One the same day as Fortnite maker Epic Games goes to trial with one of the biggest legal challenges to the App Store’s business model to date, it has simultaneously announced the acquisition of the artist portfolio community ArtStation — and immediately lowered the commissions on sales.
Source: Epic Games buys artist community ArtStation, drops commissions to 12%
The company announced today that they’ve closed a $65 million Series B led by Mary Meeker’s firm Bond. NEA, Breyer Capital, Tull Investment Group, NetEase, Dapper Labs and Coinbase Ventures also participated in the deal. Mary Meeker will be joining the Genies board. The company didn’t disclose the Genies’ most recent valuation.
Source: Avatar startup Genies scores $65 million in funding round led by Mary Meeker’s Bond
The acquisition was for more money than expected, according to TMZ, which reports that Square paid $350 million to buy an 80% stake in TIDAL. That figure was $53 million bigger than the number the two parties announced in March ($297 million), when they said they had entered into a definitive agreement for Square to acquire its majority stake.
AT&T shareholders on Friday voted against a measure to approve executive compensation, according to preliminary voting results from the company’s annual meeting. The total compensation package for Jason Kilar, chief executive of AT&T’s media unit WarnerMedia, was more than $52 million, more than double the $21 million for AT&T CEO John Stankey, according to the company’s proxy statement.
Source: AT&T shareholders vote against approving executive compensation
Verizon will sell its media group to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion, the companies announced Monday. The sale allows Verizon to offload properties from the former internet empires of AOL and Yahoo. Verizon will keep a 10% stake in the company and it will be rebranded to just Yahoo.
Source: Verizon sells media businesses including Yahoo and AOL to Apollo for $5 billion
The main impact of the trial won’t be getting one game back on the App Store. A big enough loss for Apple could make the company basically rewrite iOS. “Apple has a lot more at stake here than Epic does, though Apple has the stronger hand,” says Christopher Krohn, adjunct associate marketing professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Source: Next week’s Fortnite trial could upend Apple’s App Store model — even if Epic loses
Source: WSJ News Exclusive | For Music-Rights Deals, the Hits Keep Coming
There are some interesting industry-wide predictions made in the latest Music In The Air, which is co-penned as ever by respected music biz analyst, Lisa Yang “We anticipate a faster shift to music streaming and greater monetization of music content from new formats (e.g. short-form video, connected fitness, gaming, etc.), a trend that has been further accelerated by the pandemic,” reads the paper.
Creator technology organization Rally announced today that it has raised $57 million in funding for its community treasury, and plans to release an The Rally Network allows people to purchase Rally’s own custom cryptocurrency, $RLY, using established cryptocurrency Ethereum.
Sony Music Group‘s strong calendar Q1 results were revealed today – including a $1.3bn recorded music revenue haul in the three months to end of March, and an 11% YoY jump in global publishing revenues. Meanwhile, SMG’s recent acquisition drive continues apace under the leadership of its Chairman, Rob Stringer.
Source: Sony says it’s ‘aggressively pursuing’ music acquisitions… and buys a Mexican catalog to prove it