AllThingsD » Ellen DeGeneres

Greylock Goes Hollywood, Adds to WhoSay Funding

Liz Gannes — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:30:20 +0000

A start-up that counts megastars like Tom Hanks, Steven Tyler and Ellen DeGeneres among its active users now has a high-profile Silicon Valley investor: Greylock Partners.

In an interview last week, Greylock partner David Sze said he thinks a celebrity content management system will be a big business. “It used to be when these platforms first started, the top users were always digital stars — the Kevin Rose and Robert Scoble types. If you look at it today, there’s an amazing shift going on — it’s all general celebrities and the scale is order-of-magnitude multiples of when the tech stars were dominating the system.”

As I’ve described it before, WhoSay is a social media tool for celebrities, aimed at “helping them manage their social media presence and making sure photos and videos are posted on a page the stars themselves can control and eventually monetize.”

For instance, here’s a picture of Tom Hanks’s refrigerator, via an embed code that allows the actor to maintain the rights to his image. Hanks also used WhoSay last week to bitch about how RSS feed readers of Gawker’s headline about his new movie might think he was actually dead. (Tom Hanks knows what RSS is?!)

Greylock has one of the most extensive venture capital portfolios of the leading social Web companies, among them general and open platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pandora, Airbnb and Tumblr. WhoSay, by contrast, is a much more specific publishing tool.

WhoSay — which was incubated by Creative Artists Agency but operates independently — had already raised $6 million from investors including Amazon and High Peaks Ventures. Greylock is adding an undisclosed amount into a previous Series B round.

Geek-tastic! Twitter Queen Kim Kardashian Reportedly to Wed at Eric Schmidt's SoCal Estate (Or at Kleiner Partner's Luxe Crib).

Kara Swisher — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:43:41 +0000

Here’s a delicious juxtaposition you don’t get often: Various reports indicate that reality show empress Kim Kardashian’s upcoming wedding to New Jersey Nets basketball player Kris Humphries will be held at the Montecito estate of Google’s Executive Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt.

And, according to another report, if not there, then at a house owned by one of Silicon Valley’s most famous VC legends.

Schmidt won’t be a guest at what is sure to be a heavily chronicled event — which the New York Post said will have a $20,000 cake, three dresses and 500 guests.

You know, simple nuptials.

Instead, it appears Schmidt rents out the lush house, which he bought from talk show host Ellen DeGeneres in 2007 for $20 million.

Fun fact: It is the same spot where Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck — or Bennifer, as I like to call them — were set to be hitched in 2003, before they called off their engagement.

According to blog site The Real Estalker, who also wrote about the possible rental:

The privately situated and heavily secured luxury compound’s architectural heart and soul is a 5,000-plus square foot main house with 4 bedrooms and 4 full and 2 half bathrooms designed by beloved Santa Barbara architect George Washington Smith. Staff and/or guests can be comfortably accommodated in a detached 1-bedroom guest house with kitchen and an additional studio space tucked into a quiet corner provides private respite from family members and all the full-time staff people required to maintain an estate of this magnitude.

At the time Mister Schmidt snatched up the property, the extensively and meticulously landscaped grounds included a long winding drive, massive motor court, championship grade tennis court, extra-long swimming pool with raised spa area, wide terraces, broad lawns, and a stunning allée with colorful tiled fountain that screams out for a highly stylized celebrity wedding designed — we presume — by an efficient, innovative and extremely well-paid event planner.

[UPDATE:] Later, The Real Estalker changed its report and said the wedding might not be held at Schmidt’s place, but at another over-the-top estate owned by Silicon Valley venture legend Frank Caufield, one of the founders of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

I have a call in to the Kardashians, who are usually so shy with the press, so I will update as soon as I hear or a camera crew arrives at my house.

Until the I-dos are done, below are some pretty pix of Schmidt’s fancy spread from back in 2006:

A Google spokesman had no comment, obviously.

Viral Video: ATD CEO Jane Lynch Is NOT Ellen DeGeneres

Kara Swisher — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:11:36 +0000

This is a very funny promo for the upcoming Emmy Awards, the annual television fest which is being hosted in September by “Glee” star Jane Lynch.

Lynch, as you recall, declared herself the acting CEO of News Corp. at the ninth D: All Things Digital conference (see that video below, too).

Now, she is apparently impersonating daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres to seal her Emmy gig.

But it’s all in good fun, folks:

[ See post to watch video ]

Viral Video: Sofia Vergara's Punk of Perfection

Kara Swisher — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 09:34:51 +0000

Let’s cut to the chase: BoomTown adores “Modern Family” actress Sofia Vergara, for her ridonkulously charming comic persona.

It’s on full display here in the hidden-camera prank she did for Ellen DeGeneres’s daytime television talk show. Her galloping like a horse will leave you in stitches.

