Just how big a deal was a federal judge’s ruling Monday in the copyright-infringement fight between Veoh and Universal Music Group? Depends on who you ask, of course.
Stressed about making tomorrow morning’s deadline to submit a bid for the Boston Globe? No worries! The New York Times, which is selling the paper it bought in 1993, is telling prospective buyers to take their time. Goldman Sachs, which is running the auction for the Times, had originally told bidders to submit their offer by July 8. But as of last night, that deadline has been pushed back, with no new deadline to replace it.
Now that Joost has given up the ghost and bailed out of the Web video portal business, who’s next? A good bet: Veoh, one of the best-funded would-be YouTubes. Multiple sources tell me the company is aggressively marketing itself to would-be buyers, and it’s asking for less than the $70 million investors like Michael Eisner have plowed into the company. Meanwhile, rival MetaCafe is looking for a “strategic investor.”
Facebook is indeed taking money from Russian investors Digital Sky Technologies. As previously reported, the social network is selling $200 million of preferred stock at a $10 billion valuation; DST will also buy up to $100 million of common stock at a lower valuation later this year.
Video site Veoh, one of the biggest players in the “who will be the next YouTube” competition, is restructuring the company, laying off a good chunk of its staff and replacing CEO Steve Mitgang with founder Dmitry Shapiro. Shapiro says the company, which has been primarily focused on playing video and selling ads on its own site, will now be concentrating on a new “Video Compass” player that users will have to download onto their Web browsers in order to use.
Not technically a media story per se, but the folks at Fox Business Network want everyone to know that they’ve got an interview with Warren Buffett running at 4 p.m. Eastern time today. They’ve taped it already, so they’re handing out transcripts and excerpts, and they’re pretty interesting. Given that FBN is only available in about 40 million homes, reading them will be the only way many of you will be able to get to the interview.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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