Disney plans to buy 21st Century Fox for $52 billion. The deal would give Disney access to a giant pool of content, just in time for the "Magic Kingdom" to take on Netflix and Amazon in the streaming industry.
Rob Marvin, Associate Features Editor at PCMag, explains what the Disney-21st Century Fox deal could mean for the digital media landscape. He says Netflix is too big to fail, but this deal would give Disney a major advantage in the streaming space.
ESPN also stands to benefit from the deal. If the deal goes through, Disney would then own Fox Sports and its various subsidiaries. Disney is planning on launching a new streaming service specifically focused on sports. ESPN Plus is supposed to launch in 2018.
The nation's largest alcohol e-commerce and delivery platform is getting even bigger. Drizly is now collaborating with 7-Eleven to deliver alcohol in under 60 minutes from 7-eleven's 1,200 stores. The companies plan to expand the collaboration in the coming months. Cathy Lewenberg, COO at Drizly, joins Cheddar News to talk about the new collaboration.
Netlify, a platform that builds, deploys and hosts websites and apps, raised $105 million dollars in a Series D round, now valuing the company at $2 billion. Along with the funding, Netlify is also announcing the acquisition of the company OneGraph. Netlify says OneGraph's technology will drive a new wave of innovation on its platform, by making it easier to compose apps with the best developer tools available. Netlify co-founder and CEO Matt Biilmann joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Chip Paucek, CEO and co-founder of 2U, an educational tech company, joined Cheddar's "Closing Bell" to talk about the company's $800 million acquisition of online course provider edX featuring curriculum from Harvard and MIT. He noted that added services will provide 2U users with high quality, free options. "Us coming together with edX should allow us to really continue to drive affordability for people to unlock their own potential in a variety of different kinds of programs," he said.
Beginning Christmas Day, the home of the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, Kings, and Sparks, the Staples Center, will go by the name Crypto.com Arena after a massive $700 million deal with AEG. Steven Kalifowitz, the chief marketing officer at Crypto.com, and Todd Goldstein, the chief revenue officer at AEG, joined Cheddar to talk about the historic changeover in naming rights and what other changes that fans entering the arena might expect.
Earlier this week, Qualcomm announced an extension of its partnership with BMW as it moves to help build the technology for automated driving. Nakul Duggal, general manager at Qualcomm, joined Cheddar to provide some background on the collaboration and how the company has been able to navigate the global chip shortage amid the pandemic. "We have invested in advance, in very specific packaging capacity and technology, with our suppliers so that we actually have the capacity available to be able to service that demand," Duggal said.
Small businesses are seeing loans in a new light thanks to the pandemic, according to a survey from PayPal and Wakefield research. The study found that the stigma surrounding accepting loans has largely been removed among a majority of small business owners who realize they are not a sign of a struggling business, but a way to stay competitive. Bernardo Martinez, VP of global merchant lending at PayPal, joined Cheddar to discuss the results of the survey and provide tips to owners looking to grow their businesses.
The iconic Los Angeles Staples Center will sport a new moniker, Crypto.com Arena, beginning Christmas Day. AEG made the naming-rights deal with Crypto for a historic $700 million.
Uber is gearing up to reintroduce its ride-sharing carpool service called Uber Pool, now renamed UberX Share, after shutting it down due to the pandemic. The company is currently piloting the revived program in Miami.
