archives

o Macromedia’s Stock Falls 27% After Earnings Report
o Jupiter: Napster Users More Likely To Purchase Music
o "Herring on Hollywood" Sessions To Be Broadcast On Web
o Akoo.com To Launch "Online Film Festival"
o HardCloud.com and CoastWatch.com Form "Surf Content" Partnership
o Briefly Noted: Scour.com, Quokka Sports - Total Sports, Softcom -
Interactive Video Technologies, U2, MP3.com – Hollywood Reporter,
Billboard Online, Ren and Stimpy
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o Macromedia’s Stock Falls 27% After Earnings Report

New York -- Macromedia Inc, a leading developer of software for
multi-media web sites, saw its share price fall by 27% on Friday after the
company released its quarterly earnings report. Although the report beat
consensus estimates, it failed to please Wall Street. Many analysts had
forecasted even rosier numbers and expressed concerns about the company’s
future revenue outlook. At one point on Friday, Macromedia’s stock was
down by 45%; it ended at $79, down $29 dollars for the day. San
Francisco-based Macromediea’s products include Shockwave.com, an
entertainment site, and software programs Dreamweaver and Flash.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000721/tc/macromedia_dc_1.html
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o Jupiter: Napster Users More Likely To Purchase Music

New York -- Jupiter Communication, a leading Internet research firm, today
argued that the entertainment industry’s attempt to shut down music
file-sharing web sites, such as Napster and Scour, may be misguided. In a
research report, Jupiter said that users of music-sharing technologies are
45 percent more likely to purchase music from stores than non-users.
"Record labels and intellectual property owners have demonized networked
music sharing, even as it has gained enormous traction among consumers,"
Jupiter wrote. "However, these players have yet to capitalize on the
upside of such sharing technology."
http://www.jupitercommunications.com/company/pressrelease.jsp?doc=pr000721
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o "Herring on Hollywood" Sessions To Be Broadcast On Web

Los Angeles -- Red Herring announced Friday that a number of panel
discussions from its upcoming "Herring on Hollywood" conference will be
broadcast on RedHerring.com. "Herring on Hollywood," which will be held in
Los Angeles on August 1-2, will feature panel discussions and lectures by
a number of leading players in digital media. (Rapper Ice-T is scheduled
to speak on one of the music panels). The broadcast will mark the
beginning of the online Red Herring Television service.
http://www.redherring.com/events/hollywood/
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o Akoo.com To Launch "Online Film Festival"

Elmwood Park, Ill. -- Akoo.com, an Internet entertainment network,
announced today that it is launching a series of "online film festivals."
The first festival, which will launch in August, will be called the
"Mammoth Mutant Monster Fest." Illinois-based Akoo.com said the online
festivals will be developed with Los Angeles-based MovieFlix.com, a
provider of movies on the Internet. The Monster Fest will include seven
films made between the 1930s and the mid-1970s, including Secret of the
Loch (1934), Son of Godzilla (1966), and Godzilla vs. Megalon (1976).
Akoo.com said it is currently developing an online festival for vintage
cartoons that will feature Betty Boop, Felix the Cat, and Gumby. The
"festivals" will be free and will remain on the site for six months.
http://www.akoo.com
http://www.movieflix.com
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o HardCloud.com and CoastWatch.com Form "Surf Content" Partnership

Palo Alto, Ca. -- Palo Alto-based HardCloud.com, a "surf forecasting"
service, today announced a partnership with Australian-based
CoastalWatch.com, a surfing website. Under the terms of the deal,
Hardcloud.com will feature live "webcam" coverage and ocean condition
reports from top surfing beaches in Australia and New Zealand, using
Coastalwatch.com cameras. In exchange, Coastalwatch.com will feature
Hardcloud.com content and surf condition reports. Hardcloud.com has
developed a network of surf reporters and over 45 "webcams" located in
Hawaii, California, Latin America, and the United Kingdom. Hardcloud also
announced today that Kevin Noonan, formerly a surf forecaster for
swell.com, has joined Hardcloud as "chief surf forecaster."
http://www.hardcloud.com
http://www.coastalwatch.com
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o Briefly Noted:

(Los Angeles) Richard Wolpert, a former board member of Scour.com who
stepped down in January, today released a statement distancing himself
from the company. "This announcement is to clear up any misconceptions
about my involvement in Scour.com. I am not a member of the board and have
not been for quite some time," the statement said. Yesterday, leading
entertainment trade groups filed suit against Scour.com, alleging that the
site encouraged the illegal download of music and video. Wolpert is
currently the CEO of Checkout.com, a site that provides reviews of movies
and music.
http://www.scour.com

(San Francisco) Quokka Sports, a provider of sports entertainment on the
Internet, announced on Friday that it has signed an agreement to acquire
North Carolina-based Total Sports, a sports Internet company, for about
$130 million in stock.
http://www.quokka.com

(New York) New York-based Softcom, a video Application Service Provider
(ASP), has merged with Los Angeles-based Interactive Video Technologies
(IVT). The new company will be known as Interactive Video Technologies
(IVT) and will be headquartered in New York City. The company said it will
"host, deploy and manage" video applications.
http://www.videotechnologies.com/press/p072000_1.html

(Dublin) Irish rock band U2 reached an agreement today with World Online,
a European-based Internet development company, to build a new website that
will launch in September. U2 said that the site will provide video of the
band working on their next album in their Dublin studio. The site will use
a 360 degree "webcam." "Up until now we felt that there was so much
high-quality U2 information on sites run by fans that we shouldn’t add to
it unless we could do something significantly different," said The Edge,
guitarist for U2.
http://www.u2.com

(San Diego) Today’s Hollywood Reported featured an interview with MP3.com
chairman Michael Robertson who outlined his company’s strategy for
delivering music content over a variety of devices. "Content is getting
cheaper and cheaper because its getting easier and easier to get…legally,
illegally – whatever," he said. "But the value is to add content delivery,
so it’s not just that you have the content, it’s that it’s being delivered
to you, wherever you are, on any electronic device." The full interview is
available at the link below.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/convergence/

(New York) Billboard Online, the Internet division of Billboard
Publications, announced today that it is changing its name to
Billboard.com and revamping its web site. The new site will feature a new
logo and a more simplified design. Billboard.com, citing statistics from
Media Metrix, said it is one of the "stickiest" music sites on the
Internet, behind SonicNet and Launch. Billboard said that the average user
stays on the site for 10 minutes.
http://www.billboard.com

(Los Angeles)  John Kricfalusi, the creator of the comic series Ren and
Stimpy, will release the first episode of his new web-based series,
"Weekend Pussy Hunt," on Saturday. The series will be broadcast on
Icebox.com. The new series is set in the film-noir style and tells the
story of the character of Cigarrettes the Cat and his adventures escaping
from the underworld crime boss, Dirty Dawg.
http://www.icebox.com
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