Business

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Web Buzz: March 26, 2014

Oprah is going on tour. The big announcement in the Media and on Oprah.com today. “Oprah’s The Life You Want Weekend” will feature Oprah Winfrey and special guests in 8 city arenas:  San Jose, California, Miami, Florida, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Georgia, Newark, New Jersey, Auburn Hills, Michigan, Houston, Texas, and Seattle, Washington. So far, the Southland is not on the […]
Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Facebook buys a virtual reality company for $2 billion

Facebook has made another staggering purchase — $2 billion for  the virtual reality gaming company, Oculus VR Inc. The social network made the announcement on its website yesterday. The deal includes $400 million in cash,  23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock, and $300 million earn-out in cash and stock “…  based on the achievement of certain milestones.” “Mobile is the platform of […]
Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Nickelodeon expansion project clears major hurdle

Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank has cleared a major hurdle in its quest to expand. Last night the Burbank Planning Board unanimously approved a plan, with a 4-to-0 vote, to construct a five-story office building and parking lot at 203 West Olive Avenue, right next to the Nickelodeon campus. The expansion plan includes a 113, 760 square-foot office building and […]
Monday, March 24, 2014

What’s happening to this Taco Bell in Burbank?

A lot of chatter in town about the major construction going on at the Taco Bell 2425 West Magnolia Boulevard, between North Buena Vista and North Brighton Streets, in Burbank. Last week the restaurant was open for business, now it’s shut down and work crews are ripping out parts of the structure. I got some answers from the Burbank Building […]
Monday, March 24, 2014

Disney buys Maker Studios for $500 million

Disney announced today it’s shelling out $500 million for the YouTube Network, Maker Studios. If certain performance targets are met the deal gets sweeten by $450 million. Not bad for a company that started back in 2009. Maker Studios is an online video network with some impressive stats: More than 55,000 channels, 380 million subscribers, and 5.5 billion views per month […]
Monday, March 24, 2014

Important step today for Nickelodeon expansion plan

An ambitious plan to greatly increase the Nickelodeon Animation Studio campus on West Olive Avenue, between Victory Boulevard and Lake Street in Burbank, is set to go before the Burbank Planning Board tonight. The project would more than double the office space of the cable and television network from 72, 232 square feet to 185, 992 square feet, according the […]
Sunday, March 23, 2014

Around the Southland: Celebrity mansion listed for $50 million

It was supposed to be their dream home, but now NFL star, Tom Brady, and his wife supermodel, Gisele Bundchen, have put their custom designed Brentwood estate up for sale. The asking price: $50 million, according to Trulia.com . The celebrity couple spent years supervising the work on the European style country estate, which sits on nearly four acres and […]
Friday, March 21, 2014

Twitter celebrates 8th birthday — who has the most followers?

Twitter is singing a birthday song today. In 2006, on this day the first tweet was sent out using 140 characters or less. Eight years later, millions of tweets, sometimes with images, photos, and videos, are sent out daily. Twitter has become a juggernaut  — difficult to control — hard to ban. Turkey Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, became irate at the […]
Friday, March 21, 2014

Starbucks offering booze in some stores

You make soon be dropping into your favorite Starbucks for more than a cup of Joe. After promoting  itself as a great place to buy coffee, the chain is now working on being your favorite happy hours place as well. As part of a new Starbucks Evenings program, some of  its outlets are offering wine and beer along with a speciality […]