Disney to Acquire 33% of Hulu from Comcast

The Walt Disney Company (Disney) and Comcast Corporation (Comcast) have just announced that the companies have entered into an agreement wherein Disney will take “full operational control” of Hulu, effective immediately, and will purchase 33% ownership in Hulu in 5 years.

Under the put/call agreement, as early as January 2024, Comcast can require Disney to buy NBCUniversal’s interest in Hulu and Disney can require NBCUniversal to sell that interest to Disney for its fair market value at that future time. Hulu’s fair market value will be assessed by independent experts but Disney has guaranteed a sale price for Comcast that represents a minimum total equity value of Hulu at that time of $27.5 billion.

Disney seems to be going all out on this whole video streaming business.

May 14, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Apple Short Lists First Retail Store Location in India

Saritha Rai, reporting for Bloomberg:

The iPhone giant has zeroed in on several upscale sites in Mumbai, and plans to make a final decision in the next few weeks, said the people, asking not to be named because the discussions are private. The vetted spots are comparable to iconic Apple locations on Fifth Avenue in New York, Regent Street in London or the Champs-Elysees in Paris, they said.

It seems like it’s finally happening.

May 8, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Warren Buffett’s Paper Wizard

Here’s something from Apple that dropped in totally out of the blue — A side-scrolling game for iPhone, in partnership with Warren Buffet.

Think you can toss a newspaper like the legendary Warren Buffett? Test your paper-flinging skills as you make your way from the streets of Omaha, Nebraska, all the way to Cupertino, California. Avoid vehicles and birds as you deliver papers to buildings near and far. Will anyone collect enough Warren Bucks to dethrone the Paper Wizard? Probably not.

The game is published by Wildlife Design, Inc on the App Store, but Apple still holds the rights to the game and according to 9to5Mac, also helped out with the development.

May 7, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Spotify to Delete All of Saregama’s Songs from its Library

Aditi Singh, writing for Bar and Bench:

[…] Spotify had approached Saregama to get a license for streaming the latter company’s musical works on its platform. The negotiation talks between the parties also began and the terms of the license were discussed. Subsequently, on Spotify’s request, Saregama also provided copyright of its work a month prior to the launch of Spotify in India.

The license agreement, however, could not be finalized and Saregama requested Spotify to block all of its work on the app..

Spotify India already doesn’t have any of Warner Music content, and this is only going to make its library less appealing.

April 24, 2019 ✚ Permalink

WordPress Now Powers 1/3rd of the Web

Joost de Valk, writing on the WordPress.org blog:

WordPress now powers over 1/3rd of the top 10 million sites on the web according to W3Techs. Our market share has been growing steadily over the last few years, going from 29.9% just one year ago to 33.4% now. We are, of course, quite proud of these numbers!

and

Over the years WordPress has become the CMS of choice for more and more people and companies. As various businesses use WordPress, the variety of WordPress sites grows. Large enterprise businesses all the way down to small local businesses: all of them use WordPress to power their site. We love seeing that and we strive to continuously make WordPress better for all of you.

So stoked to see the rise of WordPress.

March 20, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Apple Addresses Spotify’s Claims in a Statement

After Spotify filed a complaint against Apple earlier this week, Apple has today released a statement trying to address Spotify’s claims.

According to the statement:

What Spotify is demanding is something very different. After using the App Store for years to dramatically grow their business, Spotify seeks to keep all the benefits of the App Store ecosystem — including the substantial revenue that they draw from the App Store’s customers — without making any contributions to that marketplace. At the same time, they distribute the music you love while making ever-smaller contributions to the artists, musicians and songwriters who create it — even going so far as to take these creators to court.

and

Spotify wouldn’t be the business they are today without the App Store ecosystem, but now they’re leveraging their scale to avoid contributing to maintaining that ecosystem for the next generation of app entrepreneurs. We think that’s wrong.

Great points, but the statement complete sidesteps why the company disallows apps to mention other available payment models. I think Apple is fair in asking for a 30% cut for payments made through the App Store, but Spotify (and other apps) should also be allowed to tell their users that they can purchase the same subscriptions, using other payment methods, sometimes cheaper, from the service’s own website. Apple itself says that many Spotify users are free users and Apple is fine not getting any revenue from them. For any revenue Spotify receives outside of the App Store payment system, Apple shouldn’t need to ask for a cut.

Moreover, Spotify wouldn’t be in this tough position if Apple didn’t have its music streaming service, with substantial unfair advantages over Apple, offered at the same price as Spotify. Right now, Apple offers a competitor service on the same platform as Spotify, at the same price as Spotify, and has substantial advantages that users like.

March 15, 2019 ✚ Permalink

Spotify Files a Formal Complaint Against Apple

Spotify has announced that it has filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission (EC), the regulatory body responsible for keeping competition fair and nondiscriminatory.

Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify, writes:

In recent years, Apple has introduced rules to the App Store that purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience—essentially acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers. After trying unsuccessfully to resolve the issues directly with Apple, we’re now requesting that the EC take action to ensure fair competition.

and

We aren’t seeking special treatment. We simply want the same treatment as numerous other apps on the App Store, like Uber or Deliveroo, who aren’t subject to the Apple tax and therefore don’t have the same restrictions.

More power to Spotify!

The company has created a lovely website called Time to Play Fair that shows a timeline of all the ridiculous App Store policies that Apple has in place as well as the rejections that Spotify has faced over the years.

March 13, 2019 ✚ Permalink

India’s I.T. Ministry Approves Wistron’s Rs. 5,000-crore Plan for Apple

Anandita Singh Mankotia and Romit Guha reporting for The Economic Times:

The information technology ministry has approved contract manufacturer Wistron’s Rs 5,000-crore plan to make high-end Apple devices, a move that will give a big push to the government’s Make in India initiative. Wistron currently makes cheaper Apple phones in India.

Good to see some progress on this front, it has been a long time coming.

March 7, 2019 ✚ Permalink