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It’s called YouToo and it bills itself as “the first Social TV Network.” and it’s definitely not to be confused with … well, those other guys.  And while it shares similar characteristics of a video streaming service, it also allows users to provide user generated content which can interact with its on air cable programming.  And now it’s signed a deal to provide content through Facebook.

Originally launched in 2011, the network has also been getting social content through their iOS and Android apps, which allow users to record up to 15 seconds and then send it straight to network.  To date, YouToo has broadcast nearly 100,000 user videos that are linked to their schedule of programming.

Whether via the iPhone app or through the Facebook recording portal, once the video is approved for network airing, the network takes a cool step in sending users an email giving them the date and time of the video’s premiere.  Users can also get an “aircheck” of the video as it appeared live on the air, which can then be shared via Facebook.   YouToo-ers can also record “Fame Spots,” which answer on air questions from the show being aired, “Peoplemercials,” keep track of how many times they’ve appeared on the channel, and if too shy to get in front of the camera, they can always “text to TV.”

Current programs that users can “crash,” include the cult 90′s sci-fi hit “The X-Files,” 60′s Saturday morning shows “Batman” and “The Green Hornet,” adventure series Adrenalina, and DIY shows such as Kip Kay and Howcast.  Revision3, which was recently bought by Discovery Communications also has several shows on the network, but you can bet that they will disappear soon after TDC takes command.  And there’s even their own reality show called “Say Yes and Marry Me,” where users can upload their own marriage proposals for broadcast of the ultimate engagement request.

And while YouToo is available in over 15 million cable households in America, it is by no means primarily a television network.  In fact, CEO Chris Wyatt says that the network is more of a test bed to try out out of the box software ideas.  The basic idea is to take the most popular applications and market them to companies that can turn around and customize them for their own applications.

“Youtoo is a software company that just happens to have a TV network as its testbed,” said Wyatt.

This isn’t the only application that interacts with television.  As any viewer will notice watching TV shows today, many are displaying “hashtags” (#) for their episode content in the hopes of motivating viewers to post comments on Twitter to push a narrative outside of the viewing experience. In addition, reality show host Jeff Probst is known to field questions and give away buffs from Survivor on a video app called TOUT.

But YouToo seems to be the first to actually offer interaction on-air between the audience and the programming they watch.   Started by reality TV mogul Mark Burnett.  “The amazing thing about YouToo,” says Burnett, “is that you are never more than three clicks away from being on network television.”

But you can bet that they’re destined for a name change, as Google should be suing over the name in 5-4-3 ….

Hat Tip – Mashable

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By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) – Electronic Arts Inc lost its bid to be dismissed from a lawsuit accusing the video game company of involvement in an NCAA conspiracy to prevent college athletes from being paid.

Plaintiffs led by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon had accused the National Collegiate Athletic Association and its marketing company of violating U.S. antitrust law by conspiring to force students to sign away their ability to profit commercially from playing college sports.

Arguing that the company is profiting improperly from using their images and likenesses in its games, the plaintiffs said EA agreed to abide by NCAA rules preventing student-athletes from being paid, even after finishing their collegiate eligibility.

EA asked that it be dismissed from the case. It claimed that its licensing agreements neither apply to former student-athletes, nor show any promise “to price-fix, boycott, or otherwise refuse to deal” with former student-athletes.

But in a Wednesday order, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, California let the plaintiffs pursue antitrust claims against the Redwood City, California-based company.

The licensing agreements “can fairly be read to evidence a ‘meeting of the minds’ between EA and the other defendants not to compensate former student-athletes, where such a contract would interfere with the student-athletes’ existing agreements with the NCAA,” she wrote.

“Further, the agreements give broad authority to the (marketing company) and NCAA to inspect EA’s financial records related to the products, allowing them to see that payments were almost never made to former student-athletes,” she added.

EA spokesman John Reseburg declined to comment. Jon King, a lawyer for plaintiffs in the case, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

While many college athletes receive scholarships, strict NCAA rules bar them from sharing in the millions of dollars that schools receive from television and licensing deals. EA produces games based on NCAA basketball and football.

Wilken had in May 2011 dismissed the plaintiffs’ original antitrust claims against EA, but let the plaintiffs amend their complaint to add facts that might suggest a conspiracy. Wednesday’s decision allows the amended complaint to go forward.

EA has also faced lawsuits by former athletes over its alleged unauthorized use of their images in its video games.

Among those athletes is Samuel Keller, a former quarterback for Arizona State University and the University of Nebraska. Keller is also a plaintiff in the litigation before Judge Wilken. His claims were not addressed in Wednesday’s decision.

