan. The SEC is currently investigating the company's
accounting practices. In addition, Los Angeles-based L90 announced the
resignation of its president and CEO, John C. Bohan. The company also said
it removed its chief financial officer, Thomas A. Sebastian, and placed
him on administrative leave. L90 has named former Space.com COO Mitchell
Cannold as its new president and CEO. Trading of L90's stock was halted
Monday while the Nasdaq seeks "additional information" from the company.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020311/lam060_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020311/dcm020_1.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020311/lam061_1.html
http://www.l90.com
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o Amid Costly Court Battle, Napster Lays Off 10% of Staff

Redwood City, Calif. -- Napster has laid off 10 percent of its staff while
legal costs mount in its case against the major record labels and others
that sued the file-sharing service for copyright infringement. "In order
to see this through the long haul, we needed to make moderate and
temporary staffing reductions which resulted in a 10 percent cut," Napster
CEO Konrad Hilbers said in a statement. "We intend to fill these positions
once we are closer to launch." The Napster service was taken offline in
July 2001 and the company has since worked to secure licensing agreements
with record labels for its new subscription service. A month-long
suspension of the litigation early this year for negotiations with the
labels did not result in any settlement. "We intend to continue our
licensing negotiations with the majors, but the negotiations are taking
longer than anticipated," Hilbers said. "I am confident that Bertelsmann
will remain committed to the new Napster service and will continue to fund
us accordingly through launch."
http://www.napster.com
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o Japanese Retailers Resume Sales of Microsoft's Xbox

Tokyo -- Several Japanese retailers that had halted sales of Microsoft's
Xbox video game console last week after some consumers there reported that
the device was scratching game and DVD discs have resumed selling the
device, Reuters reported on Monday. Bic Camera, Laox and Sato Musen were
among Japanese retailers to suspend sales, but began selling the game
again once Microsoft promised to unconditionally replace any hardware and
damaged software. Despite the offer, Microsoft has maintained that the
scratches on the discs will not interfere with game play.
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-856446.html?tag=cd_mh
http://www.xbox.co.jp
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o Liquid Audio Signs Deal With BMG for Downloadable Digital Music

Redwood City, Calif. -- Liquid Audio, a provider of digital music
distribution services, announced on Monday that it has signed an agreement
with major record label BMG Entertainment to provide encoding, hosting,
and digital rights management services. BMG will initially make 3,500
songs available to preview and purchase in Redwood City-based Liquid
Audio's proprietary format as well as Windows Media Audio. Under the
agreement, select songs will also be able to be transferred to portable
digital audio devices.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020311/sfm067_1.html
http://www.liquidaudio.com
http://www.bmgentertainment.com/
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o Sound Card Maker Creative Technology Acquires 3DLabs for $103.7 Million

Singapore -- Creative Technology, a manufacturer of PC sound cards and
other digital entertainment technology, announced on Monday that it will
acquire the remainder of graphics accelerator provider 3DLabs that it does
not already own for about $103.7 million in cash and stock. "Creative has
developed, owns and markets the world's highest performance audio silicon
technology," said Creative CEO Sim Wong Hoo. "With our announcement today,
we will also own the world's highest performance graphics technology and a
leadership position in the ultra high-end graphics space." Sunnyvale,
Calif.-based 3DLabs develops graphics chips favored by gamers for their
ability to perform high numbers of calculations per second.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/020311/110083_1.html
http://www.creative.com/
http://www.3dlabs.com
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o Digital Bridges Acquires Wireless Media Download Technology From GR8

London -- Digital Bridges, a developer of wireless entertainment content,
announced on Monday that it has acquired the software assets of GR8, a
provider of cell phone ringtones and logos via download technology.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. London-based
Digital Bridges provides mostly wireless games to network operators, and
says it will now integrate ringtones and other downloadable content into
its offering.
http://www.digitalbridges.com
http://www.somethingr8.com/
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o Broadband Services Provider Williams Communications Delisted From NYSE

