Globaldata Share Discussion Threads

[littleredrooster] 19/6/2018 22:51

2 billion active Android devices .. a huge potential opportunity



Fortnite now has 125 million players just one year after launch

That’s a lot

By Nick Statt

Jun 12, 2018, 9:12pm EDT

Developer Epic Games announced today that Fortnite has grown to 125 million registered players in less than a year. The metric, confirmed in a blog post about the game’s $100 million e-sports competition, is the first updated player figures from Epic since the company confirmed the game had been downloaded 45 million times back in January. Just last week, Epic investor Tencent confirmed that 40 million people play the game at once a month. Fortnite came out in July 2017, and its battle royale game mode didn’t launch until September 2017.

It’s no wonder Fortnite has ballooned in popularity given that is both free and accessible on almost every major platform, including the Nintendo Switch as of earlier today. The only player base left untapped right now is Android, which is, of course, the largest on the planet due to the number of Android smartphones. Last year, Google announced there were more than 2 billion active Android devices across the globe. So that’s a huge potential opportunity for Epic to continue growing its battle royale hit.

[littleredrooster] 19/6/2018 14:15

Fortnite made nearly $300 million in the month of April

Sales from Epic Games’ battle royale title more than doubled in just two months

By Nick Statt

May 24, 2018, 1:28pm EDT

Epic Games’ Fortnite generated $296 million in the month of April across mobile, console, and PC platforms, according to digital game sales tracker SuperData Research. That amount is more than double what the game generated in the month of February, when it earned $126 million and surpassed Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds in monthly sales for the first time.

The big difference between the games, and what really makes Fortnite shine, is Epic’s free-to-play model, which gets the title into as many players’ hands as possible and recoups the money, and then some, by way of in-game purchases. Epic sells players cosmetic items that do not affect gameplay, including goofy and topical character costumes and in-game dance moves purely for vanity purposes. It also sells a season subscription called the Battle Pass for around $10. Still, the company sells these items at such an alarming quantity that Fortnite made more money in April than Avengers: Infinity War did on its opening weekend later that same month.

There’s a few reasons why Fortnite sales continue to climb. The game launched on mobile with an iOS beta in mid-March, and in the first week of April, it became available to everyone on Apple’s platform. That expansion of the iOS version of the game likely helped drive a significant amount of money, as mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower now reports the game is making more than $1 million on a day on mobile alone. In addition to that, Epic’s third season of the game was coming to a close in April, ahead of the much anticipated season 4 launch on May 1st. So many players may have spent money at the tail of the season to unlock exclusive rewards, like the coveted John Wick skin, that would be going away when the season closed at the end of the month.

There’s reason to believe the game will only continue to get bigger. Epic is planning an Android release sometime this summer. The developer also announced earlier this week that it plans to put $100 million toward prize pools for Fortnite competitions in the first year of play, which is slated to begin later this year and stretch into 2019. If all goes according to the company’s plan, that should mean Fortnite stays at the forefront of e-sports and Twitch and YouTube streaming as it starts attracting high-profile competitive players and bigger venues for tournaments. At the E3 expo next month in Los Angeles, Epic is hosting its first big official celebrity event, titled the Fortnite Celebrity Pro Am, featuring 50 streamers and 50 celebrities all competing in teams of two.



Blackbird Cloud Video
15 Jun 2018
What a great action-packed week! From working on Fortnite in LA, to seeing familiar faces at MediaProductionShow & listening to top sessions at AISummit - it's been awesome. Have a great weekend everyone!

[littleredrooster] 14/6/2018 01:58

But was any of the manipulation illegal?



Iain Gilbert WebFG News

13 Jun, 2018 19:03

Bitcoin's meteoric rise was the result of manipulation, new report says

As much as half of the Bitcoin boom in 2017 may have been part of a campaign of price manipulation, according to a new paper by John Griffin, an academic known for his ability to spot fraud in financial markets.

Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas, and Amin Shams, a graduate student, looked at the flow of digital tokens moving through Bitfinex, one of the largest and least regulated cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, and saw distinct patterns that suggested that the exchange aimed to push up prices when they dipped at other exchanges.

In order to achieve their goals, the person or persons involved used Tether, a virtual currency sold by the owners of Bitfinex, to stock up on other cryptocurrencies.