On Wednesday, EA settled separate litigation in which rival Activision Blizzard Inc <ATVI.O> accused two former executives who developed the “Call of Duty” video game of breaking their employment agreements to develop games for EA. [ID:nL1E8GH00D]

The case is In re: NCAA Student-Athlete Name & Likeness Licensing Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 09-01967.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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By Alexei Oreskovic and Olivia Oran - SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Facebook Inc is set to raise up to $18.4 billion in its IPO and become the first U.S. company to be worth more than $100 billion at its debut, as investors bet on a big pop in the stock when it begins trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. Frenzied demand, especially from individual investors hoping to buy into an Internet juggernaut that touches hundreds of millions of people every day, is expected to drive Facebook well above its initial public offering price of $38 a share, which was already at the top end of its target of $34 to $38.

Analysts were divided on how high the price might go on the first day of trade, with some expecting a relatively modest gain of 10 percent to 20 percent while others said anything short of a 50 percent jump would be disappointing.

“It will be bananas tomorrow,” said Greencrest Capital analyst Max Wolff. “This is all about the future, so it really is a lottery ticket.

“The stock could initially rise and then it could go parabolic on a wave of retail investor hope. These shares are going to trade on hope. I do not know how to value hope,” said Wolff.

Facebook is selling an up to 18 percent stake in the company at a valuation of $104 billion, comparable to the market worth of Amazon.com Inc, and exceeding that of Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc combined.

The highly anticipated offering, the largest by a U.S. Internet company and the second-largest in U.S. history after Visa Inc, vaults the eight-year-old Facebook to the front ranks of corporate America.

It will give 28-year-old Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, who started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, a net worth of nearly $20 billion.

Enthusiasm for Facebook shares comes despite questions about the company’s long-term money-making capabilities, particularly after it reported a quarter-to-quarter revenue slide in April.

Others warn that the price tag, equivalent to over 100 times historical earnings versus Apple Inc’s 14 times and Google Inc’s 19 times, makes Facebook a risky bet.

“I think they’ll make money – it will just take them a little bit longer because they’re pioneering new ways for advertisers to reach customers,” said Walter Price, a portfolio manager at RCM Capital Management. “It’s not like there’s a simple formula. They have to try different things.”

“It shouldn’t be a surprise to people that the growth rate is going to moderate over the next couple of years,” he said, adding that he expects the stock to trade at around $42 on Friday, which would be an 11 percent gain.

HAVES, AND HAVE-NOTS

Wall Street’s top brokerages fought tooth-and-nail to ensure their wealthiest and most reliable clients got a slice of the IPO. Those with big accounts and a long history as customers likely got first dibs, and would-be buyers who had no such ties were lucky to get any, industry sources said.

A Morgan Stanley Smith Barney adviser based in the northeast said he saw internal figures that showed the firm had more than 60,000 orders for the IPO from 6,600 brokers in over 570 offices – eclipsing a more typical 500 brokers in 300 offices.

The brokerage arm of Morgan Stanley — the lead underwriter on the IPO and therefore expected to get the most shares — initially capped the number each retail client account could receive to 500 shares, which was lower than Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s ceiling of 2,000 shares.

But Morgan Stanley Smith Barney emailed its wealth advisers late on Thursday afternoon to say that it had raised the cap to 5,000 shares, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I am sure they were getting calls,” said Alois Pirker, research director at Aite Group LLC. “One of the advantages of being a lead underwriter is that you get preferential treatment. I am sure there were some wealthy individuals who were wondering if it would be better to be with Merrill Lynch.”

A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, a venture with Citigroup Inc, declined to comment.

For most retail investors, their first chance to invest in Facebook, which has some 900 million users, will be on Friday, when they risk getting trampled by institutional funds.

Financial advisers are warning that if the stock skyrockets, the average person might end up getting orders filled at a price much higher than they wanted and then face the possibility of losses as funds steamroll in and then zip back out, taking the price off its highs.

But these warnings are largely falling on deaf ears.

“A lot of retail investors are not concerned about valuation. That’s what is going to drive the first-day pop,” said Jim Krapfel, analyst at Morningstar. “I think anything over 50 percent will be considered a successful offering — anything under that would be underwhelming.”

CHALLENGES REMAIN

Facebook shares will begin trading at around 11 a.m. on Friday, when the well-known brand could attract enough interest to exceed the 458 million shares traded the day General Motors went public after emerging from bankruptcy in 2010.

