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BNET Resources

Craig Allen: When Employees Own the Business
Craig Allen is CEO of Spark Unlimited, a gaming company structured on scrum development, a rugby strategy which splits a single business into small, cross-development teams to increase efficiency. Allen elaborates on the benefits of scrum development for both Spark Unlimited and its employees.
Tags: gaming, creative strategy, Spark Unlimited, Management, Craig Allen, Allen, Games, Team Management, Personal Technology, business structure, technology, software, scrum development
Videos 2008-03-08
King.com's Robert Norton: Getting in the Game
It's not Nintendo and it's not gambling, but every month 80 million games are played in nine languages on King.com. Billed as "the world's largest skill games site," King.com has capitalized on the public's appetite for fun, charging many of its 10 million registered users small fees for competition and...
Tags: Dog And Pony, Games, King.com, Brand, Branding, Robert Norton, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, MyGame.com, American Idol, Nintendo, Gaming, Game, Marketing, Personal Technology
Videos 2007-10-03
Industry Moves: Zynga Bulks Up; Turn Adds Tacoda Vet
—Zynga: The social gaming company continues to bulk up. On the heels of hiring *Yahoo* vet Vish Makhijani whose title will be SVP of casual and mobility, comes news that they hired another *Yahoo* alum: Reggie Davis. Davis joins as general counsel. Zynga also brought in two EA execs:...
Tags: Advertising, Electronic Arts Inc., Entertainment, Games, Gaming, Industry Moves, Personal Technology, Sales, Sales Strategy, Tameka Kee, VP, Zynga
News items 2009-06-10
Game Site Casual Collective Gets $1 Million Funding, Relaunches
Social gaming site Casual Collective has picked up $1 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners in its first round of funding. Founded in 2007 and launched in stealth mode in December, the relaunched today with a slew of new social-media features and games, Gamasutra reports. Founders Paul Preece and David...
Tags: Games, Personal Technology, Tameka Kee, Companies, Entertainment, Gaming, VC+M&A, Venture Capital
External links 2008-11-18
Gaming Company PlaySpan Picks Up $16.8 Million Second Round
In-game commerce provider Playspan has closed a $16.8 million second round of financing. Previous investors Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures and STIC all participated in the round, in addition to undisclosed sources. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company will use the funds to build out its publisher base...
Tags: PlaySpan, Games, Personal Technology, Entertainment, Gaming, Virtual worlds, VC+M&A, Venture Capital, Tameka Kee, Blockbuster Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
External links 2008-11-25
Championship Gaming Series Folds
DirecTV-backed professional videogaming league Championship Gaming Series CGS has folded. Launched in January 2007, CGS started with six franchises in the U.S. (in cities like LA, NY and Dallas), and expanded internationally this year. Its matches were picked up by DirecTV (NYSE: DTV), BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) and Star, and...
Tags: British Sky Broadcasting Group, BSkyB, Companies, DirecTV, DirecTV Group Inc., Entertainment, Games, Gaming, Home Entertainment, NYSE Euronext, Personal Technology, Tameka Kee, Tv & Home Theater, TVs
External links 2008-11-19
Google Pulls the Plug On Lively
Google's "me too" virtual world Lively will be dead by the end of the year—just six months after it launched. It was almost inevitable though, as Google (NSDQ: GOOG) debuted Lively well after the virtual world frenzy had simmered down. The service also had to compete with established worlds...
Tags: Google Inc., Virtual World, Tameka Kee, Companies, Google, Entertainment, Gaming, Virtual worlds
External links 2008-11-20
Gaming Roundup: E-Books On Nintendo DS; Acclaim's RockFree; AOL's PlaySavvy; DoubleFusion/PS3
—Nintendo releases e-Book collection for DS : Move over Kindle, there's a new e-Reader in town—the Nintendo DS. Well ... not quite, but the game giant did announce the availability of "100 Classic Book Collection" today. The game features classic tomes from Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Shakespeare, among...
