Company Launches & Partnerships
3D technology company RealD said in February has been bought by private equity investor Rizvi Traverse Management which has agreed to pay $551 million, including assumption of debt which renders to $11 a share, just 4.1% above the closing price on Friday. Rizvi Traverse Managing Partner Ben Kohn said this of RealD, “the market leading 3D cinema platform with a history of innovation and strong growth prospects. …We are excited to partner with Michael Lewis and the current management team in this new chapter for RealD.”
Google has acquired Fly Labs, a company that focuses in making video-editing apps for the iPhone. The Fly Labs team will also begin contributing to Google Photos, which provides cloud storage for photos and videos, and catalogs images in a way that makes them easily searchable.
The CBS Television Stations group and Health Media Network have joined in a new multi-year partnership. HMN, a Point of Care Media company that uses digital TVs to offer patient education in waiting rooms and medical practices, will now deliver CBS Television Stations’ health and lifestyle content to consumers.
Chinese E-commerce mega-company Alibaba completed its acquisition of Chinese streaming giant Youku Tudou in a deal worth $4.2 billion and will pay $27.60 per American depository share.
In addition to comScore buying Rentrak and selling Digital Analytics, the big data business intelligence service to Adobe. comScore also announced that it has a strategic global partnership in place with Spotify and is launching a “Total Home Panel,” to measure household media consumption across all screens, devices, and platforms.
Private wealth management firm Fleet-Fairhaven has financed a $50 million P&A fund targeted towards U.S. releases for international sales company Double Dutch International (DDI) releases, exclusively for films represented by DDI for worldwide sales rights that are strong cast-driven films with a US release of at least 100 screens. The first movie to be funded will be the animated film Elliot: The Littlest Reindeer, which will receive $15 million. M from the fund, said Jason Moring, president of DDI. Movies from the DDI slate, which will benefit the Fleet-Fairhaven P&A fund, must be strong cast-driven pieces with the ability to get a US release on at least 100 screens.
Activision Blizzard Studios has been launched in an effort to develop films and TV shows based on its hit games including Call Of Duty, Diablo and others and announced their initial production an animated TV series entitled Skylanders Academy. Activision seeks to build on the broad appeal of its games by turning them into franchises that could lead to consumer product sales. Disney alum Nick van Dyk will serve as Co-President. Parent company Activision Blizzard also acquired mobile gaming giant King Digital Entertainment, best known for the Candy Crush franchise. Activision Blizzard spent $5.9 billion dollars on the acquisition.
Film
Jake Bauman has been hired in the new role of Literary Scout for New Line Cinema and be the studio’s primary liaison with the publishing industry, identifying book-to-film opportunities alongside New Line’s existing outside literary agency. He previously had the same role at Chernin Entertainment.
Tom Butterfield has been hired by Content Media as Head of Production in their movie division. He will oversee productions already in the pipeline at Content and be charged with sourcing commercially viable projects for Content’s development and production slate. He previously founded and ran the indie production company Culmination Productions, where he produced a slate that includes the upcoming Life At These Speeds and London Town.
Brenda Gilbert has been named the President at Bron Animation. She will continue to be a Partner at Bron Media Corp. which she also Co-Founded. Luke Carroll’s role of VP of Production has been expanded to include Development has been named the VP of Production & Development at Bron Animation in Burnaby, British Columbia. Teunis de Raat has been upped from VFX Supervisor to the VP of Digital at Bron Animation. Adam Wood has been upped from Creative Director to the VP of Creative at Bron Animation.
Caddy Vanasirikul has been hired on as an Executive of Acquisitions at The Exchange. She started as an intern for the company. Nathaniel McCormick has been upped to the position of Executive VP Worldwide Distribution after three years at the Exchange to report to company founder and CEO Brian O’Shea and will co-lead the worldwide distribution efforts for the company’s roster of films.
Joanne Lee and JR Smith have both been promoted to Director of Acquisitions at IM Global in their LA offices. Prior to IM Global, Lee was at Exclusive Media and at CAA. Weihan Zhang has been promoted to Senior Manager, Sales and Acquisitions Asia. Smith joined IM Global’s acquisitions and productions team in January 2013.
TV
Nicola Andrews has been named the VP of Distribution at Gaumont Television. She was previously the Managing Director at Hemisphere Distribution Ltd.
Jay Bastian has been upped from VP to the SVP of Series at Warner Bros. Animation.
Brian Bockrath has been named the President at Bays Thomas Productions in New York. He was formerly the VP of Scripted Programming at AMC.
Elizabeth Cain has been named the Communications Associate, E! and Esquire Network Publicity. She was previously the Coordinator of Communications at Nickelodeon.
Maria Isabel Figueroa has been named the VP of Marketing at Telemundo Network in Miami. She was previously the VP of Marketing at Sony Pictures Latin America & Brazil.
