Category: Business

On Thursday, January 27, 2000, Disney announced their decision to change

the direction of their Go.com from an all purpose portal and search engine

like AOL.com, Lycos and Yahoo! to strictly an entertainment and leisure

destination. This announcement comes on the same day as The U.S. Court of

Appeals for the Ninth Circuit repealed the stay [AF 12/7/99] on a previous

injunction that bans the use of Go.com's green and yellow traffic light

logo. Disney was given the stay to allow them the chance to remove the logo

The Walt Disney Company has announced its financial results for its

operations excluding its Internet business, GO.com. Disney pro forma

diluted earnings per share excluding GO.com were $0.25 for the quarter

ended December 31, 1999, a 9% increase over the prior year. Disney revenues

increased 5% to $6.8 billion and operating income increased 8% to $1.1

billion. Excluding the retained interest in GO.com, net income increased 7%

to $515 million. Broadcasting results for the quarter were driven up by

Acclaim Entertainment Inc., a leading worldwide developer, publisher and

mass marketer of software for use with interactive entertainment, reported

its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2000 ended November 30, 1999.

Net revenues for the quarter were $101.2 million, compared with $104.8

million in the first quarter of the prior year. Net earnings for the

quarter were $0.4 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, compared with net

earnings of $10.3 million or $0.16 per diluted share for the same period in

Imagine Television, the makers of THE PJS, is leaving Disney for its new

home at Fox. The three-year collaboration between the small screen arm of

production house Imagine Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Television will

take effect at the end of April 2000. Worth up to $30 million, the deal

also includes a two-year option extension. Imagine TV had been based at

Walt Disney Television since it was formed in 1997 by Imagine Entertainment

In December 1999, Mill Film announced that they united operations with

sister company Magic Camera. The combination will create a formidable

start-to-finish London-based feature film facility mixing Mill's visual

effects talent and technical strengths with the digital effects, miniature

construction and photography of Magic Camera and Magic Models. Antony Hunt

will serve as managing director of Mill Film and will take charge of day to

day operations of the combined companies. Hunt has been at the helm of

On Monday, January 10, 2000, America On-line, the leader in on-line

services, has announced their acquisition of Time Warner, the world's

largest media and entertainment company. Valued at approximately US$180

billion, the stock for stock merger is what will be the biggest corporate

merger ever. America On-line's chairman and chief executive, Steve Case

will serve as chairman of the merged company entitled AOL Time Warner. AOL

and Time Warner will each name half of the board of directors of the new

Over the holiday break Holland-based ComicHouse started its move to a new

home. After spending fifteen years in Amsterdam, the animation house has

taken root in Holland's largest nature reserve "DeVeluwe." The new base of

operations will give ComicHouse the needed workspace and client

accessibility that was lacking in the confines of the city. The company

will re-open again in Ooserbeek on January 10, 2000. For more information

contact ComicHouse at: Stationsweg 20, 6861 EH Oosterbeek, The Netherlands;

Maria LoConte has launched her upgraded

visual strategies company, LoConte.2 (L.2). Formerly LoConte co-headed

Boston-based LoConte Goldman Design, Inc. with former partner Patrice

Goldman. After parting ways with Goldman and closing their company, LoConte

designed the new L.2 group dedicated to high-end visual solutions for

television and advertising. The company will be based at the National

Boston facilities. National Boston is one of the largest production and

On Monday, December 20, 1999, MTV Networks,

the music/entertainment cable television and Internet business, announced

it would split its Net company into two separate groups. MTV Networks

On-line will be divvied up into the MTVi Group, which includes VH1.com,

MTV.com and SonicNet.com, and Nickelodeon On-line, which includes nick.com,

nickjr.com, tvland.com, nick-at-night.com, gas.nick.com, teachers.nic.com

and redrocket.com. "Executives in the past have stated that both companies

Monday, December 13, 1999, AtomFilms, a leader in next-generationentertainment, announced that it has inked a deal with investors totalingUS$20 million in financing. This signing marks the end of a second round ofstrategic financing led by Chase Capital Entertainment Partners LLC andChase Capital Partners, and joined by Arts Alliance, Frank J. Biondi Jr.,general partner at WaterView Partners and former chairman and CEO ofUniversal Studios, Intel Corp., and Trans Cosmos USA Inc. "This round of

Boston-based Olive Jar Studios, Inc., an animation, special effects andtheme park attraction production house, has opened a branch in Los Angeles,California, U.S.A. The new west coast facility will house both stage andproduction space. Olive Jar specializes in film techniques that includemixed-media, stop-motion, CGI, cel, drawn, and live-action/special effects.Executive producer Matthew Charde said, "Our presence in Los Angeles willbe a tremendous asset to the business since we will be more fully able to

Toronto-based Nelvana Limited, an integrated family entertainment company,has formed a multi-layered partnership with German-based production houseRTV Family Entertainment AG, a leader in children's programming in Germany.The agreement includes a significant distribution deal for current andlibrary programs and a 3-year deal for future productions andco-productions. Through the deal, RTV will bring Nelvana's library of showsto TV, home video, and merchandising venues across Germany, Eastern Europe,