Category: Software

MUMBAI: Thomson Reuters, a financial news provider, has acquired Zawya Limited, a regional provider of business intelligence and unique tools for financial professionals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

This investment marks Thomson Reuters‘ second acquisition in 2012 across the MENA region and further underscores the organisation‘s commitment to connecting and enabling the local financial community with leading edge information and tools.

Zawya, a privately owned company, is a leading online business intelligence platform. The firm enables professionals to find and connect to the right business and investment opportunities in the MENA region.

The firm‘s wide range of specialised content and tools include detailed profiles on the top companies in the MENA region, live news, comprehensive industry and asset class research, as well as an exclusive online network for professionals focusing on the region.

“Zawya has built a strong brand and impressive offering in MENA, and this acquisition builds on our commitment to this region which dates back to 1856 starting with news and expanding to comprehensive news and data coverage. We offer deep and broad coverage of MENA markets across a wide spectrum of content sets and data types,” Thomson Reuters Middle East, Africa and Russia MD Basil Moftah said.

“By joining forces, Thomson Reuters, Zawya‘s clients, and the market will benefit from a unique offering. This synergy will result in an improved and diversified line of services across the MENA markets for a broader group of users.”

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment and Games has announced that Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution is now available for free download on iOS and coming soon on Android systems.

A follow up to ‘Top Gear: Stunt School‘, the entirely new game delivers fans more over-the-top tracks, stunts and cars to customise and race in true Top Gear fashion. Players will need to use their skills to jump higher, cut tighter turns and withstand destruction as they explore iconic locations all over the world including the Grand Canyon, Alcatraz, Sydney Harbour Bridge and New York City.
 
Developed by BBC Worldwide Digital Entertainment & Games and Supersonic, Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution lets players customise cars to the extreme with jet engines, bulldozer shovels, snow ploughs and more. Tapped into the classic Top Gear culture, the game features experimental vehicles from the show, starting with the home-built “Hammerhead” at launch. New content will be added to the game weekly which will include more challenges, stunts and cars.
 
BBC Worldwide executive VP digital entertainment and games Robert Nashak said, “Top Gear: Stunt School Revolution brings all the irreverence and humour of Top Gear to mobile and tablet gaming. Players should brace themselves for a tonne of stunts and a ridiculous amount of car customisation.”

MUMBAI: Shine America has announced a deal with EMJAG Digital Productions and New Regency to create and distribute digital content.

Development and production under the agreement will be led by New Regency executive VP and EMJAG digital principal and CEO Alexandra Milchan, along with EMJAG president Jamie Boscardin Martin.

Following a previous joint venture which concluded in 2011, Milchan and Martin will transition their digital content partnership to Shine America. New Regency will co-produce and co-finance select digital projects along with Shine America through a first-look deal.
 
Under the agreement, Shine America and New Regency will provide production financing opportunities rarely seen in the digital space, while utilising their respective global distribution networks to maximise the reach and scale of new digital projects.

Milchan and Martin will tailor the distribution model for each individual digital project, working to bring the creative concepts to life across a variety of platforms, including webisodes and VOD, with the possibility of domestic and international television and theatrical release as well.

Shine America senior VP, head of digital David Anderson said, “This partnership seeks to leverage the changing nature of how content is created and produced, by fashioning innovative financing and distribution models tailored to help each project realise its full potential. Shine Group is always seeking to partner with great content creators, whether in scripted or unscripted television, the digital space and now supporting projects that might otherwise compete in the
feature film world.”

MUMBAI: Professional social network LinkedIn has appointed A L Jagannath as head, trade marketing as a step towards strengthening its leadership team in India. His immediate focus will be to drive existing and new initiatives for LinkedIn’s marketing solutions and hiring solutions portfolios.

Drawing from his 18 years of experience in the field of marketing, Jagannath also work toward widening awareness about LinkedIn’s array of customised solutions that are available to advertisers and recruiters in the Indian market.
 
Jagannath will be based out of Bengaluru. He comes in from VMWare, where he was director, marketing for India and SAARC region. Before joining VMWare, he was associated with Sun Microsystems in India as the general manager, marketing for their Systems and Storage business. During his career, he has worked for companies like Satyam Computers, Reliance Infocomm and Mudra Communications.
 
LinkedIn India country manager Hari V Krishnan said, “Being the second-largest member base for LinkedIn, we see tremendous potential for further growing our business in India. We have built a strong and viable platform for the business over the last two and a half years. Our focus moving forward will be to build off this platform and continue to give the best value to our advertisers and recruiters. Jagannath brings invaluable experience in building up large businesses and his addition to the India leadership team will help us accelerate our growth in the market, strengthen our operations and associate with even more businesses in India.”

MUMBAI: Microsoft has agreed to buy out the internet start-up Yammer in a deal worth $1.2 billion.