Many within the crypto industry accused Bitfinex of being at least partly responsible for artificially inflating the price of Bitcoin at the time and the paper looks set to pour fuel on the fire of an existing debate over just how much of Bitcoin's meteoric rise was caused by the covert actions of a handful of players, rather than actual demand from legitimate investors.

"There were obviously tremendous price increases last year, and this paper indicates that manipulation played a large part in those price increases," Griffin said.

Bitfinex, which has previously denied it was involved in any kind of manipulation, is registered in the Caribbean, holds offices in Asia, and was subpoenaed by US regulators shortly after concerns over its actions were raised in 2017.

Griffin and Shams scoured through millions of transactions on the blockchain, to identify patterns, a method that, while not conclusive, has aided government authorities and academics in spotting suspicious activity in the past.

Griffin and Shams focused on the use of Tether, a token that is allegedly tied to the value of the US dollar, and found that 50% of the rise in Bitcoin in 2017 could be traced to the same times as Tether had flowed to a select group of other exchanges, specifically when the cryptocurrency's price was on the decline.

Bitfinex did not respond to requests for comment.

[littleredrooster] 07/6/2018 14:17

the first time a streaming service has broadcast UK top-flight football live .. The Premier League is the most watched sports league in the world



Amazon to stream 20 live Premier League matches from next year

June 7, 2018

Amazon has won the rights to stream Premiere Leagues games, amounting to 20 matches per season, from 2019 onwards.

The internet retail giant was among bidders for two packages of games which failed to make their reserve price during an auction in February.

That original bidding process saw Sky, the owner of Sky News, secure more games for less money for the lifetime of the new contracts – due to run over three seasons from 2019/20.

BT was handed an additional package of live games in the final round at a total cost of £90m, taking its tally of games per season to 52 versus the 128 for Sky.

Amazon gets 20 games per season but its entry is significant because it marks the first time a streaming service has broadcast UK top-flight football live.

The amount it paid was yet to be disclosed.

Jay Marine, vice president of Prime Video in Europe, said: “We are always looking to add more value to Prime, and we’re delighted to now offer, for the first time, live Premier League matches to Prime members at no extra cost to their membership.

“The Premier League is the most watched sports league in the world.

“Over these two December fixture rounds Prime members will be able to watch every team, every game, so no matter which Premier League team you support, you’re guaranteed to see them play live on Prime Video.”The Premier League’s executive chairman, Richard Scudamore, added: “Amazon is an exciting new partner for the Premier League and we are very pleased they have chosen to invest in these rights.

“Prime Video will be an excellent service on which fans can consume live Premier League football – including for the first time in the UK a full round of matches – and we look forward to working with them from season 2019/20 onwards.”

[littleredrooster] 25/5/2018 10:32

Real Madrid .. can engage with their 450 million fans where only 3% are based in Spain

I didn't know that.



The benefits of Edge computing in a Sports 2.0 world

May 25, 2018 | News, Sports, Technology, Thought Leadership

Everyone knows the benefits of cloud technology since we use it every day – viewing emails, streaming music/videos on smart devices during our daily commute. Yet do we really know the benefits of being on the edge of the cloud and not in it?

Edge computing allows any device, including mobiles, servers, PCs and Macs to act as gateways between the physical world and cloud storage – running processes such as video transcoding and speech recognition as ‘close to the content’ as possible. This form of cloud computing is a breakthrough technology with direct benefits to the sports industry, ensuring professional sports athletes can maintain their competitive edge.

For the Americas Cup, the British yachting team utilized Edge technology which transmitted performance data through the cloud, leading Sir Ben Ainslie and the Oracle team to win the race. Capturing and analysing performance data and performing ‘virtual chase boat’ projects allowed for immediate changes where 350 data points were captured for analysis.

Edge also took the spotlight earlier this year at the Winter Olympics, with the US ski team utilising STRIVR’s 360-degree video to practice the Pyeongchang course over and over again. The ability to gain ‘mental access’, where physical presence was not possible, allowed the team to maximise their preparation. By uploading video content to the cloud, players and coaches were able to identify athletes’ weak spots and gauge the competition’s strategy.

