In This Update:
• US Video Games Sales Hit Record, Up 43% Last Year
• Wikipedia to Add Video
• Sprint to Cut 4,000 Jobs
• NBCU: Strike Has Had “No Noticeable Impact” on Q4
• Microsoft Names New IT Chief
• Turner to Take Over NBA’s Digital Businesses
• Bessemer Invests in $40 Million Round for Russian WiMAX Operator Enforta
• Report: Cell Phones and Virtual Worlds Morphing Shopper Ways
• Google Expands Lead in Online Video Market Share
• Web Ad Buyer: Online Less Robust Than You Think, CPMs Headed Down
• Zynga Games Network Raises $10 Million First Round
• GetFave Raises $1.6 Million for Local Video Search
• Study : Mobile Web Sites’ Growth Spurt to Continue
• Granicus Raises $10 Million for Government Webcasting Tools

US Video Games Sales Hit Record, Up 43% Last Year
BBC
The US video game market grew 43% in 2007, with retail sales for games and games consoles hitting USD17.94bn for the year, up from USD12.5bn according to figures released by the NPD Group. In Dec, traditionally the busiest month for video game sales, a total of USD4.82 was spent, a year-on-year rise of 28%. This was also 83% up on Nov’s USD2.36bn spend. Hardware sales of games consoles grew 54% year-on-year with Nintendo performing the best.
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Wikipedia to Add Video
NEWTEEVEE
Under a new partnership unveiled today, Kaltura, maker of embeddable collaborative video webware, will bring video to the Wikimedia family of sites. The beta program, which is being dubbed “an open, collaborative video experiment,” will allow users to add and remix rich media via an embeddable player on wiki pages. Kaltura’s software will be tested on WikiEducator before making its way onto actual Wikipedia pages.
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Sprint to Cut 4,000 Jobs
REUTERS
Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service, said on Friday it will cut about 4,000 jobs and close about 8 percent of its stores, predicting further pressure on its ability to attract subscribers and turn a profit in 2008. Sprint shares fell 7 percent in pre-market trading from its close of $11.57 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. The company said it would cut 125 stores and eliminate more than 4,000 sales outlets within retailers. Sprint has about 20,000 total distribution points, including some 1,400 of its own retail stores.
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NBCU: Strike Has Had “No Noticeable Impact” on Q4
SILICON ALLEY INSIDER
GE’s Q4 is out, and the NBC U unit is right where CEO Jeff Immelt said it would be a month ago: Profits up 10%. In December, Immelt described the unit as “underperforming” but in the earnings release this morning he’s more upbeat: “NBC Universal delivered 10% segment profit growth in the quarter for its fifth straight quarter of profit growth,” Immelt said. “Film had its best year ever, with strong global growth. Entertainment and Information Cable had record ratings and solid earnings growth. The network continues to improve its programming and cost position.”
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Microsoft Names New IT Chief
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Microsoft Corp. named former Disney and GM executive Tony Scott as chief information officer, filling a vacancy created in November when another executive was dismissed. Mr. Scott, 56 years old, will manage the software giant’s 4,000-person global information technology operation that manages critical technology systems supporting the company’s world-wide sales.
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Turner to Take Over NBA’s Digital Businesses
BROADCASTING&CABLE
Turner Broadcasting System and the National Basketball Association expanded their long-running partnership with a new digital-rights agreement that will see Turner essentially take over the league’s digital businesses. Under the terms of the deal, the NBA and Turner will jointly manage the league’s digital portfolio out of Turner’s Atlanta headquarters. TBS will assume responsibility for programming, marketing and technical operations for NBA TV, the league’s digital-TV network, and will host the NBA.com network, which includes NBA.com and WNBA.com.
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Bessemer Invests in $40 Million Round for Russian WiMAX Operator Enforta
VENTUREBEAT
Enforta is a Russian company with plans to roll out WiMAX and other broadband technologies to 65 cities in its home country by the end of this year. The company is already well established, with internet and telephone services active in 25 cities. The investment will probably go mainly toward Enforta’s growing WiMAX network. “The WiMAX business proposition takes on a whole new dimension when used to provide basic infrastructure in emerging economies,” Ron Elwell of Bessemer Venture Partners stated, as part of the prepared release.
