In This Update:
• RightScale Raises $13 Million To Manage the Cloud
• Aria Systems Raises $10 Million More for Online Billing
• Industry Moves: Caroline Little Named Guardian North America CEO
• YouTube Taps Indie Music Via Rumblefish
• Facebook Improves Video Quality Support
• Terra Firma Faces EMI Music
• NYTCo WantsTo Raise Up To $225 Million From Mortgage Or Sale-Lease Of Times HQ
• Flickr Ban Raises Question of What’s Commerce, What’s Not
• Report: Wal-Mart to Sell $99 iPhone
• Facebook Gets a Mobile Phone Arcade
• CBS Radio Extends Online Reach
• Expresso Fitness Raises $14 Million
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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.
RightScale Raises $13 Million To Manage the Cloud
GIGAOM
Cloud computing management software provider RightScale has scored $13 million in second round venture funding. Index Ventures led the round and was joined by returning investor Benchmark Capital, which led a $4.5 million round in April. Index Ventures partner Danny Rimer has also joined the RightScale’s board of directors. The funding is another proof point that venture firms are still investing in cloud computing plays despite the downturn. RightScale, as well as its competitor Elastra, which raised money in August, are fueled up for the downturn. Let’s see if they can get anywhere, especially as the larger providers such as IBM start moving in with their own cloud management and provisioning services.
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Aria Systems Raises $10 Million More for Online Billing
VENTUREBEAT
Aria Systems, perhaps the first company to offer billing and subscription management through a software-as-a-service business model (i.e., online subscriptions), has raised a $10 million second round. The Media, Pa.-based company has been around since 2003, but interest in online billing software seems to have taken off this year – and it’s not just Aria chief executive Ed Sullivan who says so. A new competitor called Zuora, led by an early employee of SaaS pioneer Salesforce.com, launched several products this year, and has attracted funding from some big-name investors, including Benchmark Capital and Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff.
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Industry Moves: Caroline Little Named Guardian North America CEO
PAIDCONTENT
Guardian News & Media (GNM) has appointed a chief executive for North America. Former WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive publisher and CEO Caroline Little, who joined GNM’s board in July as a special adviser on US expansion, is now coming aboard full-time; she starts in January, based out of both New York and Washington. (Disclosure: ContentNext, which owns paidContent, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian News & Media. Little also sits on ContentNext’s board.) Well regarded in the online publishing business, Little also sits on the boards of the American Press Institute, Grinnell College, the Posse foundation and the Knight Foundation. Joining the Washington Post in 1997, she led the websites of the DC paper, Newsweek, Slate and TheRoot. She left in April.
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YouTube Taps Indie Music Via Rumblefish
HYPERBOT
In what could provide another small piece of the indie music income puzzle, YouTube has partnered with Rumblefish, the indie branding and music licensing agency, to provide users with access to 25,000 licensed songs from Rumblefish’s catalog. With YouTube’s AudioSwap tool, users can add pre-approved music to videos. When music represented by Rumblefish is embedded in video being played on YouTube or other partner websites, artists are paid a percentage of the advertising receipts from the ads on that page. In certain instances, users pay a subscription fee for access to video or picture editing websites and Rumblefish artists recieve a pro-rata percentage of the subscription fee.
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Facebook Improves Video Quality Support
PULSE2
So far over 45 million videos have been uploaded to Facebook. As of this past Friday, Facebook improved their technical infrastructure to support higher video quality. Facebook also enabled a service that allows their users to share videos on other websites. Before that videos were not allowed to be embedded on other website. Videos can now be viewed at 1280 x 720 pixels (720p). The audio quality for uploaded videos on Facebook has also been improved. Lastly, Facebook has improved the security settings for videos as well. When uploading a video, users can select whether “Everyone” can see it or not. If you want only a few friends to be able to view it, you can select those individuals. The announcement about the video improvements was made by Chris Putnam on the Facebook blog.