Launched in September 2008, Yammer is an enterprise social network service. It is used for private communication within organisations or between organisational members and pre-designated groups. It has five million users of its private, in-company social networks with companies like Ford Motor and Deloitte as customers.

Yammer will join the Microsoft Office Division, led by division president Kurt DelBene. The team will continue to report to current CEO David Sacks. Yammer‘s office will remain in San Francisco.
 
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, “The acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love. Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft‘s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.”

Yammer will continue to develop its standalone service and maintain its commitment to simplicity, innovation and cross-platform experiences. Moving forward, Microsoft plans to accelerate Yammer‘s adoption alongside complementary offerings from Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype.

Sacks added, “When we started Yammer four years ago, we set out to do something big. We had a vision for how social networking could change the way we work. Joining Microsoft will accelerate that vision and give us access to the technologies, expertise and resources we‘ll need to scale and innovate.”
 
The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.

Yammer‘s service allows employees to join a secure, private social network for free and then makes it easy for companies to convert a grassroots movement into companywide strategic initiative.

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal today put off to 25 August the hearing of a petition by a multi-system operator against the the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India tariff order after being informed that the Government has deferred the sunset date for cable digital addressable systems by four months.

During the last hearing on 11 June, chairman SB Sinha and member PK Rastogi had been informed by counsel for petitioner Indusind Media Communication Ltd (IMCL) that the Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni had been holding talks on deferring the date.

On 11 June, Tdsat had asked news broadcasters – NDTV, Time Global (holding company of Times Now), India TV, TV Today, Total TV and News Broadcaster‘s Association (NBA) to file their affidavits. Today, it allowed them to be a party in the case.

Tdsat also allowed the plea of India Broadcast Foundation (IBF), and other broadcasters to be a party to it, adding that broadcasters‘ impleadment would be subject to the objections raised by IMCL.

Hinduja-controlled IMCL had earlier moved the Tdsat contesting the Trai tariff order on the ground that it does not prescribe a common rate for content from broadcasters and leaves space for negotiations that can work against smaller cable networks. By keeping the rate open with a ceiling at 42 per cent of analogue cable, the MSO also believed that vertical media companies that have a presence in both distribution and content would benefit.

IMCL also said that the provision of a la carte channels to consumers in Basic Service Tier (BST) is operationally cumbersome and can be a logistic nightmare.

The MSO also believed that the requirement of creating a 500-channel capacity is not required across India.

Meanwhile, a petition filed by local cable operators in Delhi High Court against the digitisation move on the ground that the time given was inadequate has been withdrawn following the decision of the government to put off the sunset date to 1 November. The case followed a similar track in Mumbai where cable TV operators found their case unnecessary with the government pushing back the deadline for digitisation in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

MUMBAI: Cookie Jar Entertainment has inked licensing partnership with Fuhu, the creator of the nabi tablet, and award-winning Fooz Kids application for the new nabi 2 tablet, the seven-inch tablet made especially for kids.

Cookie Jar will provide content from its extensive library of popular children’s programming including Inspector Gadget and Richard Scarry-inspired Busytown Mysteries and will be an exclusive content provider for the Fooz Kids app. The nabi 2 tablet will be available in stores in US in July for an MSRP of $199.99.

“The nabi 2 is already breaking records as being the fastest and most powerful seven-inch tablet available for kids today, and the partnership we have with Cookie Jar showcases the incredibly high level of standards we have in providing children with only the best and most engaging content,” said Fuhu CEO Jim Mitchell.

nabi 2 delivers a wide range of experiences to engage, entertain and educate kids including: kid-safe television shows, blockbuster movies, standardised academic lessons in English, Science, Math and more, engaging books, 500 mom-approved apps, music store and games.

The nabi 2 provides a rich ecosystem of hardware, software and accessories, and evolves with the interest of the child. In addition, the nabi 2 offers engaging relevant experiences for adults, as parents can access password-protected Mommy and Daddy modes for music and movies.

MUMBAI: CommunicAsia2012, EnterpriseIT2012 and BroadcastAsia2012, Asia‘s focal industry venue for digital broadcasting, entertainment technology and ICT industry professionals, concluded with more than 56 countries and regions in attendance over four days.

Close to 2,000 exhibitors presented the latest technologies in next generation fibre broadband, M2M technology, cloud security, DVB-T2 and Over-the-Top Technology (OTT).

Conference speakers addressed pertinent industry topics and presented insightful industry trends and views. About 49,000 attendees including exhibiting staff, visitors, conference speakers and delegates, and members of the media were at this year‘s CommunicAsia, EnterpriseIT and BroadcastAsia.

Singapore Exhibition Services (SES) CEO Stephen Tan said,”The shows brought together like-minded industry professionals to network, discuss current trends and challenges, exchange ideas, and forge new partnerships. This year, we received positive response to the new conference tracks, increased hospitality suites and new tech zones”.