Enjoy:

D@CES Highlights Video: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo (¡Olé!)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:01:17 +0000

Yes, like a digital Heidi Klum, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo did declare that BoomTown’s outfit was “matador casual” at the start of an interview I did with him at D@CES last Friday.

The event, which we did in cooperation with the Consumer Electronics Show, was only three sessions in one afternoon. It was followed by a lovely party, all at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

Here’s a longish highlights video of my interview with Costolo, during which we talked about a wide range of issues facing the San Francisco microblogging service, as well as his take on my fashion choice.

But let it be said, while I did not comment on his sartorial selection at the time, as you will see below, Costolo really did pull off a very smart approximation of an Ellen DeGeneres look himself.

Here’s the highlights video of Costolo–the full video will be up in a week.

The other highlights videos at D@CES will also be posted this week, with the full videos next week: Microsoft Internet Explorer head Dean Hachamovitch on Wednesday, and Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on Friday.

Enjoy:

[ See post to watch video ]

The Year in YouTube: Justin Bieber and the Bed Intruder

Liz Gannes — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:10:57 +0000

“Hide your kids, hide your wife!”–a remixed interview from a local news report was the most-watched YouTube video of 2010 (excepting major label music videos through Vevo). The catchy “Bed Intruder Song,” made by the Gregory Brothers in collaboration with accidental lyricist Antoine Dodson, has been watched more than 47 million times since being posted this summer.

In second place on YouTube’s annual Rewind list is Key of Awesome’s parody of Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok,” with 51 million views since being released in February. (The original music video by Ke$ha herself has only 34 million views on YouTube.)

And third is sixth-grader Greyson Chance’s school performance of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi,” which blew up online and scored him a record deal with Ellen DeGeneres. It’s been seen 34 million times since April.

Both the Gregory Brothers and Key of Awesome are affiliated with independent (though closely aligned with YouTube) video shop Next New Networks. And it’s notable that every one of the top three videos is musical–an original, a parody and a cover song–with two of them taking inspiration from current songs by pop stars.

Also on the 2010 most-watched Top 10: YouTube star Annoying Orange, advertising phenomenon the Old Spice guy, the Double Rainbow guy, an OK Go music video (the band left its label deal after a YouTube embedding rights spat), the “Twilight: Eclipse” trailer, a Jimmy Kimmel short involving Justin Bieber and a stunt-driving video by Ken Block.

YouTube split out major label music videos, as their viewing numbers are in a different stratosphere. Plus, the top-watched music videos list is more boring, with Bieber, Shakira, Eminem and Lady Gaga accounting for all 10 spots (and Bieber, who was discovered through YouTube, taking four of the top 10). Bieber’s video for his song “Baby,” which took the top spot, has been seen more than 408 million times since February.

Aside from videos, YouTube also released some additional stats, including its most-searched-for terms by month. YouTube has been measured as the top U.S. search engine after Google itself.

January – Haiti
February – Luge
March – eclipse trailer
April – iPad
May – Eminem Not Afraid
June – shakira waka waka
July – double rainbow
August – bed intruder
September – halo reach
October – whip my hair
November – firework

And lastly, YouTube also launched today a site aimed at the media called YouTube Trends, which explains the most viral content on the site at any one time.

AOL Officially Adds 5Min to Its Roster. Next?

Peter Kafka — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:25:52 +0000

Here’s the official press release announcing AOL’s acquisition of 5Min Media. Sources familiar with the transaction tell me it’s an all-cash deal at the high end of the $50 million to $65 million range I reported earlier today. So let’s call it $65 million.

That’s a nice outcome for 5Min’s team, and for its investors, who put in $13 million, including Globespan Capital Partners and Spark Capital. (I mistakenly identified Scott Kurnit as an angel investor in the company. He was not.) Interesting that AOL (AOL), which has extensive reach already, felt it needed to invest in a distribution play, but you can read CEO Tim Armstrong’s explanation below.

And perhaps someone can ask him about it if he makes another acquisition announcement in the near future.

AOL ACQUIRES 5MIN MEDIA, WEB’S LARGEST VIDEO CONTENT SYNDICATION PLATFORM

Combination of 5min Media and AOL’s Video Capabilities Creates Powerful
End-to-End Offering

New York, NY, September 28, 2010 – AOL Inc. [NYSE: AOL] today announced it has acquired 5min Media, the Web’s largest video syndication platform.* The acquisition allows AOL to significantly expand its consumer offering of contextually relevant, high-quality video across its sites, increasing the AOL Network’s appeal to advertisers and is expected to further enhance the distribution and monetization of AOL-produced original video content throughout the Web.** Deal terms were not disclosed.

“Our acquisition of 5min Media is the latest in a number of steps we have taken this year to better position AOL to capture the growing video opportunity on the Web,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AOL. “AOL is building a video ecosystem for the next decade. 5min Media is the perfect complement to our powerful video capabilities — it provides a missing piece in the AOL value chain that completes our end-to-end video offering from content creation through syndication and distribution to the consumer experience and monetization.”