Facebook will celebrate its Wall Street debut with an all-night “hackathon” at its Menlo Park, California, headquarters starting on Thursday evening, a tradition in which programmers work on side projects that sometimes turn into mainstream offerings.

Zuckerberg, fictionalized in the Oscar-winning 2010 film “The Social Network,” will control roughly 56 percent of the company’s voting shares after the offering.

His majority control has raised flags among some investors, uneasy with ceding so much power to the “hoodie”-wearing executive who wrote in a letter to potential shareholders that “we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.”

Facebook also faces challenges maintaining its growth momentum. Some investors worry the company has not yet figured out a way to make money from the growing number of users who access Facebook on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Meanwhile, revenue growth from Facebook’s online advertising business, which accounts for the bulk of its revenue, has slowed in recent months.

One UBS adviser initially received calls from 12 clients clamoring to buy shares of Facebook, but over the past couple of weeks, two have changed their minds.

“A lot of people are thrown off by the recent negative stories in the press,” the adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “One guy was worried about General Motors stopping its advertising on Facebook.”

GM said on Tuesday it would stop placing ads on Facebook, raising questions about whether display ads on the site are as effective as traditional media.

Overall, financial advisers are struggling to manage clients’ expectations about what the stock will do and in some cases, if they will be able to get any stock for them.

This week, Facebook increased the size of its IPO by almost 25 percent to 421 million shares, or a 15 percent stake in the company — a day after hiking its target price range about 14 percent.

If a greenshoe option for underwriters is exercised, as expected, the stake sold increases to 18 percent, raising north of $18.4 billion.

More than half of the proceeds of the IPO will go to existing shareholders, including early backers such as Accel Partners and Russia’s DST Global.

The more bullish had expected Facebook to price at $40 per share. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell by more than 2 percent on Thursday, quelling such optimism.

“I expect it to open at a nice premium, but I don’t expect a LinkedIn-type performance because of the sheer size of this IPO,” said Scott Sweet of research firm IPO Boutique.

Shares of professional networking company LinkedIn Corp doubled on their first day of trading.

Lee Simmons, industry specialist at Dun & Bradstreet, forecast a 10 percent to 20 percent gain for Facebook on Friday.

“You’ve got a large offering at an increased price, so a huge pop may be difficult to achieve,” Simmons said. “When you’re talking about doubling or a pop the size of LinkedIn…, the others were smaller floats, under 10 percent, so you had this artificial feeding frenzy.”

Facebook has 33 underwriters for the IPO, led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Toonkel and David Gaffen in New York, Alistair Barr and Edwin Chan in San Francisco, Writing by Edwin Chan, Editing by Tiffany Wu, Phil Berlowitz, Steve Orlofsky and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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By Ronald Grover - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The big-budget action film “Battleship“, produced by Comcast’s Universal Pictures, is shaping up to become the next film to fall victim to “The Avengers‘” record box office march. (Editor’s note: Check out our story on how much money it’s made internationally.)

Universal’s new sci-fi blockbuster, which opens on May 18 in 3,690 U.S. and Canadian theaters, is projected to rake in ticket sales of $35 million to $40 million over its first weekend, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com’s box office division.

“The Avengers,” which had ticket sales of $395.8 million through May 14, is expected to again top weekend movies for a third consecutive week with $50 million, he said.

Last weekend, Marvel’s super-hero franchise-builder surprised experts by cutting into the expected weekend ticket sales of “Dark Shadows,” starring Johnny Depp, which took just $29.7 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

“The Avengers” grossed $103 million, the first Hollywood film to cross $100 million in its second weekend.

“‘Avengers’ is making us throw our tracking out the window,” said one person familiar with studio tracking.

Starring Liam Neeson and the singer Rihanna, “Battleship” is loosely based on the Hasbro game.

“Battleship” needs to generate more than $50 million in weekend ticket sales to break even, said analyst Tony Wible, a managing director at Janney Montgomery Scott, who does not follow Comcast but compiles a data base to predict film performances.

Wible follows Paramount parent company Viacom, Dreamworks Animation, Walt Disney, and Time Warner, the parent company for Warner Brothers.

A large-budget film like “Battleship” usually generates domestic ticket sales of three times its opening weekend, according to Wible. Studios on average get half of box office sales. Universal contends it spent $209 million to make its special-effects laden film.

It also spent more than $100 million to market it, according to people with knowledge of Hollywood spending.

Next week, “Battleship” must also contend with the third installment of Will Smith’s futuristic comedy “Men in Black.” The last one in the series, in 2002, generated $190.4 million in domestic ticket sales.

