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Watch Shelly’s commentary on DREAMWORKS deal with Indian media conglomerate RELIANCE and the evolution of the Hollywood economy.
LINKEDIN, the preferred social network of the professional set, will receive a $53 million infusion of capital. LinkedIn, whose average user is 41 and has an average income of $109,000, is valued at $1 billion. LinkedIn investors include Bain Capital, Seqoia Capital, Greylock Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.
MICROSOFT (NASD: MSFT) will acquire interactive TV ad network NAVIC for an undisclosed sum. Navic’s platform provides advertising and interactive television applications on over 35 million set-top boxes on COMCAST (NASD: CMCSA), COX (NYSE: CXR), TIME WARNER CABLE (NYSE: TWC) and CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS (NASD: CHTR) networks. Navic helps advertisers broaden their reach by tailoring ads to demographics and other viewer characteristics.
Rapper LIL WAYNE is expected to top the BILLBOARD charts this week with
over 1 million copies of The Carter III sold this week. Lil Wayne’s stats are significant as the last artist to sell a million copies in a week was 50 Cent in 2005. The Carter III’s success comes as record sales continue to fall, already down 11% this year, compared to 15% last year.
Analysts believe the iPhone could drive a third of APPLE’s (NASD: AAPL) revenue in 2009. With a lower price tag on the iPhone, Morgan Stanley expects Apple to sell 27 million units in 2009, which at $200 a phone would generate roughly $5 billion in revenue.