archives

o Entertainment Provider AtomShockwave Raises $23 Million
o Digital Device Maker Creative Lays Off 10% of Staff, Closes Plant
o Digital Audio Firm Octiv Raises $6 Million in Second Round
o Pepsi Buys Up Ads on Yahoo to Promote Britney Spears Commercial
o Online Magazine Salon.com to Sell Big Ads, Offer Ad-Free Subscriptions
> Digital Media Wire: NYC & DC Interactive Games Panels
o Briefly Noted: Convera - U.S. Geological Survey, TechTV - Que
Publishing, RealNetworks - Whoopi Goldberg, Dimension Films - "Duke
Nukem," Majestic, AudioMill, CelVibe, wireless games, Luxxon - Riot
Entertainment, the Gama Network
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> Job Postings: Acct. Manager, PR Director, Animation Manager

> Events/Services: "Digital Media Revolution in the Americas"

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 Entertainment Provider AtomShockwave Raises $23 Million

San Francisco -- AtomShockwave Corp., the company created by the merger of
Macromedia's games site Shockwave.com and short films provider AtomFilms,
announced on Tuesday that it has raised $22.9 million in its latest round
of venture capital financing. Participating in the round were Macromedia,
Sequoia Capital, JPMorgan Entertainment Partners, Arts Alliance, Waterview
Partners and Intel Capital. Both Shockwave.com and AtomFilms will maintain
their own identities and websites. "The AtomFilms syndication model and
its prestigious catalog of quality short films and animations, coupled
with Shockwave.com's mass audience and cutting-edge interactive content,
create an unparalleled entertainment powerhouse," said Robert Egan,
managing director of JPMorgan Entertainment Partners. The companies'
syndication partners include British Airways, Ford, Volkswagen, TiVo and
HBO/Cinemax. In a difficult market, AtomShockwave has managed to attract
advertisers such as Sony, Skyy Vodka, New Line Cinema and Altoids.
http://www.atomfilms.com/about/press/01-03-20.asp
http://www.shockwave.com
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o Digital Device Maker Creative Lays Off 10% of Staff, Closes Plant

Singapore -- Creative Technology, a manufacturer of digital entertainment
devices such as the Nomad Jukebox MP3 player, announced on Tuesday a
cost-cutting initiative that will include laying off 10 percent of the
company's worldwide staff of 5,000, as well as the closing of its
manufacturing plant in Malvern, Pa. Singapore-based Creative also said
that it would make "sharp cutbacks" at several of its struggling Internet
initiatives. "We believe that we need to take more aggressive actions than
originally planned, given the severity of the economic climate and
prolonged difficulties in the system builder space," said Craig McHugh,
president of Creative Labs, Inc. The company will take a $15 to $20
million restructuring charge in the current fiscal quarter.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010319/sfm153.html
http://www.creative.com
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o Digital Audio Firm Octiv Raises $6 Million in Second Round

Berkeley, Calif. -- Octiv, a developer of business-to-business digital
audio software, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $6 million in its
second round of venture capital financing. FG II Ventures and Novus
Ventures led the investment round; 3i also participated. Berkeley-based
Octiv will use the funds for product development, and to enter new markets
such as wireless, satellite radio, MP3 players, set-top boxes and IP
phones. The company's software currently enhances the quality of streaming
audio through time compression, echo cancellation, and technology that can
identify a user's computer speakers and optimize sound quality for lower
bandwidths.
http://www.octiv.com/press_b_round.html
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o Pepsi Buys Up Ads on Yahoo to Promote Britney Spears Commercial

Purchase, N.Y. -- Pepsi announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with
Yahoo on a promotion for its new commercial featuring singer Britney
Spears that will be broadcast during the Academy Awards telecast. Pepsi
will premiere a streaming video version of the commercial on Yahoo two
hours prior to the telecast. Additionally, the company has purchased all
available advertising on the Yahoo homepage for the weekend of the Academy
Awards, March 23-25.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010319/nym144.html
http://pepsi.yahoo.com/britney
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o Online Magazine Salon.com to Sell Big Ads, Offer Ad-Free Subscriptions