Tags: Nintendo Co. Ltd., Advertisement, America Online Inc., Acclaim, E-book, Games, Personal Technology, Companies, Time Warner, AOL, Entertainment, Gaming, Media, Books, Tameka Kee, Sony Corp., Time Warner Inc.
External links 2008-12-01
Sulzberger To Globe Reporters: 'We Are Now Left With No Alternative' To 23 Percent Wage Cut
Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.'s response to Boston Globe reporters seeking his intervention to ward off a 23 percent wage cut boils down to one word: No. He feels their pain, he doesn't like the results of the Boston Newspaper Guild's vote but his hands are tied. In the e-mail posted...
Tags: Salary, Globe, Benefits, Payroll Solutions, Personal Finance, Human Resources, Companies, Time Warner, Time Inc., Turner, Tribune, TSCM, Verizon, Viacom, MTVN, WaPo, WSJ-DJ, MarketWatch, Yahoo, Countries, Asia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Australia & NZ, Canada, UK & Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Entertainment, Adult, Gaming, Virtual worlds, Movies, DVD, Music, Sports, Digital Olympics, Events, Features, Analysis, Dis*Content, Featured Stories, Interview Series, MemeWatch, TechWatch, Gadgets, Industry Moves, Information, Biz & Fin, Metrics, Research, Legal, DRM, FCC, Patents, Regulatory, Media, Books, Health Content, Magazines, Newspapers, Staci D. Kramer
News items 2009-06-10
Broadband Content Bits: Universal/Meebo; Crackle's New Shows; YouTube Live Stats; XFire's JV with H3
-- Universal seeds Meebo with content: Social communications company Meebo will feature videos from Universal Music Group artists like The Killers and Kanye West on its site and in its MediaBar ad platform. As part of the promotion, UMG will embed Meebo's IM and chat rooms into a number...
Tags: Xfire, Broadband, YouTube Inc., Cable Network, Series, Cable, Corporate Communications, Tv & Home Theater, Network Technology, Telecommunications, Personal Technology, Marketing, Networking, Companies, Google, YouTube, Sony, Viacom, MTVN, Entertainment, Gaming, Music, Social Media, Community, Video Sharing, Tameka Kee, Akamai Technologies Inc., VIA Technologies Inc., Viacom Inc.
External links 2008-11-25
Hasbro Drops Suit Against Scrabulous Creators
Board game marketer Hasbro has dropped its copyright infringement suit against Jayant and Rajant Agarwalla, the makers of the online version of Scrabble known as Scrabulous, AP reported. The Scrabulous app was taken down from Facebook this summer after Hasbro sued the brothers, who live in Calcutta. While Hasbro...
Tags: Hasbro Inc., Scrabulous, Games, Personal Technology, Companies, Facebook, Countries, Asia, India, Entertainment, Gaming, Social Media, David Kaplan
External links 2008-12-16
Microsoft Adds TV-Style Game Show (Complete With Commercial Breaks) To Xbox
With 1 vs. 100, the live game show it launched in open beta on the Xbox last week, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is also pushing another TV staple to the video-game console: The commercial break. The show 1 vs. 100 lets thousands of Xbox owners respond to questions while listening...
Tags: Game, Advertisement, Microsoft Xbox Live, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Xbox, Game Players, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Advertising, Companies, Microsoft, Entertainment, Gaming, Joseph Tartakoff, Sprint Nextel Corp.
News items 2009-06-10
Time Warner Ups Stake In Eidos, Will It Buy The Rest?
Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) has increased its stake in Eidos' Lara Croft game maker SCi Entertainment, which last week renamed to Eidos Plc, as bidders continue to hover over the ailing studio. Time Warner increased its holding from 42.5 million to 52.5 million shares, or 19.92 percent of the...
Tags: United Parcel Service Of America Inc., Time Warner Inc., Eidos Interactive Ltd., Sanmina-SCI Corp., Games, Personal Technology, David Kaplan
External links 2008-12-15
Is Mobile Gaming Thriving Or Struggling? Depends Whom You Ask
A day after *Glu Mobile* said it would shed staff and cut CEO Greg Ballard's salary to prepare itself for what it called the "increasing economic headwinds" facing the sector, its larger rivals *Electronic Arts* and *Gameloft*, told Reuters that the market is doing fine, thank you very much....