Edge technology has other benefits as well for both video professionals and sports fans, since it works on the principle of combining outputs from new video technologies and overlaying data in the most appropriate and efficient location – delivering the game rapidly without time delays. Edge technology is cost-effective for multimedia and production teams on smaller budgets since it removes the expense required to move video content and data to the same physical location. Fans also benefit, gaining the ultimate viewing experience without concerns of technical glitches causing time delays and receive sports scores fast.

The advances in cloud and edge technology have blurred the lines between traditional broadcast and digital content delivery, allowing the games of minor sports teams to be accessible to fans at a much lower cost. Cloud Video and On-Demand, Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms have also made it possible for smaller leagues and individual teams to have their own channels. Tata Communications connected the Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit to its global network and today works with more than 20 broadcasters to bring motor racing to fans worldwide. Vice President of Global Marketing, Mehul Kapadia, said “The cloud is levelling the playing field between sports giants like F1 and smaller local series like the F4 British Championship. You only need a few cameras to capture the action; the rest of the production can be done easily and inexpensively in the cloud”. Major sports teams such as Real Madrid, have found that by embrace cloud technology, they can engage with their 450 million fans where only 3% are based in Spain. José Ángel Sánchez, CEO, Real Madrid, said, “Using Microsoft Cloud, we are building a way of understanding who our fans are, where they are, and what they want from us.”

In conclusion, the introduction of Edge computing into sports has lowered the barriers for smaller sports teams to experiment with innovative technologies. Edge computing has helped simplify video production and distribution, at a lower cost. Teams and sports professionals have the advantage of extending their online presence, reaching a global audience with a lower cost digital strategy.

Our Blackbird Edge is a cloud-native solution which can run on multiple platforms including servers, public cloud services (AWS and Azure), in virtual machines and Mac OS X operating systems. It is fundamentally a software conduit to cloud workflows for our applications and Blackbird cloud video platform. Edge manages the referencing of content and creation of lightweight Blackbird proxy video. It provides Ascent and Forte users with conforming and render capabilities required to publish video content across multiple platforms based on user edit instructions.

Find out more about email us at: [e-mail]

References

Davis.M. (2018, February) Winter Olympics: US skiers use VR goggles & brain zapping headphones. [ONLINE] Available at : [Accessed 24 May 2018].

Orton-Jones, C. (2017, March) Cloud giving sports teams the competitive edge – Competitors in a wide range of sports are benefiting from the advantage cloud computing can bring. [ONLINE] Available at: hxxps://www.raconteur.net/technology/cloud-giving-sports-teams-the-competitive-edge. [Accessed 24 May 2018].

Miah, A., 2017. #Sports 20.0 #TransformingSportsforaDigitalWorld. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Pickup, O. (2018, January) Three major ways cloud is transforming sport – Sports organisations are using the cloud, on and off the field of play, to achieve record goals and reach a growing worldwide audience.[ONLINE] Available at : hxxps://www.raconteur.net/technology/three-major-ways-cloud-transforming-sport [Accessed 24 May 2018].

Unknown (2016, March) Real Madrid brings the stadium closer to 450 million fans around the globe, with the Microsoft Cloud. [Accessed 24 May 2018].

[littleredrooster] 23/5/2018 14:23

Present exchange rate 1 Bitcoin = 7,914.72 US Dollar



Bitcoin price analysis: BTC/USD dives under $8,000; Vanguard economist believes it will go to zero

Tanya Abrosimova
FXStreet

May 23, 03:30 GMT

•Joe Davis devalues Bitcoin as a currency and a store of value.
•BTC/USD needs to recover above $8,000 as soon as possible to mitigate downside pressure.

Bitcoin's price action is to the downside today. Digital currency No. 1 lost about 5% of its value in the recent 24 hours, retracing from $8,400 on Tuesday to trade at $7,912. at the time of writing. The coin has been sliding for the third day in a row; its market value dropped to $135B, the lowest since April 18.

Meanwhile, Joe Davis, a senior economist of the Vanguard Group, is another institutional guy who doesn't believe in Bitcoin as a currency or investment tool. He says that Bitcoin lacks the features of a currency as a means of payment, while high volatility makes it a bad store of value.

“Over the past few months, I’ve gotten this question more than any other,” he wrote. “As for bitcoin the currency? I see a decent probability that its price goes to zero.”