Tulsa, Okla. -- Williams Communications, a provider of broadband services
including streaming, webcasting and media asset management for
high-bandwidth customers such as Yahoo, announced that its shares will now
trade on the OTC Bulletin Board. The company's shares were trading at
$0.13 when the New York Stock Exchange halted trading on Friday.
Oklahoma-based Williams has been considering a restructuring of its
operations, including a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
http://www.williamscommunications.com/newsroom/newsreleases/2002/2002-03-08.html
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=WCGRP.OB&d=t
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UCLA ANDERSON FORECAST CONFERENCE:
"Entertainment: LA's Most Important Industry"

This conference looks at the business of entertainment, the impact of the
industry on the Los Angeles economy, and the forces that are altering how
the business is organized. UCLA economists will also release their
quarterly forecasts for the nation, state, and Los Angeles region.
Speakers include Mayor Jim Hahn and Jeff Berg, Chairman/CEO of
International Creative Management.

Wednesday, March 27, 2002. 9:15am - 3:00pm at The Anderson School at UCLA.

Contact: forecast@anderson.ucla.edu or (310) 825-1623
http://www.uclaforecast.com

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WITH ALL THE MEDIA ATTENTION THAT VOD SERVICES ARE GETTING THESE DAYS, WHY NOT FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN PROFIT?

THE CARMEL GROUP will host CONVERGENCE 2002: VOD -- WHERE IS THE DEMAND? A video-on-demand dinner panel and networking session on Wednesday, March 13, from 6-10 pm at the Marina Beach Marriott in Marina del Rey, CA.

Participating companies include Canal+ Technologies, DirecTV, DIVA, Keen
Personal Media, Liberate and Starz Encore Group. Register online or by
phone prior to March 11 for only $60, or register three attendees for
$125. The cost will be $80 at the door.

For more information, please call 831-643-2222 or visit our The Carmel
Group website:
http://www.carmelgroup.com/conferences/conv2002/conv2002.cfm
info@carmelgroup.com

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o Briefly Noted:

(Burbank) Comcast Cable, the third-largest U.S. cable TV provider,
announced on Monday that TVN will provide delivery services for
video-on-demand and subscription video-on-demand services for select
Comcast markets. Burbank-based TVN will provide delivery of content
licensed to Pennsylvania-based Comcast by media firms including HBO,
Showtime and Starz. TVN says its digital content distribution and
management systems are used on 600 cable systems that reach 50 million
U.S. households.
http://www.tvn.com
http://www.comcast.com

(Culver City, Calif.) Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment on Monday
announced the formation of a Wireless Services unit, which will develop
and distribute wireless entertainment based on Sony Pictures properties.
The unit will work with SPDE Europe on developing games for European
wireless networks and with Sony Online Entertainment on formatting
existing games for wireless. It will also develop wireless trailer
streaming and entertainment for SMS (short messaging service) and MMS
(multimedia messaging service) formats.
http://www.spe.sony.com/start.html

(Salt Lake City, Utah) Fonix, a provider of natural-user interface
technology for wireless and mobile devices, announced on Monday that its
ISpeak personal text reader will be included in consumer electronics firm
Bantam Interactive's Explor MP3 player. The technology will allow users to
convert text files to a speech file, which can then be downloaded and
listened to on the MP3 player. St. Louis-based Bantam's 128MB Explor MP3
player sells for $199.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020311/lam063_1.html
http://www.fonix.com
http://www.bantamusa.com

(Mountain View, Calif.) Ebrary, a provider of online academic research and
periodicals to libraries, announced on Monday that it has added content
provided by The World Bank Group, The United Nations University Press, The
World Health Organization, The International Labour Organization and The
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to its online
offering. Mountain View-based Ebrary offers online access to academic
materials, charging users that want to make a copy or print a version of a
text.
http://www.ebrary.com/news/020311a.jsp

(Los Angeles) The Los Angeles Times on Monday featured an interview with
Nintendo lead game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of such characters
as "Zelda," "Mario" and "Donkey Kong." Miyamoto discusses Nintendo's
efforts to develop more mature game titles and the company's more
skeptical view of the market for online gaming, compared with rivals Sony
and Nintendo.
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-000017934mar11.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dtechnology
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USB connections with some get up and go.

With Adaptec's USB2Connect for Notebooks, you can take advantage of the
40x faster speeds of USB 2.0 peripherals anywhere your notebook computer
is -- home, office, or on the road.

http://www.digitalmediawire.com/adaptec.html

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