Tags: Game, Mobile, Mobile Gaming, Handset, Sales Strategy, Advertising & Promotion, Sales Force Management, Sales, Marketing, Entertainment, Gaming, Dianne See Morrison
External links 2008-12-04
Gaming Community DotBlu Gets $2 Million First Round
DotBlu, a social network/community for online gaming, has picked up $2 million in a first round, peHUB says, citing a regulatory filing. Maples Investments and DE Shaw participated in the round. DotBlu members can play casual games, take quizzes and vote in polls using BluBucks, the site's virtual currency....
Tags: Round, Games, Regulations, Personal Technology, Government, Entertainment, Gaming, VC+M&A, Venture Capital, Tameka Kee
External links 2008-12-15
Game Graphics Company Image Metrics Gets $6.5 Million
U.K.-based game graphics company Image Metrics has picked up $6.5 million in funding from Saffron Hill Ventures, VentureBeat reports. Image Metrics focuses on making the faces within video games look and move realistically, which has become increasingly important given the advanced graphics capabilities of consoles like the Xbox 360...
Tags: Graphics Company, Graphics, Games, Personal Technology, Companies, Entertainment, Gaming, VC+M&A, Venture Capital, Tameka Kee
External links 2008-12-16
Microsoft's Whitten Talks Zune, Facebook, And The Next Xbox Console
The pending Xbox Live integration with Last.fm, Facebook and BSkyB shows that *Microsoft* has been busy making new content deals ever since the launch of last year's very successful *Netflix* partnership. And Xbox Live's GM Marc Whitten said that there were more coming down the pike—including deals that would...
Tags: Facebook, Console, Microsoft Zune, Microsoft Xbox Live, Microsoft Corp., TV, Microsoft Xbox, Game Players, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Broadband, Companies, Microsoft, Entertainment, Gaming, Movies, Music, Social Media, Tameka Kee, NetFlix Inc.
News items 2009-06-08
Industry Moves: Microsoft Gaming Exec Goes To IGT
Gaming machine manufacturer International Game Technology has hired long-time Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) gaming executive Chris Satchell as its CTO. Satchell had spent seven years at Microsoft, most recently as chief technology officer of the company's interactive entertainment business, which includes Xbox, Games for Windows, Xbox Live and Microsoft Game...
Tags: Companies, Entertainment, Games, Gaming, Industry Moves, Joseph Tartakoff, Microsoft, Microsoft Corp., Personal Technology
News items 2009-06-05
Time Warner Ups Stake In Gamer Eidos To 20 Percent
Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) has upped its stake in Eidos, the games developer behind Tomb Raider and Hitman, to 19.92 percent, Reuters reports. The entertainment conglomerate bought 10 million shares in Eidos last week. It now holds 52.5 million shares in the UK-based gamer. The Time Warner stake comes...
Tags: United Parcel Service Of America Inc., Time Warner Inc., Eidos Interactive Ltd., Games, Advertising & Promotion, Personal Technology, Marketing, Companies, Time Warner, Entertainment, Gaming, VC+M&A, Mergers & Acquisitions, David Kaplan, Electronic Arts Inc.
External links 2008-12-15
Redstone Sells Midway Games For Pittance?And A Massive Tax Writeoff
Scrambling to restructure National Amusement's $1.6 million debt this month, Sumner Redstone has sold off the company's disastrous 87 percent stake in Midway Games for $100,000 in cash, assumption of debt—and a tax loss of $800 million, WSJ reported. Mark Thomas, described by the Journal as an investor...
Tags: Sumner Redstone, CBS Corp., Midway Games Inc., Redstone, Taxes, Free Trade, Financial Planning, Finance, Entertainment, Gaming, VC+M&A, Mergers & Acquisitions, David Kaplan, VIA Technologies Inc., Viacom Inc.
External links 2008-12-01