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	<title>AllThingsD &#187; Tornante Company</title>
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		<title>Trading Card Company Topps Buys Facebook's Gift Card Provider</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20110726/trading-card-company-topps-buys-facebooks-gift-card-provider/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20110726/trading-card-company-topps-buys-facebooks-gift-card-provider/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tricia Duryee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Commerce]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Best Buy]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[gift cards]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://allthingsd.com/?p=102490</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Topps, maker of the trading cards from childhood, is expanding into digital goods with the purchase of GMG Entertainment, the gift card provider for Facebook.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.topps.com/">Topps</a>, the company known for the trading cards from childhood, is expanding into digital goods with the purchase of <a href="http://gmg-entertainment.com/gmg/">GMG Entertainment</a>, the gift card provider for Facebook.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-102527" title="FacebookCredits_giftcards" src="http://allthingsd.com/files/2011/07/FacebookCredits_giftcards-380x166.png" alt="" width="380" height="166" />Terms of the deal were not disclosed.</p>
<p>GMG is a publisher of digital currency cards and works closely with Facebook to manage, distribute, market and manufacture the cards.</p>
<p>The cards, which are sold at major retailers including Best Buy, RadioShack, Target and GameStop, are good for Facebook Credits, which is the digital currency used inside all games on the social network.</p>
<p>The digital currency market is growing as more games are played online for free and give players the option of buying virtual goods inside the game. Rather than having to enter a credit card number online, game cards can be conveniently purchased in cash and redeemed online. Another big player in the industry is Atlanta-based <a href="http://www.incomm.com/aboutus.do">InComm</a>.</p>
<p>Topps, which was acquired and taken private by Michael Eisner&#8217;s Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners in 2007, says it will leverage the acquisition to enter the digital currency market, while bringing manufacturing, design and collectibility skills to digital currency cards.</p>
<p>Rob Goldberg, the CEO of GMG, will become the VP and general manager of the digital currency business, reporting to Topps CEO Ryan O&#8217;Hara. GMG will represent the company&#8217;s third business division in addition to trading cards and confections, such as Bazooka bubble gum.</p>
<p>GMG&#8217;s other executives, Tim Pechmann and Jeff Mickeal, will also join Topps.</p>
<p>GMG works with about 45 clients, including the NFL and game companies like THQ.</p>
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		<title>Veoh&#039;s Dmitry Shapiro Speaks!</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20080623/veohs-dmitry-shapiro-speaks/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20080623/veohs-dmitry-shapiro-speaks/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:30:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Media]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=2210</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Recently, while I was at a conference in Los Angeles, I caught up with Veoh Founder Dmitry Shapiro.

BoomTown will be focusing a lot on online video this year and Veoh is one of the several online video sharing sites--a group of smaller players that includes sites like Joost, Hulu, Dailymotion, Vimeo and others that I like to call not-YouTube.

Still, it is making progress.

Today, the Los Angeles-based Veoh announced that the ABC television network would put full episodes of its hot primetime shows--such as "Ugly Betty" (love it) and "Desperate Housewives" (not so much)--up on the site.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/06/veohlogo1.jpg"><img src="http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/06/veohlogo1.jpg" alt="" title="veohlogo1" width="200" height="74" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2211" /></a></p>
<p>Recently, while I was at a conference in Los Angeles, I caught up with <a href="http://www.veoh.com">Veoh</a> Founder Dmitry Shapiro.</p>
<p>BoomTown will be focusing a lot on online video this year and Veoh is one of the several online video-sharing sites&#8211;a group of smaller players that includes sites like Joost, Hulu, Dailymotion, Vimeo and others that I like to call <em>not-YouTube</em>.</p>
<p>But there are pluses to not being the Google-owned (GOOG) video behemoth, in that major entertainment companies who want to figure out how to put their content online aren&#8217;t wondering all day long whether to hug or sue you (or both if you are Sumner Redstone).</p>
