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After a lengthy legal battle, an arbitrator has ruled that Jeremy Piven did not breach his contract when he left the Broadway production of Speed the Plow. The controversial case came to after Piven abruptly left the production, claiming he had mercury poisoning from his fish heavy diet. Producers, citing rumors that Piven had been partying hard at New York nightclubs, contended the medical claim, citing it as a bogus reason to leave the production.
A&E announced plans to acquire Lifetime Entertainment Services. The aquisition will make Lifetime part of AETN, along with A&E, The Biography Channel and the History Channel, amongst others. The deal is a three way arrangement between Disney, Hearst and NBCU, who each own controlling interests in the vested parties.
Apple approved Spotify’s recently submitted iPhone application. The approval will make Spotify, whose service is already popular in Europe and soon to launch in the US, a premier destination for free streaming mobile music. While a free, ad-supported version of the application will be available, interested parties may purchase an ad-free Spotify for $14. a month.
Time Warner Cable and Verizon FiOS are both working hard preparing TV Everywhere for its debut. The communications companies are currently working with networks to finalize a deal that would let cable subscribers access channels over the Internet. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes noted that the TV Everywhere venture has already reached agreements with TBS, TNT, HBO, CBS, AMC, Discovery, as well as BBC America, WE tv, Sundance and IFC.
Dell’s profit fell 23% during the second quarter. Like many PC manufacturers, Dell blamed the drop in earnings on slow sales of computers and consumer apprehension caused by the recession. CEO Michael Dell noted that while earnings were down for the first half of 2009, “if current demand trends continue, we expect revenue for the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half.”