Cheryl Fullerton has been named the EVP of People at Corus Entertainment Inc. She was previously the VP of Leadership at Maple Leaf Foods in Toronto.
Jonathan Gabay has been upped from Executive Director to the VP of Comedy Development & Programming at FOX Broadcasting Company. Tony Tompson has been upped from Director of Drama Development & Programming to the VP of Drama Development & Programming at FOX Broadcasting Company. Joe Earley will leave his post as the COO at Fox Television Group at the end of 2015 to pursue other opportunities. Samata Narra has been upped from VP to the SVP of Comedy Development & Programming at FOX Broadcasting Company.
Lynneise Joseph has been upped from Programming Manager to the Director of Current Programming at The Africa Channel. Karen Juve has been upped from Director to the VP of Programming & Acquisitions at The Africa Channel. Narendra Reddy has been upped from SVP of Programming & Production to the EVP of Content & Global Operations at The Africa Channel.
Susie Kricena has been named the SVP of Program Acquisitions at Viacom Media Networks in New York. She was previously the SVP of Program Acquisitions at Comedy Central.
Management, PR, Agencies
Mark Owens has been named the CEO of Rogers & Cowan. Previously Owens joined Corbis in 2012 when the company acquired the Norm Marshall Group, serving as CRO. While at Corbis he headed up the company’s media, entertainment and images businesses among other duties.
Keith Bielory has been hired to be an Agent in alternative programming and digital media group at Abrams Artists Agency. Bielory previously worked at PMG Sports and CelebExperts in business development and account management. Fatmata Kamara has been upped from assistant to Agent in the Los Angeles-based theatrical youth and young adult division.
Anne Damato has made Partner at Rain Management Group where she is a Literary Manager. She began her career at Lightstorm Entertainment where she worked on True Lies and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Some of Damato’s clients include Ayanna Floyd, (Empire) , Keto Shimizu (Arrow), Wendey Stanzler (Shameless, Grace & Frankie, Arrow), Millicent Shelton (American Crime, Black-ish, Flash), Miller Tobin (Secrets & Lies, Quantico, Girlfriends Guide) and PJ Pesce (100, Supernatural).
Nick Damiano has been upped to Manager at One Entertainment and will relocate to Los Angeles. One Entertainment’s clients include Idina Menzel, Lorraine Bracco, Scott Cohen, Lola Kirke, Adria Arjona and Paul Sparks among others.
Sarah Early has been signed on as a Digital Media at UTA. She was previously an Agent of Global Branded Entertainment & Digital Strategy at ICM Partners. Drew Welborn has shifted to UTA where he will be a Comedy Touring Agent in their New York office. He will rep established and emerging talent for the touring biz well as in film, TV and digital media. Welborn was previously an agent at WME in the personal appearances department with a focus on comedy and digital talent.
Mike Esola is currently pursuing other opportunities. He was formerly a Literary Agent at WME.
Cara Lewis is currently pursuing other opportunities. She was previously a Music Agent at CAA in New York.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
Carlos Chirinos has been named the Senior Political Editor at Univision Digital. He was formerly the Deputy Bureau Editor at BBC Mundo.
Jason Klarman has been named the CMO at Fullscreen in New York. He was formerly the President at Hashtag Media Ideas.
Francis M. Buono has been named SVP Legal Regulatory Affairs and Senior Deputy General Counsel at Comcast and will provide corporate-wide legal advice on regulatory matters and overseeing the company’s legal regulatory advocacy, including filings in federal and state regulatory proceedings and related litigation and appeals. Previously he spent 25 years at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP where he most recently was partner and chair of the Communications, Media & Privacy Department.
Karen Bennett has been named the SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer at Cox Media Group in Atlanta. She was previously the SVP & Chief Human Resources Officer at YP. Deborah Thomas has announced her retirement. She was previously the SVP of Human Resources & Communications at Cox Media Group in Atlanta.
Cameron Blanchard has been named the EVP of Corporate Communications at Condé Nast in New York. He was formerly the SVP of Corporate Communications at NBCUniversal. Tatiana Gonzalez Rama has been hired in a newly created position and will lead CNE’s research and analytics team, spearheading efforts to analyze data and grow audiences across the company’s digital video network. Gonzalez has held analytics positions at Google and, most recently, Spotify.
Scott Braley has been named the General Manager of Programmatic Advertising at Ooyala in New York. He was formerly the SVP of Demand at OpenX.
Bianca Bucciarelli has been named the West Coast Lifestyle Communications Manager at Audi of America. She was previously a Talent Publicist at Vision PR.
Todd Dupler has been named the Senior Director of Advocacy & Public Policy at The Recording Academy in Washington D.C. He was formerly the Director at the Academy.