<p>Today, for example, the Los Angeles-based Veoh announced that the ABC (DIS) television network would put full episodes of its hot prime-time shows&#8211;such as &#8220;Ugly Betty&#8221; (love it) and &#8220;Desperate Housewives&#8221; (not so much)&#8211;up on the site on a non-exclusive basis.</p>
<p>While Veoh has a lot of short, user-generated material, it has also made a push to get more professional material from big media companies like CBS (CBS)&#8211;which wins kudos for being the most promiscuous of networks&#8211;on its service.</p>
<p>Interestingly in this deal, media connections seem at play here: Disney-owned ABC is giving over content to Veoh, which has former Disney poobah Michael Eisner as one of its principal investors.</p>
<p>The traffic-type deal is typical&#8211;Veoh gets paid to send audience to ABC&#8217;s site or gets it to use ABC&#8217;s really nice player, and ABC tries to monetize it. Veoh currently says it has 28 million unique monthly visitors.</p>
<p>Of course, Veoh is also trying to figure out that nettlesome monetization issue that all online video sites face, which centers on building audience with the attractive big media content and then getting them to watch other ad-supported fare on its site.</p>
<p>But, as with all video sites, it is still in the early stages and, thus, Veoh got another tidy pile of new funding just two weeks ago to help it muddle through.</p>
<p>That would be $30 million more to add to the kitty of about $40 million previously raised.</p>
<p>Along with existing investors&#8211;Shelter Capital Partners, Spark Capital, Goldman Sachs (GS), Eisner&#8217;s Tornante Company, Tom Freston&#8217;s Firefly3, Time Warner (TWX) Investments and Jonathan Dolgen&#8211;Veoh&#8217;s latest round included Intel Capital, Adobe Systems (ADBE) and also media and tech investor Gordon Crawford.</p>
<p>I talked to Shapiro, who now serves as Veoh&#8217;s chief innovation officer, about the money and more here:</p>
<p><div class="video-wsj"><embed src="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/microPlayer.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoGUID={1612819791}&playerid=4001&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://m.wsj.net/video-players/&autoStart=false" base="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/" name="microflashPlayer" width="320" height="240" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><br />[ See post to watch video ]</div></p>
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		<title>Yahoo Players Burkle, Icahn, Crawford and Also the Web Make Some News (Some, Not So Good)</title>
		<link>http://allthingsd.com/20080604/yahoo-players-burkle-icahn-crawford-and-also-the-web-make-some-news-some-not-so-good/</link>
		<comments>http://allthingsd.com/20080604/yahoo-players-burkle-icahn-crawford-and-also-the-web-make-some-news-some-not-so-good/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:06:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kara Swisher</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080604/yahoo-players-burkle-icahn-crawford-and-also-the-web-make-some-news-some-not-so-good/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You would have to have been under a rock not to have heard about the controversial piece in Vanity Fair magazine this month about the troubling personal and professional escapades of former President Bill Clinton since he left office.

And the reason for these disturbing developments, besides Clinton himself? The piece actually placed a good bit of the blame on Clinton's close friend, grocery magnate and billionaire Ron Burkle, who also has been one of the key directors at Yahoo in its takeover fight with Microsoft.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>You would have to have been under a rock not to have heard about the controversial piece in Vanity Fair magazine this month about the escapades of former President Bill Clinton since he left office.</p>
<p>Called <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/07/clinton200807">&#8220;The Comeback Id&#8221;</a> (oh, how <em>pun-ny</em>!), the article has gotten a lot of attention for pointing out the rampant speculation that Clinton&#8217;s well-known penchant for marital infidelity had returned.</p>
<p><img src='http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/01/ron_burkle_thumb.jpg' alt='ronburkle' /></p>
<p>And the reason for that disturbing development, besides Clinton himself? The piece actually placed a good bit of the blame on Clinton&#8217;s close friend, grocery magnate and billionaire Ron Burkle (pictured here), who also has been one of the key directors at Yahoo (YHOO) in its takeover fight with Microsoft (MSFT).</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a wonder Burkle can focus on the turmoil at Yahoo, given how busy he appears to be in the article corrupting Clinton both personally and&#8211;worse&#8211;professionally, via some questionable investments the pair had made through Burkle&#8217;s Yucaipa Companies.</p>
