Smartphone app developer Shazam will receive $40 million in financing from mexican billionaire, Carlos Slim, one of the world’s richest men. Shazam is a media discovery app which plans to expand to TV.
Source: Reuters
The New Yorker reported that public television backed out of its deal to air the documentary Citizen Koch—just because they were afraid of upsetting billionaire donor David Koch. David Koch has donated $23 million as a board member of two flagship PBS stations, WNET in New York and WGBH in Boston.
Public television was founded to support the public interest, not to cater to the private interests of wealthy donors like the Koch brothers.
Directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmakers, Citizen Koch exposes the outsize role of money in American politics, from the Kochs and other major political spenders. This is exactly the kind of dialogue that public television was founded to foster, regardless of whether or not a powerful donor is happy about it.
That’s why I started a petition to Corporation for Public Broadcasting President and CEO Patricia de Stacy Harrison, Public Broadcasting Service President and CEO Paula Kerger, and Independent Television Service President and CEO Sally Jo Fifer, which says:
Koch money shouldn’t influence public television programming—we want to see the film Citizen Koch aired on PBS!
Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.
Thanks!
–Joe Dinkin
source: Obey Giant
State Department Facebook Spent $630,000 On ‘Likes’ For Social Media Pages.
A striking finding in a recent Inspector General report revealed that the U.S. Department of State spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Facebook “likes” in the past two years, effectively buying fans.
In order to bolster its presence on Facebook, the State Department paid about $630,000 for campaigns to increase its total number of likes, the May 2013 report indicates.
While the sheer amount of funds the State Department dropped on social media may be surprising in and of itself, the most significant aspect of the report may be the finding that these fans are, for the most part, fake.
#1. Wale – The Gifted – 158,000 (158,000)
#2. J. Cole – Born Sinner – 84,000 (381,000)
#3. Kanye West – Yeezus – 65,000 (391,000)
#12. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist – 23,000 (867,000)
#14. Mac Miller – Watching Movies With The Sound Off – 23,000 (125,000)
#33. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city – 10,000 (949,000)
#49. Lil Wayne – I Am Not A Human Being II – 7,500 (503,000)
#74. Dessa – Parts Of Speech – 5,800 (5,800)
#196. Dr. Dre – 2001 – 2,400 (7,664,000)
#199. T.I. – Trouble Man: Heavy Is The Head – 2,400 (483,000)
* data comes from Nielsen Soundscan, rounded to nearest thousandth for units above 10,000, nearest hundredth for units below 10,000.
Title / Weekend Gross (in millions usd)
Source: forbes
Famed music producer Scott Storch opens up about the craziest purchases he’s ever made, and details how he spent over $30 million in one year. He explains where the money went and how he actually ran out of things to buy with all of his riches.
source: VladTV
via Forbes
Title / Weekend Gross (in millions usd)
Billionaire Dan Gilbert continues to grab up property in the Motor City. On Tuesday, Gilbert’s Rock Ventures confirmed that Gilbert has purchased two more buildings on Woodward Avenue.
Gilbert, who ranks as the richest Detroiter on Forbes’ billionaires list, now owns or runs 30 buildings with 7.6 million square feet of property in the city, according to Mlive. That includes four million square feet of commercial space and 3.6 million square feet of parking.
Gilbert, who repeatedly has expressed his belief in Detroit’s potential, has snapped up some of that space for as little as $5 a square foot, rehabilitating a number of properties in the once-empty downtown corridor.
The newest Gilbert acquisitions are at 620 and 630 Woodward Avenue, which are two of the oldest buildings downtown. Each is four stories tall, and the pair were built in 1880. Together, they have 40,000 square feet of office and retail space. Good Luck rebuilding Detroit Dan!
Source
#2. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories – 48,000 (543,000)
#10. Lonely Island – Wack Album – 28,000 (28,000)
#17. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist – 23,000 (821,000)
#43. Lil Wayne – I Am Not A Human Being II – 10,000 (487,000)
#55. French Montana – Excuse My French – 8,400 (94,000)
#56. Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city – 8,200 (929,000)
#63. Action Bronson & Harry Fraud – Saab Stories – 7,600 (7,600)
#88. The-Dream – IV Play – 5,500 (37,000)
#133. Kid Cudi – Indicud – 3,700 (219,000)
#175. Prodigy & Alchemist – Albert Einstein – 3,000 (3,000)
* data comes from Nielsen Soundscan, rounded to nearest thousandth for units above 10,000, nearest hundredth for units below 10,000.
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