“‘Battleship’ is a big, fun popcorn movie that has done well overseas and we hope will provide the same entertainment in North America,” said a Universal spokeswoman.

Universal decided to release “Battleship” early abroad, and has generated $220 million in 63 foreign markets since its April 11 debut, the studio said. Industry sources say it is on track to generate $250 million in those markets.

“The international strategy was a smart one,” said Dergarabedian. “$220 million gives them boost toward covering the negative (production) costs of the film.”

(Reporting By Ronald Grover; Editing by Michael Perry)

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rock band Van Halen on Thursday postponed more than 30 concert dates of their U.S. summer tour, leading to speculation the “Runnin’ with the Devil” group was feuding again.

The band’s official website, van-halen.com, took down all its dates after June 26, listing only 15 more shows, ending in New Orleans. Closely-watched fan site, Van Halen News Desk, said 31 dates had been postponed, starting on July 7 in Uncasville, Connecticut and ending on September 25 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

A spokeswoman for the group had no official statement about the postponements and declined further comment. The band began the current tour in mid-February.

Rolling Stone said a source with knowledge of the tour told the magazine, “the band is arguing like mad. They are fighting.” But that could not be confirmed and throughout its current tour there have been no public reports of the band mates arguing.

But if they are, it would not be the first time.

Van Halen was among the biggest rock acts of the late 1970s and early 1980s with hits like “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” “Jump,” “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher.”

When they were at the height of their fame, however, lead singer David Lee Roth had a falling out with the rest of the band members, and Sammy Hagar was brought in to join bothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony.

Over the years, the band’s makeup changed and this past January, they announced a new tour and album with Roth singing, marking Van Halen’s first full album with Roth since their “1984″ CD was released on December 31, 1983.

Anthony, the original bassist, has been replaced by Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s son, for the current tour.

Roth has rejoined the band before, once for a performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996 and a second time to tour in 2007-2008. Interestingly, the posting on Van Halen News Desk – vnhd.com – noted the tour dates were “postponed, not canceled,” and that the 2007-2008 tour also had postponed dates that were ultimately rescheduled.

The abrupt postponements also raise questions about guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s health. In 2000, he began treatment for cancer in his tongue, but after later surgery, he was declared cancer-free in May 2002.

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte, Editing by Jill Serjeant)

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(Reuters) – Comcast Corp said on Thursday it will introduce a trial for usage-based billing for its Internet subscribers in a move seen to pre-empt more complaints the cable company favors its own Web video service over rivals.

Usage-based pricing would allow Comcast to charge its customers for the amount of data they use with a utility meter rather than pay a flat fee like they do today. Currently, that flat fee is priced on Internet speed and also features a 250 GB data cap each month.

Comcast, the No.1 U.S. residential Internet service provider, said the cap would now be raised to 300 GB for those in the usage trial, the equivalent of downloading about 50 high definition movies. It did not give a time frame for the trial which will take place in two of its markets.

Comcast executive vice president Cathy Avgiris said the average Comcast customer doesn’t come close to its current limits.

Executives on a conference call said the changes were being made to adapt to a changing marketplace and technology, but several industry watchers pointed to a recent high profile complaint by Netflix as a possible reason for the move.

In April, Netflix Inc Chief Executive Reed Hastings raised concerns that Comcast was favoring its own Xfinity TV app on the X-box because watching TV through the app did not contribute to a user’s Internet cap.

Comcast senior vice president David Cohen said the decision had nothing to do with Netflix or Xfinity.

Crucially in markets which are not part of its trial, the company will suspend enforcement of its current 250 GB cap.

Internet usage-based pricing has previously been a controversial subject for ISPs, particularly Comcast and the No.2 cable operator Time Warner Cable.

Time Warner Cable was forced to cancel a trial of Internet usage-based billing after an uproar in 2009 when customers thought they were being overcharged.

In February, Time Warner Cable launched another trial with more flexible pricing.

Comcast for its part will be keen to avoid sparking a regulatory inquiry into its pricing or business practices — given that it has been on a relatively short leash on Capitol Hill since it took control of NBC Universal last year.

Cohen said caps would be a thing of the past. “Today, we’re getting out of the cap business.”

But the company did immediately allay long held suspicions usage-based pricing is a way to charge higher fees to customers.

“The notion Comcast would charge an exorbitant rate for additional bandwidth — while continuing to exempt its own traffic under its Xbox deal — illustrates Comcast is really trying to discourage subscribers from experimenting with online video alternatives,” said Joel Kelsey of Free Press, an advocacy group.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke in New York and Jasmin Melvin and Washington D.C.; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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Dimension Films announced that Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For will open October 4, 2013, and Mickey Rourke and Jessica Alba will return to co-star in the film. The great Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller will co-write and co-direct, with William Monahan contributing to the script.