Bitcoin's technical picture

Looking more broadly on a daily chart BTC/USD stays firmly below 50-DMA that coisides with 38.2% Fibo at $8,425. This bearish signal is intensified by the price diving under $8,000. Once the breakthrough is confirmed, the focus will shift to the next support seen at $7,683 (23.6% Fibo) and at $7,042 (the upside trendline). On the upside, a sustainable move above $8,420/50 might attract more buying interest with the next target at $8,855 (100-DMA)

[littleredrooster] 03/5/2018 14:39

I'm quite relieved that I don't have $130.8bn to spend.



I've got way too much cash, thinks Jeff Bezos. Hmmm, pay more tax? Pay staff more? Nah, let's just go into space

The world needs fewer men like Amazon's CEO

By Iain Thomson in San Francisco 3 May 2018 at 07:01

"The Amazon chief executive has complained he has so much money, the only thing he can think to blow it on is his Blue Origin space tourism project.

Bezos was in Germany last month to pick up the Axel Springer Award for being such an innovative person, and gave an extensive interview to the German publisher outlining his philosophy. In it he was asked, as the world's richest man with a net worth of $130.8bn, what money meant to him now.

"The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel. That is basically it," Bezos said.

"I am very lucky that I feel like I have a mission-driven purpose with Blue Origin that is, I think, incredibly important for civilization long term. And I am going to use my financial lottery winnings from Amazon to fund that."

So desperate is Bezos to blast off into orbit and beyond, he's forgotten one thing. Earth. As in, the people on it right now. Specifically, the people who work for him, who made him rich, and the cities in which they live. They are being left behind in more ways than one as the internet baron prepares to lift off into the heavens."

73 comments

[littleredrooster] 27/4/2018 00:47

The cloud business, called Azure, jumped 93% in the fiscal third quarter



Cloud Business Boosts Microsoft's Earnings -- 2nd Update

26/04/2018 11:29pm
Dow Jones News

By Jay Greene

Microsoft Corp. extended its streak of wins in the latest quarter as the software giant moves into an era where its venerable Windows franchise plays a supporting role to its burgeoning cloud-computing operations.

The cloud business, called Azure, jumped 93% in the fiscal third quarter, Microsoft reported Thursday. The business has never grown slower than 90% since the company began reporting the metric in October 2015. The other big piece of the company's cloud operations, the commercial version of its Office 365 online-productivity service, grew 42%.

Microsoft doesn't disclose revenue for either business, but in the preceding second quarter it said Azure jumped 98% and commercial Office 365 grew 41%.

The two businesses combined accounted for $6 billion in revenue, up 58% on what Microsoft financial chief Amy Hood said was "better-than-expected demand."

Ms. Hood pointed to 20% growth in Microsoft's server-products and cloud-services revenue as a reflection of its focus on the so-called hybrid cloud, in which customers mix cloud services with software running on servers in their own data centers.

Microsoft has capitalized on its legacy as a seller of server software to win over its longtime customers who choose to gradually move their operations to the cloud.

That growth has propelled Microsoft into the role of chief cloud rival to Amazon.com Inc., which pioneered the business of renting out computing power and storage a decade ago.

"Two years ago, there was a clear No. 1 with no clear No. 2," said Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst Brad Reback. "There is no doubt that Microsoft has put significant distance between themselves and all of the other" Amazon rivals.

The surging cloud business led Microsoft to post a profit increase of 35% to $7.42 billion, or 95 cents a share. Revenue rose 16% to $26.82 billion. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Market Intelligence expected Microsoft to report per-share earnings of 85 cents on revenue of $25.78 billion.

Microsoft no longer reports adjusted figures, reflecting accounting changes it adopted at the start of the fiscal year. The year-ago figure reflects that change.

Microsoft's stock was down 0.3% in after-hours trading, after finishing the day at $94.27, up 2.1%. Last month, Microsoft shares hit an all-time high of $96.77, a gain of nearly 40% over the past year. The company has jostled with Alphabet Inc. and Amazon for the No. 2 spot behind Apple Inc. as the world's most valuable company as measured by market capitalization.

Microsoft's Azure business is part of its Intelligent Cloud segment. Revenue from that unit rose 17% to $7.9 billion. The Office franchise is part of Microsoft's Productivity and Business Processes segment, where revenue climbed 17% to $9.01 billion.

The company continues to dole out huge sums building massive data centers around the globe to battle Amazon and others. In the quarter, Microsoft had $3.5 billion in capital expenses, with much of that money going toward its data-center expansion. A year ago, Microsoft had $2.1 billion in capital expenditures

Microsoft doesn't break out revenue for its Windows business. Earlier this month, International Data Corp. reported world-wide PC shipments showed no growth in the most recent quarter.

Revenue in Microsoft's More Personal Computing segment, which includes the company's slow-growing Windows franchise as well as the mobile-phone and Xbox gaming businesses, gained 13% to $9.92 billion.

A month ago, Microsoft split the engineering group that develops products under the Windows banner among two separate divisions. It was a recognition that the product that had been synonymous with Microsoft for most of its 43 years will now play a supporting role to the company's cloud-computing efforts.

Even as Microsoft has shifted its focus away from Windows, the operating system showed surprising resiliency. Revenue in the version of Windows that Microsoft generally sells to corporate customers, known as OEM Pro, grew 11%. And revenue from Microsoft's Surface line of computers jumped 32% to $1.10 billion.

LinkedIn, the professional social network Microsoft bought for $27 billion more than a year ago, grew rapidly, with revenue climbing 37% to $1.34 billion.

[littleredrooster] 20/4/2018 09:37

hxxp://variety.com/2018/digital/news/amazon-prime-100-million-subscribers-jeff-bezos-1202757832/

April 18, 2018 2:31PM PT

Amazon Has More Than 100 Million Prime Subscribers, Jeff Bezos Discloses

By Todd Spangler

Amazon’s Prime membership program has now topped 100 million paying members worldwide, CEO Jeff Bezos said in his annual letter to shareholders.

It’s the first time Amazon has revealed a specific number for Prime. But Bezos stayed opaque on numbers for its video and music businesses. He wrote in the April 18 letter that “Prime Video continues to drive Prime member adoption and retention.” Amazon Music “continues to grow fast and now has tens of millions of paid customers,” he said. Amazon Music Unlimited, the on-demand, ad-free offering, expanded to more than 30 new countries in 2017, and membership has more than doubled over the past six months, according to Bezos.

Overall in 2017, Amazon shipped more than 5 billion items via Prime, its program that offers unlimited free two-day shipping on over 100 million different items in the U.S. along with other perks (including access to the original and licensed TV shows and movies on Prime Video). Prime costs $99 per year in the United States, where it first launched 13 years ago. The company last year expanded Prime to Mexico, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg last year, in addition to the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, India, Japan, Italy, Spain and France.

According to Bezos’s letter, more new members joined Prime in 2017 than in any previous year, both worldwide and in the U.S. Amazon didn’t break out the number of Prime customers by region.

With Amazon playing close to the vest, analysts have produced estimates for the size of the Prime base. Those have varied widely: Cowen & Co. put the number of U.S. Prime households at about 60 million as of the end of 2017, while research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners pegged U.S. Prime members at around 90 million as of last September.

Prime Video’s highlights last year included award-winning comedy “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which won two Critics’ Choice Awards and two Golden Globes, and Oscar-nominated movie “The Big Sick,” Bezos wrote.

Amazon also expanded its slate of programming across the globe, with new seasons of “Bosch” and “Sneaky Pete” from the U.S., “The Grand Tour” from the U.K. — hosted by the former team from BBC’s “Top Gear” — and “You Are Wanted” from Germany.

Bezos also rattled up several upcoming Amazon Studios original series: Tom Clancy’s “Jack Ryan” starring John Krasinski; “King Lear,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson; “The Romanoffs,” executive produced by Matt Weiner; “Carnival Row” starring Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne; “Good Omens” starring Jon Hamm; and “Homecoming,” executive produced by Sam Esmail (“Mr. Robot”) and starring Julia Roberts in her first TV series.

“We acquired the global television rights for a multi-season production of ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ as well as ‘Cortés,’ a miniseries based on the epic saga of Hernán Cortés from executive producer Steven Spielberg, starring Javier Bardem, and we look forward to beginning work on those shows this year,” Bezos said in the letter.

In addition, Amazon expanded its Prime Channels offerings, adding CBS All Access in the U.S. and launching channels in the U.K. and Germany. Bezos also pointed to Prime Video’s streaming of NFL “Thursday Night Football” on Prime Video worldwide, which drew more than 18 million total viewers over 11 games.