<p>Writer Todd Purdum paints a decidedly unattractive picture of Burkle, noting even the tasteless nickname of Burkle&#8217;s plane these days, in a portrayal so rough that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang&#8217;s tough treatment by the press recently looks like a walk in the park.</p>
<p><img src='http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/06/ob-bo139_msyaho_20080603143450.jpg' alt='carlicahn' class='alignleft' /></p>
<p>Well, almost.</p>
<p>In what amounts to a rant by Carl Icahn (pictured here), <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121251736489942015.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news">The Wall Street Journal gives the billionaire investor lots of room to kvetch</a> about what he thinks of Yang, including asserting that he will oust the Yahoo founder if he wins his proxy fight against the company.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am amazed at the lengths that Jerry Yang and the board went to entrench themselves in this situation,&#8221; said Icahn.</p>
<p>Apparently, Icahn was the only one who didn&#8217;t get the memo that Yahoo has been consistently obstreperous about Microsoft&#8217;s many overtures, since&#8211;well, let&#8217;s do the exact calculations&#8211;<em>forever</em>. And a day.</p>
<p>Still, Icahn perseveres and hangs this old entrenched management chestnut on a lawsuit that was recently filed by shareholders that points to the <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080219/retaining-yahoo-talent-enhanced-severance/">massive and costly severance plan</a> Yahoo sneakily put into place as a ploy to fend off Microsoft.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no longer a mystery to me why Microsoft&#8217;s offer isn&#8217;t around,&#8221; Icahn said. &#8220;How can Yahoo keep saying they&#8217;re willing to negotiate and sell the company on the one hand, while at the same time they&#8217;re completely sabotaging the process without telling anyone.&#8221;</p>
<p>How? By Yang opening his mouth, that&#8217;s how, and then doing nothing much.</p>
<p>As a student of this lugubrious style of Olympic dithering, I would point Icahn to Yang&#8217;s <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071025/day-100/">100-day Sacred Cow VisionQuest</a>, well before this soap opera got started.</p>
<p>You need to catch up pronto, Carl!</p>
<p><img src='http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/05/crawford.jpg' alt='gordoncrawford' /></p>
<p>And speaking of people irked by Yang of late, investor Gordon Crawford (pictured here) also made some news yesterday with his investment in Veoh Networks, part of a $30 million round that included Intel Capital and Adobe Systems (ADBE).</p>
<p>Existing investors in the not-YouTube video service&#8211;Shelter Capital, Spark Capital, Goldman Sachs (GS), Michael Eisner’s Tornante Company, Time Warner Investments (TWX) and Jonathan Dolgen&#8211;also ponied up more money.</p>
<p>Crawford, the SVP of Capital Research Global Investors, manages a massive portfolio, and it is one of Yahoo&#8217;s biggest shareholders.</p>
<p>And, unlike Veoh, Yahoo is an investment <a href="http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080506/a-history-lesson-for-jerry-yang-it-sticks-in-my-crawford/">Crawford has not been happy with recently</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am extremely angry at Jerry Yang and at the so-called independent board,&#8221; he said in an interview a month ago. &#8220;I&#8217;m hoping that there is such an outpouring of outrage that the board is embarrassed into revisiting this thing, but I&#8217;m not optimistic about that.&#8221;</p>
<p>And by independent board, by the way, he meant directors like&#8211;you guessed it&#8211;Ron Burkle!</p>
<p>At least Burkle&#8217;s not to blame for the so-so, lots-and-lots-missing&#8211;<em>Google? What Google? (GOOG)</em>&#8211;piece in the same Vanity Fair issue, an oral history of the Internet.</p>
<p>Called <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/07/internet200807">&#8220;How the Web Was Won,&#8221;</a> it makes the founding of the world&#8217;s most important medium seem awfully dull.</p>
<p><img src='http://kara.allthingsd.com/files/2008/06/cover_vanityfair_146_053008.jpg' alt='vfjolie' class='alignleft' /></p>
<p>I&#8217;d recommend instead&#8211;as any sentient being would&#8211;the <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/07/jolie200807">cover story on Angelina Jolie</a>, with this sharp quote from her: &#8220;In my father&#8217;s generation, the product was 80% of what you were putting into the world, and your personal life was 20%. It now seems that 80% of the product I put out is silly, made-up stories and what I&#8217;m wearing.&#8221;</p>
<p>Or not wearing, in the case of the pictures of Jolie in this article.</p>
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