“AOL and 5min Media share the same excitement about the direction our industry is taking, and our complementary video capabilities make us a compelling fit and an attractive combination for content creators and publishers,” said Ran Harnevo, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, 5min Media. “We’ve seen rapid and successful growth as an independent organization and becoming part of AOL is a natural next step. We’re confident that AOL’s organizational horsepower, combined with the vast library, audience and syndication capabilities 5min Media offers, present compelling opportunities for AOL as well as the content creators we work with and the publishers we serve.”

Leading Video Syndication Network and Library to Enhance AOL’s Properties

5min Media is the world’s leading video syndication network with a library of more than 200,000 categorized, tagged and rated videos from more than 1,000 of the world’s largest media companies and professional independent video producers. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City with offices in Tel Aviv, 5min Media has been named the largest U.S. independent video property by comScore, with more than 20 million unique viewers and more than 130 million video streams (including ad and content videos) in the U.S. in August 2010. 5min Media’s growing network of 800 partner sites allows content creators to reach this audience of targeted viewers across 21 different verticals, including six verticals – Home, Food, Beauty / Fashion, Health, Travel and Pets – that lead their categories, according to comScore Video Metrix, August 2010. VideoSeed, 5min Media’s proprietary semantic technology, contextually matches the most relevant videos with a partner site’s text content to enhance the consumer experience and increase monetization rates.

AOL has already begun to integrate 5min Media’s video content on its sites through a commercial agreement executed prior to the acquisition. “With 5min Media we’ll be able to add more video inventory to our pages. Importantly, we’ll also be able to identify video content holes among our sites, tap our StudioNow capabilities to fill those needs and create a truly ‘demand informed’ video library,” Armstrong said.

Combination Completes Next Step in AOL’s Value Chain

With the addition of 5min Media, AOL will significantly increase its consumer offering in video programming and connect consumers with high-quality video. In January, AOL acquired StudioNow, the premier online platform for quality video content creation and distribution. With StudioNow, AOL has formed a fully functional platform to produce high-quality video content in a rapid, cost-effective and scalable way for both AOL as well as third-party publishers. In addition, AOL is forging exciting new partnerships to provide relevant content to specific audiences, including partnering with: The Ellen DeGeneres Show; Marlo Thomas; The Jonas Group and MGX Lab to found Cambio (www.cambio.com); and A Squared Entertainment LLC to create children’s content featuring Warren Buffett, Gisele Bündchen, Martha Stewart and the late Carl Sagan.

Viral Video: The NBC Late-Night Bonfire Singes "American Idol"

Kara Swisher — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:02:37 +0000

Yesterday, BoomTown posted on the mess created by NBC over its late-night talk show wrangling.

The fracas involves Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and seemingly every dude who sits behind a desk and kisses up to celebrities for a living at the GE (GE) television network, which was just bought by Comcast (CMCSA).

As I noted: “I do love the roundelay of online videos this Tinseltown mess has created.”

And here are more, from Leno, who seems really irked by the meltdown that has tarnished his reputation, although NBC is also flacking the clip.

Also below Leno is daytime talk show queen Ellen DeGeneres, who mixed the NBC stew in with Simon Cowell announcing that he is leaving “American Idol” right before she arrives as a judge.

The laughter through the tears keeps on coming:

LENO

DEGENERES

Don't Vote! (Except, It's Celebs Being Ironic, So Do!)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:52:39 +0000

Here’s an interesting online video, in which a passel of celebrities urge young people to vote.

It begins with them urging youth not to vote, in that hipster, sarcastic, of-course-we-really-mean-you-should-vote-you-dope tone.

The nonpartisan PSA–well, honestly, it does lean decidedly liberal–has been produced by actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and includes DiCaprio, Jennifer Aniston, Dustin Hoffman, Eva Longoria, Forest Whitaker, Ellen DeGeneres, among others.

Also, inexplicably, comic Sarah Silverman taking off her bra to prompt young people into civic action.

And if that’s not reason enough to prompt you to register to vote–deadlines are looming for the upcoming election–and get to the voting booths on Nov. 4, BoomTown does not know what is.

Here’s the video:

Viral Video: Hawaii Chair and Kung-Fuing the Panda

Kara Swisher — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:30:49 +0000

I dare you not to laugh at this video from Ellen DeGeneres’s show, which was put up several months ago, but is suddenly enjoying a lot of popularity on the Web.

The video speaks for itself, but it has DeGeneres trying out a thing called a Hawaii chair:

And this is a different kind of funny–warning, it is a aimed directly at teenage boys, including using one to guide the proceedings–from the MTV Movie Awards this week. It features Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Ben Stiller trying to make a viral video for their upcoming movie, “Tropic Thunder.”

Here’s the video: