archives

o Entertainment Portal UGO Networks Raises $10 Million In Fifth Round
o Stan Lee Media Lays Off Most Of Staff, Ceases Operations
o Music.com Acquires Asian Music Site Xudio.com
o Community-Based Video Site AntEye.com Shuts Down
o Playlist-Sharing Site Uplister Adds On-Demand Streaming Service
o Briefly Noted: Rage Against the Machine, Detour Magazine - Ignition
Point Studios, Hollywood Media Group - Lycos.com, GEO Interactive - ITN,
Buzztime - Sprint PCS, "Codec Rivalry Spurs Development," "Cell Phone
Movies Lack Focus"
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> Job Postings: Technology Manager, SW & FPGA Engineers, Sales Rep., PR Professionals

> Event Postings: Master the Technology, Potomac Tech Wire Seminar Series, iHollywood Forum

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 Portal UGO Networks Raises $10 Million In Fifth Round

New York -- UGO Networks (UnderGroundOnline), a network of 350
entertainment sites targeted at males aged 18-34, announced on Monday that
it has raised $10 million in its fifth round of venture capital financing.
The investments came from Global Retail Partners and Gryphon Holdings. New
York-based UGO aggregates content from its network affiliates including
animation, music, games, wrestling, technology and TV & film. The company
also offers web hosting services to its affiliate websites, which account
for 20 percent of its revenues. UGO said that it has overall annual
revenues of $15 million. "We will use the new funding to continue
operations until our breakeven, which will happen before the end of
calendar year 2001," said J. Moses, chief executive of UGO.
http://www.ugo.com
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o Stan Lee Media Lays Off Most Of Staff, Ceases Operations

Los Angeles -- Animation company Stan Lee Media -- which was founded by
Spiderman and X-Men creator Stan Lee and created content for the Internet,
TV and film -- announced that it has laid off substantially all of its
employees, and will cease operations. Los Angeles-based Stan Lee Media
announced on Nov. 30 that it had secured up to $2.2 million in bridge
financing and an equity line of up to $40 million. In a statement released
late Friday, the company said that "based upon the continued volatility of
its stock and the drop of its stock price to below $1, it is unable to
complete the balance of its recently announced bridge financing." Stan Lee
Media CEO Ken Williams said, "In the coming weeks, we will be focusing on
exploring the full range of strategic alternatives available to us in
order to maximize shareholder value." There was no mention of what will
come of the company's recent deal with Warner Bros. to revive the "Conan
the Barbarian" film series, or its deal with Fox to produce animated
television series for several of its Latin American outlets. The Nasdaq
halted trading of the company's stock on Monday at 1/8, requesting
additional information from the company before trading resumes. Shares of
Stan Lee Media have traded as high as 28 1/8 in the past year.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001216/ca_stan_le.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001218/dc_nasdaq__3.html
http://corp.stanlee.net/
http://www.stanlee.net
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o Music.com Acquires Asian Music Site Xudio.com

New York -- Music.com, a content site and resource guide for consumers and
musicians, announced on Monday that it has acquired Asian music portal
Xudio.com. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Singapore-based
Xudio.com will become Music.com Asia, with sites in eight languages that
cover thirteen countries. Newton Cheng, current CEO of Xudio.com, will
become president of Music.com Asia and will be responsible for all
day-to-day operations. "This acquisition of Xudio.com is the first step in
our global expansion," said Music.com CEO Philippe Bellosguardo.
"Music.com is already working to secure additional strategic alliances and
acquisitions to further expand our reach." New York-based Music.com will
gradually adapt and integrate its content with what is currently offered
on Xudio.com websites. Earlier this year, Music.com announced that it
would partner with Universal Music Group on a test of the label's
copy-protected "bluematter" format for paid music downloads.
http://www.xudio.com
http://www.music.com
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o Community-Based Video Site AntEye.com Shuts Down

