In This Update:
• Will LBO debt topple Clear Channel?
• Opinion: Think Entrepreneurs Don’t Need VCs? Think Again
• Universal Music Takes Another Stab Online
• The New York Times Finds Print-Like Engagement with New “Reader”
• MLB scores a tech patent
• Report: Half Of US Mobile Users Access Content On A Weekly Basis?
• Google Updates Trademark Policy on Keywords Ads
• U.S. video game sales down 17 percent in April
• Microsoft Raises $3.75 Billion By Selling Bonds To Investors
• Wolfram Alpha Launch Starts Tonight at 5pm Pacific: Here is What You Need to Know
• Slacker Raises Another $9.7M in Venture Funding
• Delve Raises $1.65M, Revenues Surge
• Minyanville Media Raises Private Funding

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Will LBO debt topple Clear Channel?
THE DEAL
The $24 billion LBO of Clear Channel Communications Inc. was one of the last megabuyouts to get done, with the deal’s private equity sponsors — Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital — actually having to sue the banks, which had tried to back out of their commitments to finance the deal after the credit crunch began. But if a story in Thursday’s New York Post is on target, the banks may have been right all along, as the media company’s crushing debt load has it considering asset sales, debt restructuring and even a prepackaged bankruptcy.
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Opinion: Think Entrepreneurs Don’t Need VCs? Think Again
PAIDCONTENT
NYT‘s highlighted a report by the International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education yesterday, which claimed the lower start-up costs of launching a digital media company is making it less necessary for entrepreneurs to partner with venture capitalist firms when pursuing their big idea. And they are right: with third-party services available for pretty much everything from hosting to ad-sales investing in a team is less of an upfront cost than it used to be and often entrepreneurs who have the right contacts can find very talented developers to create a product or website for them for equity at first. But I would be careful to dismiss the need for venture capitalists, especially since many like Spark Capital and Sequoia Capital now make small investments in the $250K range (Union Square Ventures also has for years), for the following reasons…
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Universal Music Takes Another Stab Online
WALL STREET JOURNAL
A pending executive shuffle at Universal Music Group, the world’s largest recorded-music company by sales, illustrates how labels have yet to find a truly money-making online strategy despite repeated attempts. Universal is preparing to move Rio Caraeff, the top executive in its digital-business division, to head a new venture called Vevo, which aims to generate increased advertising revenue from online music videos. Though Vevo is being developed with technical help from Google Inc., it is being funded and built by Universal, a division of Vivendi SA.
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The New York Times Finds Print-Like Engagement with New “Reader”
BEETTV
While readers of the print version of The New York Times spend an average of 40 minutes a day, visitors to the Web site (a vastly bigger number) spend just 30 hours per month. The company’s Times Reader is finding time spent is similar to the print experience, Rob Larson, VP of Digital Production, told Beet.TV in this interview taped at the paper’s offices earlier this week. As time spent is critical for advertisers and subscribers, this engagement number could be a significant development for online monetization of newspapers and magazines.
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MLB scores a tech patent
CNET
Of all the sports leagues, Major League Baseball has the reputation of being the most technologically savvy. On Thursday, MLB proved it by winning its first tech patent. Bob Bowman says baseball couldn’t stream games without subscriber-locating system.(Credit: Major League Baseball Advanced Media) The league’s digital unit, Major League Baseball Advanced Media(MLBAM), announced on Thursday that it was granted patent No. 7,486,943 for a system that helps determine a subscriber’s geographical location. MLBAM oversees MLB.tv, the online video distribution service that streams live and on-demand games, and is widely considered to be the most successful subscription business on the Internet.
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Report: Half Of US Mobile Users Access Content On A Weekly Basis?
MOCONEWS
A new survey by research and consultation firm Frank N. Magid Associates has found that 51 percent of mobile phone users in the USA access content using their mobile phone on a weekly basis. Those who do access mobile content spend about the same amount of time doing so (39 minutes) as the average user does texting (38 minutes) or talking on their mobile phone (44 minutes). This is based on an online survey in January 2009 which included “a representative national sample of 4,000 U.S. wireless customers between the ages of 12 and 64. The sample is balanced by age, gender, ethnic background, and geography”.