While the first film focused on three different Sin City stories, this one will focus on Miller’s second graphic novel, A Dame To Kill For, which is almost a prequel to the first comics, and primarily follows the character of Dwight (played by Clive Owen earlier, likely to return), and includes Marv (Rourke), Nancy (Alba) and many of those seen in the 2005 movie. You can bet other actors will return, including Rosario Dawson as Gail. I remember reading this graphic novel while I was in high school in the 1990s; it’s gritty and violent, and ups the ante from Miller’s first book.

The first Sin City was groundbreaking in its visuals, with Rodriguez and Miller using panels and dialogue from the comics for storyboards and the script, respectively, and the overall look was very much like the comics. I remember watching the movie on DVD with a friend, and we went back and paused it, and I showed her the first graphic novel, and everything in the film lined up with the award-winning comic. It’s too bad Miller’s adaptation of The Spirit was a bad film that basically copied his and Rodriguez’ Sin City graphic novel look.

Heck, the Sin City comics, at the time, were different than anything out there at the time, and the movie worked, overall, though I’d argue Marv’s story with Kevin (Elijah Wood) had dialogue that didn’t quite translate as well to film as the rest of the stories did.

According to Deadline, the film will start shooting sometime this summer in Rodriguez’ hometown of Austin, Texas, via his company Troublemaker Studios, with Dimension Films releasing the film. I’m really looking forward to this sequel, and wonder what other Sin City stories will be incorporated into the movie. Also, Rodriguez is making a sequel to Machete, as well.

Hat tip: Deadline

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Only the most cynical, disenchanted film fan would condemn Battleship as being yet another example of studio short sightedness.

Of course, it is exactly this kind of contrived, jingoistic, sensory pollution, masquerading as family entertainment that has caused that inherent distrust of Hollywood to manifest itself into the public consciousness.

But, enough if what I think. There are many youngsters out there who get quite excited at the thought of board game which is completely devoid of narrative or story being turned into a film with even less merit than it’s cardboard predecessor.

And, this is reflected in its international performance, as despite having to contend with the mite of The Avengers, which is the summer’s first big smash hit, Battleship’s gross in cinemas outside the U.S. is a respectable $215-million, released a month prior to its domestic debut.

Assuming that all those people who went to see the film were not taken against their will, the signs look promising for its American release.

In fact, the question of whether it is successful or not, is a far more interesting proposition than the film itself, because it could spawn a whole decade of mindless imitations, if it does indeed post a sizeable return from it’s $200-million budget.

Let’s not forget that this is not the first film based on a toy or board game. But, while He-Man and Transformers were clearly thought up in the midst of some kind of homophobic, cold war paranoia; Battleship has set a new precedent in the world of dumb cinema.

Universal obviously saw there was a gap in the summer market for a big stupid movie and went for it with all guns blazing. In fact, I kind of admire that.

Let’s just hope that the blockbuster landscape of the next decade is influenced more by The Avengers than it is Battleship.

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Summer, who won five Grammys and sold more than 130 million records worldwide, died surrounded by her family in Naples, Florida, publicist Brian Edwards said.

Edwards said she died of cancer but he declined to comment on a report from celebrity website TMZ.com that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

“Early this morning, surrounded by family, we lost Donna Summer Sudano, a woman of many gifts, the greatest being her faith. While we grieve her passing, we are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy,” the singer’s family said in a statement.

Summer, known as the queen of disco, had three children and married twice. Her second husband, musician Bruce Sudano, was at her bedside, Edwards said.

She began her career in Germany where she performed in productions of the shows “Hair” and “Porgy and Bess” and worked as a studio session singer.

But it wasn’t until 1975 that she found fame with the moaning vocals and grinding beat of “Love to Love You Baby” that was a huge, but controversial, hit in European nightclubs.

Summer followed up with a string of other disco tunes in the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, including “Last Dance,” “Hot Stuff,” “Bad Girls,” “I Feel Love” and her cover version of the ballad “MacArthur Park,” which was her first No. 1 record in the United States in 1978.

In 1983, she scored a massive hit with “She Works Hard for the Money,” as she sought to branch out of the disco genre.

Summer’s recording career declined in the 1990s, but she sang at Nobel Peace Prize concert in Norway in 2009 in honor of Nobel laureate, U.S. President Barack Obama.