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Terra Firma Faces EMI Music
PEHUB
Terra Firma Capital Partners may need to inject further cash into UK music group EMI, which it took private in a €6.2bn (US$8bn) transaction in 2007, in order to avoid defaulting on a loan from Citigroup. The Wall Street Journal reported that Terra Firma put £10m into EMI three months ago to avoid defaulting on its loan. At the time of the transaction, Terra Firma said that Citigroup was putting £2.5bn of debt into the deal in addition to provisions for a £350m overdraft, although reports suggest that the bank has approximately £2.7bn of loans in EMI. In May of this year, Terra Firma’s chief Guy Hands said that his firm was working hard to find ways to help Citigroup “syndicate or sell down this loan”. Citigroup attempted to sell US$12bn of its portfolio of leveraged loans earlier in the year, although this did not include the EMI debt due to uncertainty about Terra Firma’s restructuring plans for EMI.
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NYTCo WantsTo Raise Up To $225 Million From Mortgage Or Sale-Lease Of Times HQ
PAIDCONTENT
Last month The New York Times Company board cut the family take-home pay-and increased the flow of money to the company-by cutting dividends. This week, according to the NYT, it’s planning to mortgage or even work a sales-lease on the family home: up to $225 million on the 58 percent of the Times Tower owned by the company. CFO Jim Follo told the paper the company has hired Cushman & Wakefield to get the financing through either a mortgage-the NYTCo share of the mid-Manhattan tower is not mortgaged now-or possible a sale that would include leasing back the space. Developer Forest City Ratner owns the rest of the building.
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Flickr Ban Raises Question of What’s Commerce, What’s Not
CLICK Z
Sellers of handmade crafts post photos there. So do Amazon affiliates and fans of Tag Heuer watches. But when a search optimization consultant posted images to Flickr of products sold by eyewear retailer FramesDirect.com, and photos of people wearing them, the Yahoo-owned photo sharing site banished his account. Like other sites prone to corruption by purely commercial exploits such as Wikipedia, Digg, or even Craigslist, Flickr has taken pains to rid its photo community of marketers who use the site simply to boost search engine rankings. And, like others, it has implemented no-follow tags to prevent misuse of the service.
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Report: Wal-Mart to Sell $99 iPhone
REUTERS
A cheaper version of Apple Inc’s iPhone will be sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc for $99 later this month, the New York Post said.Two models of the popular device will hit shelves at the retail giant, the paper said, citing employees at several stores. Employees also told San Jose-based Mercury News that the $99 iPhones would be 4-gigabyte models, and that Wal-Mart was attempting a pre-Christmas launch.The iPhone went on sale starting July 11 at $199 for the model with 8 gigabytes of storage and $299 for the 16-gigabyte version. However, iPhone users need to sign up with data service provider AT&T Inc for a plan that costs at least $30 a month for unlimited Web access and another $5 for 200 text messages or $20 for unlimited texting.Wal-Mart has been gaining market share and clout in the recession as cash-strapped shoppers seek out its low prices. Neither Apple nor Wal-Mart were immediately available to comment.
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Facebook Gets a Mobile Phone Arcade
GIGAOM
Here’s a fun new Facebook game app that just went live: The Mplayit Mobile Arcade, where you can play dozens of free mobile phone game demos, including top titles like Spore Origins and Guitar Hero Mobile. It’s a Facebook version of the Mpowerplayer web site, so it’s also integrated into the social network’s unique functionality. For example, you can share Mplayit game links with people on your friends’ list; when you click “Recommend” on a specific game, it shows up in your newsfeed. From the game publishers’ point of view, it’s a clever way of virally promoting and selling games on a network with 130 million users, many of whom might never even have considered buying a phone game otherwise.
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CBS Radio Extends Online Reach
REUTERS
While other Internet radio providers are frantically trying to stay afloat in the wake of higher music royalty fees, CBS Radio is using the situation to solidify its standing within the format.After essentially taking over AOL’s Web radio operations earlier this year, CBS Radio has struck a similar deal to power Yahoo Music’s Launchcast Internet radio service starting in early 2009. CBS Radio will handle advertising sales for Launchcast’s 150 stations, as it already does for AOL’s 200 stations. The company has 150 online simulcast and Web-only stations of its own and is a CBS Corp. sibling of streaming music site Last.fm. Driving CBS Radio’s momentum in Internet radio is the growing pressure on webcasters to monetize their traffic more effectively.
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Expresso Fitness Raises $14 Million
PE HUB
Expresso Fitness, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of interactive cardio fitness systems, has raised $7 million in new VC funding. Return backers include Sierra Ventures, Physic Ventures, and Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. The company also secured a $7 million working capital line from Silicon Valley Bank.
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