San Francisco -- Salon.com, a daily online magazine covering politics,
technology, sex, books and entertainment, announced on Tuesday that it
will offer advertisers larger banner and interactive ads on its site.
Previous Salon advertisers Intel and Lexus have already purchased larger
ads on the site, which are similar in size to ads recently introduced on
CNET's network of websites. Additionally, San Francisco-based Salon will
offer readers a version of its site that is free from banner ads and
pop-up window ads for a $30 annual subscription. The "premium" Salon --
slated to launch in April -- will also feature some stories not available
on the public site.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010320/sftu105.html
http://www.salon.com/letters/editor/2001/03/20/premium/index.html
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> Digital Media Wire: NYC & DC Interactive Games Panels

New York City -- "Interactive Games on the Internet"
MODERATOR:
-Billy Pidgeon, Analyst, Jupiter Research

FEATURED SPEAKERS:
-Greg Costikyan, Founder & Chief Design Officer, Unplugged Games
-Rob Davis, Executive Producer, Spiderdance
-Frank Lantz, Sr. Game Designer, gameLab
-Joseph Varet, VP BizDev & Strategy, The Groove Alliance
*Additional panelists TBA.

Date: Wednesday, March 28th, 2001
For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/NYCgames.html

------------

Washington, D.C. -- "Interactive Games on the Internet"
FEATURED SPEAKERS:
-Phillip Campbell, Chief Creative Director, Quantic Dream
-Larry Cotter, CEO, Sandbox.com
-David Levine, CEO, Butterfly.net
-Doug Lowenstein, President, Interactive Digital Software Association
*Additional panelists TBA.

Date: Thursday, April 5th, 2001
For more information and to register:
http://www.digitalmediawire.com/DCgames.html
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o Briefly Noted:

(Vienna, Va.) Content management provider Convera said on Tuesday that the
U.S. Geological Survey has hired it to digitize its library of scientific
video. The footage includes b-roll footage of earthquakes, volcanoes,
floods and wildlife disease, which will be made publicly available online
for scientists, educators and the media.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010320/2177.html
http://www.convera.com
http://www.usgs.gov

(San Francisco) Cable network TechTV announced on Tuesday a deal with
computer book publisher Que Publishing, a Macmillan USA imprint and
division of Pearson Technology Group, to publish 30 technology-related
book and video titles over the next three years. The titles will feature
TechTV on-air personalities and cover such topics as "Upgrading Your
Computer" and "Starting an Online Business."
http://www.mcp.com/que/
http://www.techtv.com

(Seattle) RealNetworks announced on Tuesday that comedienne Whoopi
Goldberg will return again this year to provide commentary for a live,
audio-only webcast of the Academy Awards on March 25. The webcast -- which
will include viewers' questions submitted via email -- will be broadcast
on Seattle-based RealNetworks' Film.com as well as on Goldberg's
Whoopi.com.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010320/sftu085.html
http://www.film.com
http://www.whoopi.com

(New York) Dimension Films announced on Tuesday that it has acquired the
rights to the project "Duke Nukem: The Movie" from Threshold
Entertainment. Dimension said that producer Larry Kasanoff ("Mortal Kombat
I & II") will make a feature-length film based on the best-selling video
game created by 3-D Realms.
http://www.duke-nukem.com
http://www.dimensionfilms.com
http://www.thethreshold.com 
http://www.3drealms.com

(Cambridge, Mass.) MIT's Technology Review recently published a preview of
Electronic Arts' upcoming game release Majestic, which will interact with
users in ways that games have not explored before. The subscription-based
online game -- which is centered around conspiracy theory -- will send
users faxes, instant messages and email, and even place game-related calls
to players on their cell phones.
http://www.techreview.com/web/mcdonald031601.asp
http://www.majestic.ea.com