Her family asked on Thursday that fans make donations in Summer’s honor to the Salvation Army.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy and Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Cynthia Osterman)

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(Reuters) – Apple Inc plans to power its main, North Carolina data center entirely with renewable energy sources by the end of this year, taking steps to address longstanding environmental concerns about the rapid expansion of high-consuming computer server farms.

On Thursday, the makers of the iPhone and iPad said it was building two solar array installations in and around Maiden, North Carolina, with the ability to supply 84 million kWh of energy annually.

Those sites will use high-efficiency solar cells and an advanced solar tracking system. Apple did not mention which companies will supply the equipment needed. Later in 2012, it also intends to build a third, smaller bio-gas fuel-cell plant.

(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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By Sharon Waxman - LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Judd Apatow, the modern master of human-scale comedy, sat down with TheWrap to review the Universal Studios archive in honor of the studio’s 100-year anniversary this year.

The writer-director of “Knocked Up,” producer of “Bridesmaids” and director of the upcoming “This is 40” was imprinted early and often by the comedies produced by the Universal machine, from Abbott and Costello to John Hughes’ “Sixteen Candles.”

Here’s a trip down into the vault with one of our era’s most fearless, tasteless unfettered explorers of the human condition.

“DUCK SOUP”

Directed by Leo McCarey, 1933

“When I think about Universal movies going back to my childhood, what formed me as a person interested in comedy, the first movie that had an impact was ‘Duck Soup.’”

“I was a fanatical Marx Brothers fan as a 10-year-old kid. It might have been because I loved their rebellion – it seemed like they were flipping the bird to everyone. As a small non-athletic person, I loved that they were weird guys who were telling all the great-looking people in power to f–k off. They were laughing at the rules and pointing out how ridiculous most of it was. As a nerdy, geeky kid, I must have been mad at the rules in my world.”

“ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN”

Directed by Charles Barton, 1948

“I was obsessed with them. When I was seven or eight years old, all of those Abbott and Costello movies were shown every weekend in New York. On Saturday and Sunday, they ran every weekend, it wasn’t random. Movies like ‘Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.’ ‘Buck Privates’ (1941) had the Andrews Sisters in it. To this day I’m telling my daughter about the Andrews Sisters – it’s the movie where they sang ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.’ They were funny. The whole dynamic of the angry guy being mad at the goofy guy totally worked for me.”

“When I was older, Universal made the great comedies that defined my childhood: ‘Animal House,’ ‘The Blues Brothers,’ ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High,’ ‘Back to the Future,’ ‘Sixteen Candles.’ These were the movies that made me want to go into comedy.”

“FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH”

Directed by Amy Heckerling, 1982

“I don’t think there’s anything I’ve done that hasn’t been influenced by ‘Fast Times.’ It combined very realistic high-school behavior with high comedy. It had this incredible performance by Sean Pean as Spicoli, but also a dramatic storyline where Jennifer Jason Leigh gets pregnant and has an abortion. It combined drama and comedy in way I hadn’t seen before, one that reflected my life. When it came out in 1982, I was in high school. I always refer back to it. That tone was the tone that we always try to hit.”

“ANIMAL HOUSE”

Directed by John Landis, 1978

“I remember seeing ‘Animal House’ with my mom. Sitting there with her, a few scenes in that movie were the most embarrassing moments in my life.”

“Like the scene where John Belushi is looking in the window at the topless sorority girls. I was 11. And I had an awareness that a lot of these people in the movie were friends – ‘Animal House,’ ‘Blues Brothers’ were connected to ‘Saturday Night Live’ and ‘National Lampoon.’ It planted in my mind that it would be fun to work with your friends – and then work with them over and over.”

“SIXTEEN CANDLES”

Director John Hughes, 1984

“It’s a great John Hughes movie that starred a nerdy guy, Anthony Michael Hall. I was Anthony Michael Hall. I was holding up the panties in the air in the bathroom. It was truthful emotionally, but it had big comedy. John Cusack, Molly Ringwald – that style of comedy had a big influence on me. It was sweet, but it had a character named Long Duk Dong.”

Also:

” I was such a fan of ‘The Jerk’ as a kid. I talked like him for four straight years. I watch it to this day. I force my daughter to watch it.”

“I saw ‘Jaws’ in the third grade in a packed movie theater where everyone was screaming their brains out. It totally blew my mind. It affects my ocean-going behavior to this day.”

“I loved ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter.’ It was one of the first good movies I appreciated on some level. Sissy Spacek played Loretta Lynn, this poverty-stricken kid who makes it in show business. I was this weird kid on Long Island. This was a story that said, ‘This poor woman from coal-mining country can break into show business – it can be done.’”