Meanwhile, Bezos called out Amazon’s Prime Video Direct self-publishing program. Through that, Amazon obtained subscription VOD rights for more than 3,000 feature films and “committed over $18 million in royalties to independent filmmakers and other rights holders,” the CEO wrote.

Bezos has issued the annual letter to shareholders since 1997.

[littleredrooster] 19/4/2018 11:29

hxxps://www.blackbird.video/archive/thought-leadership/nab-2018-highlights-intelligent-cloud-ai-machine-learning-with-cognitive-services/

NAB 2018 highlights : Intelligent cloud, AI & machine learning with cognitive services

Apr 19, 2018 | Thought Leadership

Huw Dymond, Product Manager

"The team returned from NAB after a jam-packed week of Blackbird meetings with end users, service providers, technology partners and distributors across the news, media and entertainment (NME) sector – from news and broadcast to online and major sports organisations (as well as everything in between).

From the very start, (pre-show set up) where an owner of a traditional storage provider, asked “Has the rest of the world caught up with you yet?” – the scene was set. Like our fellow exhibitor, we understand business models are evolving and this was reflected in the interests of those attending Blackbird meetings and demos.

Every year NAB becomes a hub of discussion for trending topics in the industry, and this year Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) emerged as solutions to a problem that many haven’t recognised. Cloud is no longer a ‘maybe’ but a ‘given’ and conversations are shifting towards discussions of seamless migration. Companies are seeking new ways of minimising the spend and complexity inherent in delivering additional content to more platforms than ever before.

Cognitive services emerged as a key topic, but the joined principles of ML and AI were recognised for their huge potential benefit to the industry. Cognitive services have the ability to assist automating the remaining manual workflow stages where a subjective opinion or a decision based on new, incomplete information is required. In media and entertainment, these principles are applied to gain the results of quality analysis and content analysis. In one particular meeting, the discussion highlighted huge fragmentation in the AI/ML market with over 7,000 technology providers and 10,000+ engines, up from 1,000 engines in the last 12 months. There is no doubt, many services are embedded offerings from a smaller number of core AI technologies, but the numbers are certainly not conducive to anyone wanting to carefully select a partner right now. There were also many, many demonstrations of intelligent and automated content indexing and metadata creation, yet few managed to clearly articulate the value of the service. Do we really need to know if a newsreader is wearing a purple shirt or a blue one?

At Blackbird, we see great value in data and its ability to enhance or augment existing workflows. We understand that today’s workflows require progress in order to reach absolute efficiency and that the immediate challenge of AI/ML is awareness of the commercial benefits. A key driver could be captioning workflows which involve large amounts of manual and time-consuming data entry. This workflow covers traditional broadcast workflow and is crucial for online engagement. Captioning is widely used across social media platforms where a large number of consumers access feed content on mobile devices without any audio. Speech-to-text isn’t new, but when combined with AI and ML abilities to learn and continuously train – its high accuracy meets the point of realistic automation. Ensuring continual efficiency in production and delivery of meaningful content to consumers, maximises monetisation. We believe the value proposition for cognitive technologies will only increase over time and that the use of data to optimise workflows will be a key driver for the next generation of content creation and distribution."

[littleredrooster] 19/4/2018 10:58

global space services market is worth US$350 billion

hxxp://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/19/russia_hints_at_satellite_launch_exit/

Soyuz later! Russia might exit satellite launch business

Is it worth competing with SpaceX prices?

By Richard Chirgwin 19 Apr 2018 at 05:02

Russia has dropped a broad hint that it might leave the space launch business to private operators.

Space launches have become a relative commodity: SpaceX publishes a price list offering a Falcon 9 trip to geosynchronous transfer orbit for US$62 million, or $90 million for Falcon Heavy.

Russia's official newsagency TASS carried a report suggesting the country might let the new generation of private launch vehicles have the business to themselves rather than try to build a platform that can compete with SpaceX.

TASS reports Deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin, whose role puts him at the top of the country's defense industry, said in a television interview: “The share of launch vehicles is as small as four per cent of the overall market of space services”.

Rogozin added that the global space services market is worth US$350 billion and that Russia could do better as a payload-builder than a launcher-for-hire.