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Report: Cell Phones and Virtual Worlds Morphing Shopper Ways
REUTERS
Virtual worlds, mobile coupons and bar-code readers on cell phones are the next technology wave that U.S. chain stores must ride if they hope to stay competitive in the fast-changing world of global retail. Retailers, gathered in New York this week for the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) annual convention, were urged to go high-tech to stand out in the crowd and improve sales, especially amid a flagging U.S. economy. “The cell phone is shifting the way consumers shop, and U.S. retailers need to get ready,” said Pat Conroy, vice chairman at Deloitte & Touche USA, in a keynote speech at the convention.
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Google Expands Lead in Online Video Market Share
TVOVER
comScore released its comScore Video Metrix report for November 2007, indicating that more than 75 percent of U.S. Internet users watched a video online (including both streaming video and progressive downloads), averaging 3.25 hours of video per person during the month. Google Sites, which includes YouTube.com, increased its video market share by more than two percentage points to 31.3 percent from October to November.
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Web Ad Buyer: Online Less Robust Than You Think, CPMs Headed Down
SILICON ALLEY INSIDER
Most prognosticators predict another booming year for online advertising, but Carl Fremont isn’t so sure. Fremont, the global media director for digital ad giant Digitas, says the weakening economy will slow down Web ads as well. He also predicts a tough slog for publishers hoping that online video will give them a shot in the arm: Video is flooding the Web, he says, but most it is unsold and will remain that way.
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Zynga Games Network Raises $10 Million First Round
ALARM:CLOCK
Tribe.net has been an also ran in the social networking space, but its founder Marc Pincus has street cred for being among those who got it early on. Tribe.net was sold to Cisco, moreover, Pincus was an early investor in Facebook. Pincus has moved on to launch Zynga Game Network, which has just raised $10M. Fred Wilson’s Union Square Ventures led the round along with LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, VC Brad Feld, Bob Pitman, Andy Thiel, and Avalon Ventures. Zynga has launched a number of games on MySpace and Facebook – Zynga’s poker app claims 5.5M users.
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GetFave Raises $1.6 Million for Local Video Search
MASHABLE
Fave Media has just announced funding, to the amount of $1.6 million, from a “variety of private investors,” according to the release. The Chicago-based company has a local search engine called getfave, that has two main areas of interest: its local search and its video results. One major component of getfave is its video advertising capabilities, which is currently powered by Brightcove and lends video search results to those seeking local information.
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Study : Mobile Web Sites’ Growth Spurt to Continue
MEDIAPOST
Some 40% of website operators have launched mobile sites and another 22% plan to do so in the next year, according to a new JupiterResearch study. “This number is relatively large given that the experience is not yet mature today and likely reflects mobile versions that consist of frames and offer a kludgy user interface,” states the report titled “Mobile Web Sites: Designing for Mobility.” Driving the growth of mobile sites are factors such as the expansion of 3G networks and smartphones and improving prospects for deriving revenue from mobile advertising. Jupiter estimates that increasing page views and usage will push annual mobile display and search advertising revenue to $825 million by 2012.
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Granicus Raises $10 Million for Government Webcasting Tools
MASHABLE
Granicus is a company that provides webcasting and public meeting management solutions to the government, and the company has just announced a $10 million Series A round of financing from JMI Equity. The funds will go towards sales, marketing, product development and customer support. As part of the deal, JMI Equity general partner Peter Arrowsmith has joined Granicus’ Board of Directors. As a company, Granicus offers up a suite of solutions including licensing models for governments to work within fixed budgets for things like unlimited bandwidth, audio/video streaming, and monitoring systems maintaining the availability of content for a widespread audience.
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Tags: 3G, BBC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Brightcove, Cisco, Disney, EMI, Facebook, Financing, Google, ISP, LinkedIn, Local, Microsoft, MySpace, NBC, NBCU, Nintendo, RIM, Series A, Smartphone, Social Networking, Sprint, Turn, U.S., VC, Video, WiMAX, YouTube