“My English teacher Mr. Board came in and said, “I have seen the best movie ever made.” And he wore an “E.T.” pin for a year. I took my girlfriend to see it. She said, “I think it’s too much.” I said ‘Are you crazy?’ And I was mad at her for not liking it.”

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By Leila Abboud and Gwénaëlle Barzic - PARIS (Reuters) – Google will meet with France’s data protection watchdog next week to answer questions about its new user privacy policy as part of a Europe-wide investigation being led by the French regulator.

France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique (CNIL) is examining Google’s new approach to privacy on behalf of data protection regulators of the 27 European Union member states to determine if it conforms with European law.

The CNIL review could lead to financial penalties or administrative sanctions for the U.S. search giant, but it is not clear whether they would be imposed collectively or if individual states would seek their own fines.

The CNIL can impose fines of up to 300,000 euros (240,015.07 pounds), and other European regulators can levy higher penalties.

“All options are on the table,” said CNIL president Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin told Reuters in an interview.

“We are not totally satisfied with their responses so we have set up this meeting to discuss the issues with Google.”

Google has already provided a 94-page response to a CNIL questionnaire on the new policy, which took effect in March.

“We want to untangle the precise way that specific personal data is being used for individual services, and examine what the benefit for the consumer really is,” added Falque-Pierrotin.

Under its new system, Google consolidated 60 privacy policies into one and completed its ability to pool the data collected on users across its services, including YouTube, Gmail and its social network Google+

The Mountain View, California-based search giant says this allows it to better tailor search results and improve services for consumers. Users are not allowed to opt out.

The move was met with concern not only from Europe, but also from U.S. lawmakers and regulators as far afield as Japan, Canada and Argentina.

Anthony House, a Google spokesman, said the company welcomed the meeting with the CNIL and was confident its privacy notices “respected the requirements of European data protection law”.

“The meeting will give us chance to put things into context and explain the broader actions we are taking to protect our users’ privacy,” he said.

After meeting with Google On May 23, the CNIL will provide an update to the broader group of 27 European data protection regulators from Europe’s member states at a meeting set for early June.

Asked how long Europe’s review would take, Falque-Pierrotin said it depended on how the meeting with Google went. If the CNIL can reach a final analysis quickly, then it will present a final opinion to the broader group in June or a preliminary view to if more work was needed.

“I don’t have a preconceived notion of whether Google’s privacy policy conforms with European law; we are examining that now,” she said.

DELICATE TIMING

The debate over data privacy comes at a delicate time for Google, whose business model is based on giving away free search, email, and other services while making money by selling user-targeted advertising.

It is already being investigated by the EU’s competition authority over how it ranks search results and whether it favours its own products over rival services.

The European Union is also in the process of writing a new law to tighten data protection online, which includes creating a so-called right to be forgotten. That would allow people under some circumstances to request the removal of data they had submitted or posted on websites.

“Our aim is not to single out or demonise one technology company more than another,” said Falque-Pierrotin. “People are waking up to the fact that their whole lives are online and becoming more sensitive about it.”

(Reporting by Claire Davenport, Leila Abboud, and Gwenaelle Barzic; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

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By Miyoung Kim - SEOUL (Reuters) – Apple Inc will struggle to cut its reliance on rival Samsung Electronics for component supplies, analysts and industry sources said on Thursday, despite speculation that it has begun reducing its use of Samsung memory chips.

Samsung has lost 6 percent of its value, or $11 billion, since a Taiwanese trade news outlet reported on Wednesday that Apple had placed big new orders with Japanese chipmaker Elpida for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips.

The report has stoked concerns among Samsung investors that Apple wants to help turn the struggling Elpida, now in bankruptcy protection, into a much bigger supplier to the U.S. tech giant, partly at the expense of South Korea’s Samsung.

Apple is Samsung’s largest customer, buying chips and displays, but the pair are also bitter rivals for the sale of smartphones and tablets and are engaged in a patent war.

But tech analysts in the United States and South Korea said they doubted the report by Taiwan’s DigiTimes, if confirmed, would signal major damage for Samsung and for its supplier links to Apple, despite the fierce selloff in Samsung shares.

“Apple has been diversifying its suppliers and the deal with Elpida had no major impact on other major suppliers as Elpida’s share of the global mobile DRAM market is quite small,” said one source with direct knowledge of Elpida’s sales breakdown.