Los Angeles -- AntEye.com, a site that asked users to submit their video
content for use in TV pilots and film productions, shut down on Friday,
according to indieWIRE. "Although the community of creators was accepting
to the innovative concept of AntEye.com, there was not sufficient funding
to continue operations," the company said in a statement. "AntEye.com made
the decision to officially close its doors, effective Friday, December 15,
2000." Los Angeles-based AntEye.com CEO Matti Leshem told Inside.com that
20 employees were laid off on Friday. Leshem said the company's assets
include "a couple of shows that we've developed that are pretty far
along," and that a production deal with HBO may survive if the company can
be sold.
http://www.indiewire.com/film/biz/biz_001215_briefs.html
http://www.inside.com/jcs/InsideDope
http://www.anteye.com
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o Playlist-Sharing Site Uplister Adds On-Demand Streaming Service

Oakland, Calif. -- Uplister, a music site that allows users to create and
trade "playlists" of favorite songs, announced on Monday that it has
partnered with Streamwaves, an aggregator of streaming digital music.
Under the agreement, Uplister will integrate
Streamwaves' on-demand streaming music subscription services into its
playlist-sharing community. Oakland-based Uplister is a community that
lets its users trade playlists (similar to a "mix tape") of songs
generated by other community members. Up to this point, the lists have not
facilitated the trading of any actual copyrighted music files.
Dallas-based Streamwaves has so far licensed music from only one major
label -- EMI Recorded Music -- for its on-demand streaming service.
Uplister plans to offer the service as a paid monthly subscription in the
first quarter of 2001. The company said its fee for the service will
reflect the amount of major label content available. Streamwaves is
currently in talks with several other labels to license their music
catalogs.
http://www.uplister.com
http://www.streamwaves.com
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o Briefly Noted:

(San Francisco) Rock band Rage Against the Machine has posted unreleased
live tracks and music video segments to its website as an apology to fans
who were banned from file-sharing service Napster. Many fans of the band
were recently blocked from using Napster for downloading songs from Rage's
upcoming album. "While we were not aware of this plan to deprive our fans
of our music, once we were made aware of the situation, we started taking
steps to correct it," said guitarist Tom Morello, in a note on the band's
website. QPrime, the band's management company, acted without the band's
permission when it identified users who were trading the band's songs and
asked Napster to block them from the service.
http://www.ratm.com/entry.html

(Hollywood, Calif.) Detour Magazine, a fashion and entertainment
publication, announced on Monday that it will acquire Ignition Point
Studios (IPS), a production company for television and the Internet. IPS
has worked with clients including Sony, PBS and Intel, and is part of
Hollywood-based Detour's plan to create "a major international publicly
held media company through leveraging its unique brand in digital and
traditional print media pursuant to an aggressive acquisition strategy."
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001218/ca_detour_.html
http://www.detourmag.com

(Boca Raton, Fl.) Hollywood Media Corp. (formerly Hollywood.com) announced
on Monday that it will provide film reviews and other entertainment
content to users of Terra Lycos' Lycos.com portal. Boca Raton-based
Hollywood Media also sells tickets online to events such as theater
productions.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001218/fl_hollywo.html
http://entertainment.lycos.com/movies
http://www.hollywood.com

(New York) GEO Interactive, a provider of streaming video technology for
wireless networks, announced on Monday a partnership with UK-based news
organization ITN. Under the agreement, ITN will stream video news reports
and live video news in a trial of Israel-based GEO Interactive's
technology.
http://www.emblaze.com
http://www.itn.co.uk

(Carlsbad, Calif.) Buzztime, a producer and broadcaster of trivia quiz
shows and interactive sports games, announced on Monday that it has
partnered with Sprint PCS to develop games for the wireless network's
web-enabled cell phone subscribers. Carlsbad-based Buzztime, a division of
NTN Communications, also develops games for AT&T Interactive TV, AOL,
Yahoo and Midway coin-operated games.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001218/mo_sprint_.html
http://www.buzztime.com
http://www.sprintpcs.com

(San Francisco) Streamingmedia.com is currently featuring an article on
the competition between Microsoft and RealNetworks, the two leading
developers of streaming media compression technology. The two companies
develop "codecs," or technology that shrinks the sizes of media files so
that higher-quality files can pass more quickly across the web. Microsoft
recently released its Windows Media 8, which it says provides "near VHS"
video at rates of 300Kbps, and "near DVD" quality at 500Kbps.
http://www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=6637