“The four per cent stake isn’t worth the effort to try to elbow Musk and China aside," he said.

El Reg notes that India is also shaping up as a launch competitor, with its ultra-low-cost Mars orbiter and its PSLV vehicle proven since 1994 demonstrating capability and cost-competitiveness.

There's a bit of realpolitik to consider here, too, because tension between the USA and Russia means the former nation isn't very keen on sending business Moscow's way.

SpaceX, meanwhile, staged another boring, successful, nothing-blew-up launch earlier today, with its Falcon 9 carrying the much-anticipated NASA TESS planet-hunting satellite to orbit.

10 Comments

[littleredrooster] 18/4/2018 23:57

Amazon Prime Has More Than 100 Million Members -- Update

18/04/2018 11:35pm
Dow Jones News

By Austen Hufford

More than 100 million people globally are now paying for Amazon Prime, a sign of how Amazon.com Inc. has used the service to evolve from an online marketplace that struggled with profitability into an internet-commerce powerhouse.

Amazon, which has never disclosed the number of Prime members before, revealed the figure Wednesday in Chief Executive Jeff Bezos's closely followed annual letter to shareholders.

Amazon also said a majority of goods sold on its platform are from third-party sellers.

[littleredrooster] 17/4/2018 12:57

a minor breakthrough in a major market

Is that better than a major breakthrough in a minor market?



RNS Number : 0933L
Forbidden Technologies PLC
17 April 2018

Forbidden Technologies launches Blackbird® Forte into Japan with Tier 1 telecommunications operator

Forbidden Technologies plc (AIM: FBT), the developer and seller of cloud video platform technology using its patented Blackbird technology is pleased to announce a preliminary collaboration with a leading Japanese telecommunications operator through its partnership with Dragon Touch Systems Inc.

Blackbird will be utilised in a specific part of the telco infrastructure to allow its B2B customers to edit and version content in the cloud. The proxy is continually uploaded to the Blackbird cloud and presented as growing files, where it is accessible to reviewers and a team of editors for daily collaboration. The team has the added advantage of speed, providing viewing and remote capabilities, which Blackbird offers without the bandwidth constraints.

This proxy-based cloud workflow offers enormous benefits of time management, collaboration efficiencies and flexibility to producers and broadcasters in the region.

Daisuke Matsuo, CEO at Dragon Touch Systems said, "Our customer required a powerful cloud video platform solution to process high resolution videos, and Forte's ability to support multiple languages including Japanese, made it the perfect choice. I believe Blackbird Forte will serve as a catalyst for change in a traditional Japanese broadcast landscape".

Forbidden CEO Ian McDonough says, "We're delighted to announce this new deal through our partner, Dragon Touch Systems in Kanagawa, Japan. It represents a minor breakthrough in a major market. The customer has recognised the power of the platform and the ability to have a highly responsive workstation experience while working in the cloud, thanks to the Blackbird codec".

[littleredrooster] 13/4/2018 08:49

the creation of internally generated intellectual property which can be sold across multiple geographies and in multiple formats .. enhance the Group's potential to become the world's leading source of data and analytics for corporates

A couple of nice phrases.



GlobalData PLC

Proposed Acquisition
RNS Number : 3282J
GlobalData PLC
29 March 2018

"Rationale for the Acquisition

The Independent Directors believe that the Acquisition will further advance the Group's transformation into a global data and analytics business with a truly differentiated multi-industry offering, significantly increasing its addressable markets and enhancing the Company's long term growth opportunities. The Acquisition adds the energy industry to the Group, and significantly bolsters the recently formed construction business, following the Group's recent acquisition of MEED Media FZ LLC. It will provide complementary intelligence assets and capabilities relevant to existing healthcare, consumer and financial services industries and is consistent with the Group's strategy.

Research Views Group's business will be integrated into the Group's global platform and infrastructure and will operate under the GlobalData brand, strengthening and expanding the markets and geographies the Group serves. With 23 offices located across North and South America, the United Kingdom, Asia Pacific and the Middle East, the Independent Directors believe that the Group's global infrastructure will, when combined with that of the Research Views Group, provide the opportunity for commercial and operational synergies. In particular, the Acquisition will consolidate the Group's expansion of its sales and management infrastructure across Asia Pacific, providing stronger regional capability and expertise for the Group to address the increasing growth in the global data and analytics market.

