In This Update:
• Crispy Gamer Raises $8.25 Million
• Aegis Acquires Malaysian Digital Shop IF
• ValueClick COO Yovanno Jumps to Widget Analytics Firm Gigya As CEO
• Profit Up at Verizon on Strong Wireless Sales
• Is Surfing the Internet Altering Your Brain?
• Qik Finally Brings Its Live Video Streaming To Blackberry
• Web 2.0 Has Crept into the Everyday Work Place, FaceTime Reports
• Report: Credit Card Apps Submitted Online In Q2 2008 Decreased By 6 Percent
• ZeroG Wireless Raises $17 Million for Embedded Wi-Fi Chips
• TuneCore Raises $7 million for Music Distribution Services
Sponsored by:
McCarter & English, LLP
The law firm of new media. Major offices in New York, Boston, Newark, Stamford, and other cities. Advising new media companies from start-up to exit. Venture capital, IP protections and disputes, employment matters, outsourcing, joint ventures, acquisitions, to name just a few.

Crispy Gamer Raises $8.25 Million
CENTER NETWORKS
NYC-based Crispy Gamer has announced that they have raised their first round of funding to the tune of $8.25 million from Constellation Ventures and company founders. The site offers editorial game content and a community for gamers. No insight was provided into how they plan to use the funding. The site has game reviews, a blog, game videos and a message board. It looks like they have about 800 game reviews. Crispy Gamer says they have taken a “bold stance” in refusing to accept advertising from game publishers. In my testing, the site showed basically all remnant ads.
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Aegis Acquires Malaysian Digital Shop IF
PAIDCONTENT
Media firm Aegis Group continues its international acquisition streak with the purchase of Malaysian digital ad agency IF. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Aegis said IF’s assets were valued at roughly $154,000 (£0.1 million). Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, IF offers creative, multimedia and online media planning services. As it has done with the seven other acquisitions it has made this year, IF will be folded into Aegis’ search network Isobar. Malaysia’s media spend is still dominated by press and TV. Although digital spend is expected to be just 1 percent this year, it’s growing at an estimated rate of 52 percent.
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ValueClick COO Yovanno Jumps to Widget Analytics Firm Gigya As CEO
PAID CONTENT
Widget distribution firm Gigya has named ValueClick COO David Yovanno CEO, Venturebeat reported. Yovanno told Venturebeat that after nine years at ValueClick, it was simply time to move on. ValueClick has been struggling over the past year. Back in February, ValueClick settled a suit brought by the Federal Trade Commission that accused the company of using fraudulent tactics for online lead gen activities. More recently, that company has been hit by the downward trajectory of the display business.
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Profit Up at Verizon on Strong Wireless Sales
NEW YORK TIMES
Verizon Communications, the telecommunications company, on Monday, reported strong gains in its wireless division, which buoyed profits, while customers continue to drop their telephone service at home. The company reported net income of $1.67 billion, or 59 cents a share for the third quarter, up from $1.27 billion, or 44 cents a share in the period a year ago. Revenue increased 4.1 percent, to $24.75 billion. Verizon Wireless, which is a joint venture between Verizon and the Vodafone Group, added 2.1 million customers in the quarter for a total of 70.8 million subscribers, making it the No. 2 wireless carrier behind AT&T.
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Is Surfing the Internet Altering Your Brain?
REUTERS
The Internet is not just changing the way people live but altering the way our brains work with a neuroscientist arguing this is an evolutionary change which will put the tech-savvy at the top of the new social order. Gary Small, a neuroscientist at UCLA in California who specializes in brain function, has found through studies that Internet searching and text messaging has made brains more adept at filtering information and making snap decisions. But while technology can accelerate learning and boost creativity it can have drawbacks as it can create Internet addicts whose only friends are virtual and has sparked a dramatic rise in Attention Deficit Disorder diagnoses.
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Qik Finally Brings Its Live Video Streaming To Blackberry
TECHCRUNCH
Qik , a startup that allows you to stream live video to the web directly from your phone, has launched support for RIM’s incredibly popular Blackberry platform. The software is currently available in an alpha state (so don’t be surprised if you encounter bugs), and includes support for the Blackberry Bold and Pearl (other phones, like the Flip and Curve, will be available in a later release that the company expects soon). This brings Qik to a much broader platform, and also helps cement Qik’s lead in terms of device support well ahead of competitors Kyte and Flixwagon, neither of which support Blackberry.
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Web 2.0 Has Crept into the Everyday Work Place, FaceTime Reports
VENTURE BEAT
Internet applications have almost entirely penetrated the work place, with 97 percent of respondents to a new survey being released today saying they use at least one Internet application. That’s up from 85 percent a year ago, according to FaceTime, which makes work place monitoring and Internet security software. About 79 percent of workers use Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube at work for business reasons. But 82 percent say they use these sites and other social networks and social media sites for personal reasons. About 51 percent of workers use social networks at least once a day.
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Report: Credit Card Apps Submitted Online In Q2 2008 Decreased By 6 Percent
COM SCORE
Results of a study of the online credit card industry, based on both passively-observed online behavioral data as well as a survey of more than 2,000 Internet users conducted in September 2008 were released today. Study findings revealed that for the first time in the five most recent quarters, the total number of credit card applications submitted online at the top ten credit-card issuer sites declined, dropping 6 percent in Q2 2008 versus the same period in 2007.
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ZeroG Wireless Raises $17 Million for Embedded Wi-Fi Chips
VENTURE BEAT
ZeroG Wireless is announcing today that it has raised $17 million in a second round of funding for its business of designing embedded Wi-Fi chips. This company is looking for the day when billions of everyday gadgets and sensors are connected to the Internet. John Cummins, chief executive of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company, says it’s able to get off the ground because it’s going the opposite direction of other wireless broadband chip makers.
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TuneCore Raises $7 million for Music Distribution Services
VENTURE BEAT
Apple’s iTunes music-downloading service and its iPod music players disrupted the music industry’s CD business. TuneCore is helping to complete that process. That’s how the company just raised $7 million in a first institutional round of funding from Opus Capital. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based company allows artists to distribute their music, videos and films to iTunes and a host of other online vendors. Jeff Price, an 19-year-music-industry veteran who started TuneCore in 2005, admits that he is a middleman. It’s interesting that he figured out that, even in an age where artists can reach fans directly through sites such as MySpace, middlemen are still necessary.
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