(Santa Cruz, Calif) AudioMill, a developer of digital audio software,
announced on Tuesday the beta version release of its newly-renamed Bitbop
Tuner software, which lets users make personal recordings of songs heard
on Web radio stations. The software was initially called RadioActive, but
was changed after the threat of legal action from RadioActive Records.
Bitbop asks users to input an artist's name, then searches its index of
Web radio stations for the artists and returns corresponding streams.
http://www.audiomill.com

(Las Vegas) CelVibe, a developer of technology that streams live broadcast
TV to wireless devices, on Tuesday showed its technology at the CTIA
Global Wireless Show in Las Vegas. Redwood City-based CelVibe's technology
transfers the MPEG-2 video that broadcast TV is delivered in into MPEG-4,
which better suits wireless technologies, in real-time. The company said
its technology works with 2.5 and 3G wireless networks.
http://www.celvibe.com
http://www.ctiashow.com

(San Francisco) Wired News on Tuesday ran a feature story on the state of
the wireless games industry. The article uses as its starting point a
report from Datamonitor that predicts that four out of five mobile phone
users in the U.S. and Western Europe will be playing wireless games by
2005, bringing $6 billion in revenue over the next four years to the
industry.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,42461,00.html
http://www.datamonitor.com/press/prtemplate.asp?id=tc010215+mContent+2

(Mountain View, Calif.) Luxxon Corporation, a provider of streaming media
technology, said on Tuesday that it has partnered with wireless
entertainment provider Riot Entertainment to develop and market multimedia
entertainment for wireless devices. Los Angeles-based Riot will use
Mountain View-based Luxxon's streaming technology to bring streaming video
and enhanced audio and graphics to its mobile games.
http://www.luxxon.com
http://www.riot-e.com

(San Jose, Calif.) The CMP Game Media Group announced on Tuesday that it
will change its name to the Gama Network. CMP -- which is owned by
London-based marketing information company United Business Media -- is the
producer of the Game Developers Conference, publisher of Game Developer
magazine and operator of Gamasutra.com, a game developer community.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/010320/latu093.html
http://www.gamanetwork.com
http://www.unm.com/

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

> Account Manager - Great Plains/West Coast (California)

The Account Manager will develop and maintain a sales account plan in
conjunction with management goals and strategies. Qualified candidates
will have 4-5 years technology sales related experience or knowledge of
financial or business management. Strong communication abilities,
professional attitude, executive presence, and customer management skills
are required. Send resumes to ptw2@careerrewards.com
OR REFER A FRIEND AND EARN $1000
http://www.careerrewards.com/cr/search/jpd.jsp?jobId=2006
______________________

> Niehaus Ryan Wong, PR Director - Austin, Texas

We are looking for Directors who know both technology and consumer media
to assume one of the senior-most account positions within the agency,
having overall responsibility for operation of a specific group of
accounts and people. Directors provide strategic marketing and PR counsel
to senior client executives and are deemed industry influencers. Send
resumes to jobs@nrwpr.com
http://www.nrwpr.com 
______________________

> School of Visual Arts, Animation Manager - New York City

This position reports to the film chairman and the Film Department's
director of operations. Manage daily functions of animation facility,
supervise assistant & student workers, coordinate schedules &
responsibilities, research & plan animation technology and convey budget
updates & proposals. Knowledge of Illustrator, Adobe Premiere,
AfterEffects & Photoshop. Send resumes to hr@adm.schoolofvisualarts.edu
http://www.schoolofvisualarts.edu

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

> Digital Media Revolution in the Americas, Nov. 29-30 - Pasadena

Institute of the Americas and the Annenberg School for Communication
Conference will focus on all aspects of digital media content production,
delivery and protection of digital property rights in the Americas.
Features CEO track at the Huntington Museum and high-level Latin American
speakers.
Send inquiries to cmorton@iamericas.org
For more information: http://www.iamericas.org
______________________

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