Following Completion, the Independent Directors anticipate that the Group's increased subscription revenues will improve visibility of forward earnings. Furthermore, following Completion and the subsequent integration, the Independent Directors anticipate being able to leverage economies of scale from its enlarged operations and, in particular, in the creation of internally generated intellectual property which can be sold across multiple geographies and in multiple formats.

The Independent Directors believe the Acquisition will rapidly strengthen and expand the Group's industry coverage for its core corporate clients and enhance the Group's potential to become the world's leading source of data and analytics for corporates."

[littleredrooster] 04/4/2018 14:35

FBT market value presently £10.38m.



Award winning UK producer selects Blackbird Edit, cloud editing platform for documentary TV series

London – April 3, 2018 — Forbidden Technologies plc announced today a leading factual, features and entertainment television producer selects Blackbird for a BAFTA and Emmy award winning documentary television programme.

The production company selected Blackbird to replace an existing EVS system to log and edit footage. The crew will use Blackbird to quickly log media from a gallery quad split of over 50+camera feeds, over an 18-week period.

This project is the first time Blackbird is used in a complete end to end fixed rig production and post production cycle. Blackbird increases the value of post production workflows by introducing a single logging toolset that moves seamlessly from location to edit suite. This enables producers and edit producers to review and search media across the entire production using rich logging metadata.

Ian McDonough, the CEO at Forbidden Technologies said, “I am delighted our incredible Blackbird software is extending into a new area of production. The fact we are an end to end solution on a fixed rig show dramatically extends our reach within the industry. We are bringing all the advantages of cloud as well as speed, collaboration and cost efficiencies to the customer which is quite an irresistible combination.”

Blackbird technology allows full visibility of multi-location digital content, improves time to market for live content such as video clips and highlights for social media distribution, and results in much more effective monetisation.

Forbidden develops, markets and licenses a powerful cloud video platform using patented Blackbird® technology. The technology underpins multiple applications which are used by rights holders, broadcasters, sports and news video specialists, post-production houses, other mass market digital video channels and corporations.

About Blackbird

Blackbird is a revolutionary cloud video platform which changes the way people work with digital video, maximising the value of video assets, and increasing monetisation in an evolving broadcast and digital landscape. Blackbird is the cloud-native provider of production and delivery tools, bringing workstation responsiveness and richness together with all the advantages of the cloud. Video professionals and teams working with live/non-live or high-volume video collaborate through hyper-accelerated accessibility, editing, distribution and delivery of video more efficiently, across the world.

[littleredrooster] 29/3/2018 14:23

Josh White WebFG News
29 Mar, 2018 14:50

GlobalData agrees to buy Research Views in £90m deal

GlobalData announced on Thursday that it has conditionally agreed to acquire the entire issued share capital of Research Views, a company controlled by Michael Danson and Wayne Lloyd and other minority shareholders.

The AIM-traded firm said that, under the terms of the acquisition, 15,957,447 new ordinary shares would be issued to the vendors of Research Views, which equates to £90m based on the volume weighted average price of an existing ordinary share of 564p over the 30 days prior to the announcement of the possible acquisition.

In addition, net debt of £9.8m would be assumed by the company on completion, which included shareholder debt of £8.4m.

The company would procure that the shareholder debt would be repaid by the Research Views Group to Michael Danson and his associated companies on completion, with such repayment to be funded by the company's existing banking facilities.

Completion was expected to occur following the general meeting on 24 April.

“This transaction consolidates the group's transformation into a global data and analytics business with a truly differentiated multi-industry offering,” said GlobalData independent committee chairman Bernard Cragg.

“It is consistent with our focusing on data and analytics by strengthening our existing industry offerings and expanding the industries we cover.

“The market outlook for data and analytics is encouraging with real and achievable opportunities for profitable growth.”

[littleredrooster] 19/3/2018 16:01

Interesting to see a GlobalData clothing retail analyst being interviewed on the BBC One lunchtime news today.

hxxps://www.globaldata.com/store/report/vr0121sr--the-uk-clothing-market-2017-2022/

hxxps://www.globaldata.com/clothing-footwear-drive-uk-e-retail-spend-68-8-billion-2022/