(San Francisco) ZDNet is currently featuring an article about technology
issues facing providers of streaming wireless video. "Devices are only as
good as the networks on which they operate," said Jane Zweig, senior vice
president with Herschel Shosteck Associates, a wireless research firm.
"The reality today is that...the (networks) are not in place." Some
analysts say that current U.S. networks will not be able to offer adequate
bandwidth for streaming video for up to five years. "Our job is to capture
the imagination," said PacketVideo chief executive James Carol, aptly
summing up the predicament of all hopeful wireless startups, "not just of
consumers and developers, but of the mobile carriers."
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2665727,00.html

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

> Washingtonpost.com, Technology Manager

Washingtonpost.com, the region's most popular destination for everything
Washington, is seeking a Technology Manager. Join our hot team of
professionals and enjoy advanced classes in the latest technologies,
networking at industry events, working for a solid world-class
organization with a future, and making your mark on our award-winning
website. Send resumes to jobstech@wpni.com or visit
http://www.washingtonpost.com and click on Join Us.
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> Convergent Companies, Inc., SW & FPGA Engineers - Greenbelt, MD

We are developing break-through video compression technologies for the
Internet and are looking for FPGA and Software engineers with 1-8 yrs
experience. BSEE/CS familiarity with C++, image processing, object
programming. FPGA position, exp FPGA programming, DSP architectures esp
w/Xilinx. Check out Employment section of our website for details.
Send resumes to jobs@convergentcompanies.com
http://www.convergentcompanies.com
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> Intervise, Sales Representative - DC Metro
Responsible for selling IT Consulting Services to Fortune 1000 companies
and Internet startups. Sales Professional must have 3+ years experience in
selling IT Professional Services. Package includes base salary and
commissions, 401K and Health and Dental insurance.
Send resumes to cgriesbach@intervise.com
http://www.intervise.com
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> KG Communications, Public Relations Professionals - McLean, VA

KG Communications specializes in launching start-ups in the telecom field.
Opportunities exist for candidates with strong writing and communications
skills, knowledge of high-tech trade & business media, analysts and
events. A minimum 3 years' experience in high-tech PR-telecom a plus.
Highly competitive compensation, benefits and perks.
Send resumes to kay.handrahan@kgcom.com

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

> Master the Technology that is Changing the World - GW Virginia Campus

The George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science
will hold an informational session at the Virginia Campus in Ashburn from
6-8 p.m. on January 11th . This is a great opportunity to find out about
cutting edge graduate engineering degree programs including: Computer
Security and Information Assurance; Multimedia, Animation, Graphics and
User Interfaces; Software Engineering and Systems; Computer Architecture,
Networks, Parallel and Distributed Computing; Wireless and Mobile
Networks; Telecommunications and Computers. Contact: scason@va.gwu.edu
http://www.seasva.gwu.edu
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> Potomac Tech Wire Seminar Series: Doing Business with Israel

Sponsor: Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. On Thursday, Jan. 11, Potomac Tech
Wire and Jones Day will host a panel discussion on DC technology firms
doing business with Israel. Panelists include: Daniel Epstein, Executive
Director of US-Israeli Business Exchange; Emanuel Friedman, Chairman and
Co-CEO of Friedman, Billings & Ramsey; Philip Garfunkle, Former President
of Yazam; Stephan Mallenbaum, Partner, Jones Day (Moderator); Additional
Panelists To Be Determined. When: 7:30-8:00 a.m. - Registration and
Breakfast; 8:00-9:30 a.m. - Panel Discussion and Q&A; Where: McLean
Hilton.
To Register for this Event: http://www.potomactechwire.com/Israel.htm
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> iHollywood Forum: How Adult Entertainment Profits From the Internet
Whatever one's attitude toward adult entertainment, one fact is
undeniable: it's the only segment of the entertainment industry that
consistently makes money on the Internet. Panelists include: Larry Flynt,
Publisher of Hustler Magazine; Gail Harris, CEO and President of Falcon
Foto; David Schlesinger, Vice President of Internet Marketing at Vivid
Video; Fred Lane, Author of "Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of
Pornography in the Cyber Age" (Routledge 2000); Mike Rick, Co-founder of
Cybersynergism (Webmaster Superstore for Online Adult Entertainment) and
kSEXRadio.com. When: Wednesday January 17, 6:00 pm-10pm; Where: Santa
Monica Doubletree.
To Register: http://www.ihollywoodforum.com/new/events/jan17_2001.htm
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