ST Electronics attracted a continuous stream of visitors with its Smart Cities showcase of the latest in data management and resource utilisation for public utilities – a technology concept that is making waves across the globe.

Maven – a robot from Nanyang Technological University‘s Institute for Media Innovation – excited the crowd with its ability to recreate a 3D representation of its surroundings as it travelled the exhibition floor.

Human IT Solutions in the Korea pavilion unveiled ‘Human Gate – Lite‘, an indoor gateball system using infrared motion capture of the whole body so that the player does not need to wear any equipment or use a handheld device. The new system is set to hit the market in August this year.

Huawei CMO of South Pacific Region Lim Chee Siong said, “Huawei sees the value of participating in CommunicAsia, and has committed to not only make an appearance this year, but to surprise our customers through Huawei‘s innovative end to end ICT solutions. Situated at Level 1 of the exhibition hall, the Huawei booth received over-whelming attention from the crowds, ranging from business partners and enterprise customers to end users who are interested in the latest release, signature Huawei smartphone – Ascend P1”.

The special OTT feature area, one of the star attractions at BroadcastAsia2012, saw visitors stopping to catch a glimpse of the Euro2012 on various platforms including TV, laptop, tablet and mobile phone; and other content contributed by Sony Pictures. A consortium of exhibitors facilitated this multi-platform delivery of content.

The Cinematography/Film/Production zone drew packed audiences keen to see and learn about the latest motion picture tools and software. The Media Village‘s hourly demonstrations of post production and visual effects solutions was seen to be popular with the audience.

An interesting draw was the photography subject Sony used to demonstrate the features and versatility of its cameras – a sparkling Mini Cooper. Sony showcased its PMW-100 professional camera that is particularly popular in broadcasting stations and production houses for gathering news and producing documentaries.

Topas TV, Indonesia COO Michael Mulyanto said, “As Topas TV is a new DTH satellite and pay TV station broadcasting 65 channels, I came to BroadcastAsia2012 to shop for equipment from set-top boxes to head-end products and encoders. I visited COSHIP, Harmonic, Wellav, Grass Valley and Ideal Systems, as well as updated myself on the newest technologies. I am happy with the management of the exhibition. Everything is very well arranged”.

The BroadcastAsia2012 International Conference and Creative Content Production Conference featured speakers from some of the media and broadcasting industries‘ most successful companies including Fremantle Productions, Lucasfilm Animation, Pinewood Iskander Malaysia and Pixelmetrix Corporation, sharing their expertise and experiences working on world-famous projects.

MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide officially launched BBC Worldwide Labs with a kick off session for 140 members of the digital community at Google’s East London campus.

The initiative is aimed at supporting the creative and digital industries in the UK by offering them insight and expertise into the industry. They will also get the opportunity to forge new partnerships with companies that can help them get a step closer to launching their products or services.

Participants who attended the sold out event heard from BBC Worldwide executive VP, MD of digital Dan Heaf who shared his insights on the current state of digital media innovation.

BBC Worldwide Labs head Jenny Fielding, who unveiled the full details of the scheme, said: “I’m delighted that today marks the start of BBC Worldwide Labs initiative. Our aim is to shine a light on and support the most innovative up and coming digital companies in the UK who are helping to define the ever expanding digital landscape.”

BBC Worldwide is not seeking to inject money into the companies but hopes to partner with them at the point of commercialisation.

Early-stage digital companies will have until 15 July to submit their proposals for the first wave of the scheme. Following this, an advisory panel will whittle the submissions down to 18 hopefuls who will be asked to present to the panel and five finalists will be chosen.

The successful candidates will be technology oriented and focused on web and software development with international appeal such as web applications, gaming, virtual worlds mobile, connective TV and CRM.

Each of the chosen start-ups will have the opportunity to work with experts from across BBC Worldwide including technology, content, marketing, sales, advertising and legal. They will also be offered workspace within BBC Worldwide west London offices, monthly mentoring sessions and networking events – all comprising the rich BBC Worldwide ecosystem over a six month period.

NEW DELHI: Doordarshan will give a slot to the lone bidder for Rs 31.1 million for its free-to-air DTH DD Direct Plus, following an e-auction held this month.

The e-auction for four vacant slots on DD Direct Plus was held to offer private broadcasters the possibility of reaching a pan-Indian audience by DTH transmission, and was conducted by Mumbai-based online trading firm NCDEX Spot. Only one bidder turned up, DD sources admitted to indiantelevision.com.

Doordarshan adopted the e-auction process in July 2011, whereby slots are allocated for a period of a year. The public broadcaster has now conducted six e-auctions to allocate 30 slots on its DTH service, with the last e-auction in November setting a reserve price per slot of Rs 31.1 million which was also the reserve price in the auction held on 16 June.

An e-auction was planned for December 2011, with a minimum reserve price set at Rs 34.8 million but no private broadcasters reportedly showed interest in the five available slots at that time.