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Google Updates Trademark Policy on Keywords Ads
SEARCH ENGINE JOURNAL
Starting June 15, Google AdWords will start displaying trademarks on keywords ads, the Inside Adwords Blogannounced. This new policy would allow advertisers to use trademarks in the ad text that AdWords will run for their ad campaigns.According to Google this update is their way of putting the AdWords policy on trademarks in keywords ads in line with the advertising industry standard. The new policy would allow advertisers to use trademark which they don’t own or if they have seek approval from the trademark owner to use such trademark.
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U.S. video game sales down 17 percent in April
REUTERS
U.S. sales of video games fell 17 percent in April to $1.03 billion, research group NPD said on Thursday, the second steep monthly decline in a row. Game software sales fell 23 percent to $510.7 million in April, while hardware sales dropped 8 percent to $391.6 million. Sales of accessories declined 15 percent. Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst said while the economy had some impact on the month’s sales, the more important factor was a tough comparison from a year ago.
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Microsoft Raises $3.75 Billion By Selling Bonds To Investors
PULSE2
Earlier this week, Microsoft Corporation has sold $3.75 billion worth of bonds to their investors. The sale gave investors a small amount of extra yield over Treasury bonds. Microsoft has a credit rating of AAA. This was the first time that the company ever offered a long-term bond offering. Why did Microsoft want to raise all of this extra cash? Perhaps they want to look into more acquisitions. Microsoft said that they wanted to take advantage of good market conditions and their great credit rating. On September 22, 2008 Microsoft’s board of directors authorized an offering of up to $6 billion in debt.
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Wolfram Alpha Launch Starts Tonight at 5pm Pacific: Here is What You Need to Know
READWRITEWEB
Wolfram Alpha, the new “computational knowledge engine” from the makers of Mathematica is schedule to officially launch on Monday next week, but starting tonight, Alpha will ’soft launch,’ starting with a live webcast of the launch preparations tonight. After that, Alpha will gradually open its doors for everybody throughout the weekend. We have had a chance to test a preview version of Alpha for the last seven days, and we are quite impressed with what we have seen so far. Here are some resources for getting up to speed with Alpha, as well as some recommendations for getting started with this powerful, but sometimes frustrating new tool.
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Slacker Raises Another $9.7M in Venture Funding
XCONOMY
Slacker, the San Diego-based online music streaming service, disclosed in a regulatory filing this week that it has raised almost $9.7 million so far in a secondary venture round intended to raise $10.2 million. As Xconomy’s Juha-Pekka Tikka reported Tuesday, Slacker raised $5 million in venture funding just six months ago from Rho Ventures of New York, Centennial Ventures of Denver, CO, Mission Ventures of San Diego, and Austin Ventures of Austin, TX. Sevin Rosen Funds of Dallas, TX, also has been a major investor in the company. But in its filing Wednesday, Slacker did not identify the venture firms that participated in the latest round.
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Delve Raises $1.65M, Revenues Surge
XCONOMY
Seattle-based Delve Networks, an online video publishing and management company, has raised $1.65 million in new funding. According to a regulatory filing, the total offering is $11.3 million, and the investors are Scott Lenet of DFJ Frontier and Mark Klebanoff of Seattle-based Daptiv. Delve, which was co-founded by CEO Alex Castro in 2006 (when it was called Pluggd), also announced its revenue has increased 130 percent since the start of 2009.
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Minyanville Media Raises Private Funding
PEHUB
Minyanville Media Inc., a New York-based operator of a financial news and information website, has raised over $2 million in venture funding, according to a regulatory filing. No investor information was disclosed. The company also said that it may raise as much as $13 million, “depending on a investment by a specific potential strategic partner.”
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Tags: Austin Ventures, Bain Capital, Boston, Centennial Ventures, Clear Channel, CNET, Google, Informa, Major League Baseball, Microsoft, Mobile, New York, New York Times, Newspapers, NYT, Reuters, Seattle, SEC, Sequoia Capital, Union Square Ventures, Universal Music, Universal Music Group, UTA, VC, Venture, Video, Vivendi, WSJ