The source said Elpida was already selling more than half of its mobile DRAM chips to Apple – an estimate supported by Merrill Lynch – and that its current production offered limited scope in the short term to take market share from Samsung, which controls more than half of the global mobile DRAM market.

“(There’s) nothing new in our view given Elpida usually assigns about 40-60 percent of its mobile DRAM capacity for Apple according to our channel checks,” Merrill Lynch analyst Simon Woo said.

Lee Sun-tae, of NH Investment & Securities, agreed: “The market is overreacting to the news. Mobile DRAM accounts for only 10 percent of Samsung’s overall operating profit …”

DIVERSIFYING, NOT DITCHING: ANALYSTS

U.S.-based Micron Technology Corp is in talks to acquire Elpida’s business as the Japanese firm tries to restructure after tough market conditions and global competition drove it into bankruptcy protection.

Apple did not response to queries on the report and Micron declined to comment. Samsung and Elpida’s court-appointed trustees also declined to comment.

Apple has been facing supply constraints, with iPhone sales soaring to 35.1 million last quarter, leading some analysts to conclude that the California-based company is more worried about a free-flowing supply chain than reliance on Samsung.

“No company wants to have just one supplier. Just on that basis I think they’re probably just shifting the (DRAM) balance, looking for equilibrium between two or three suppliers,” said Monika Garg, an analyst at Pacific Crest.

“I don’t think Apple would want to spoil their relationship with Samsung. They are their foundry.”

A major shift away from Samsung could also be complicated and costly for Apple, analysts said, adding that Samsung currently supplied Apple with high-end DRAM chips which were faster and more power-efficient than Elpida’s main chips.

Samsung and fellow South Korean chipmaker SK hynix, whose shares were also hit on Wednesday by the Apple-Elpida news, make chips with transistors that are 20 to 30 nanometers apart, giving them superior performance to Elpida’s 40-nanometer class, according to analysts.

A nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter.

The mobile DRAM market is set to grow rapidly due to booming smartphone and tablet sales. SK hynix has around 22 percent of the market with Elpida on about 16 percent, analysts estimate.

Shares in Samsung were trading up 0.3 percent by 0450 GMT, after falling as much as 2.4 percent. Shares in SK hynix rallied sharply from Wednesday’s selloff, up 6 percent.

(Additional reporting by Noel Randewich in SAN FRANCISCO and Mari Saito in TOKYO; Editing by Mark Bendeich)

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(Reuters) – Social networking site Pinterest has raised $100 million from a group of investors led by Japanese online retailing giant Rakuten Inc in a deal that reportedly values the three-year-old U.S. company at $1.5 billion.

Rakuten said it was joined in the capital-raising by existing shareholders Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital and a number of angel investors.

The new round of financing values Pinterest — one of Silicon Valley’s fastest growing startups — at $1.5 billion, up sharply from $200 million late last year, Wall Street Journal said.

Valuations for tech startups have been rising dramatically, as illustrated by Facebook’s $1 billion purchase of photo-sharing application Instagram last month.

Pinterest, an online scrapbook where users can “pin” images and follow others, has grown from less than one million users in May 2011 to about 20 million in April, according to comScore. It is the 16th most-visited site in the United States, according to Web information company Alexa.

The Palo Alto, California-based company, which was launched in the fall of 2009, is led by co-founder Ben Silberman.

The funding will help Pinterest expand into Japan and Rakuten’s 17 other markets, Rakuten said.

“We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Rakuten’s model for e-commerce,” Rakuten Chief Executive Hiroshi Mikitani said in a statement.

(Reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi and Bijoy Koyitty in Bangalore; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Greg Mahlich)

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Chuck Brown, known as the “Godfather of Go-Go” for the subgenre of funk music he helped create, died on Wednesday at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore after being admitted earlier this month suffering from pneumonia.

A spokeswoman for the hospital confirmed the death but could not provide a cause, and Brown’s manager, Tom Goldfogle, was not immediately available to comment. Goldfogle told the Washington Post Brown died of complications from sepsis.

Brown, a singer/songwriter and guitarist had been a key personality in the Washington, D.C. area since the 1970s when he perfected a funky sound that became known as “go-go.”

The music, which earned a local following in the Washington, D.C. area, was characterized by loud percussion and Brown’s ability to stitch together songs and keep crowds dancing throughout performances.

He had said the style got its name because “the music just goes and goes,” according to the Washington Post.

Brown’s band, the Soul Searchers, gained the spotlight with their hit “Bustin’ Loose,” which topped R&B single charts for four consecutive weeks in 1978 with its brash horns and arresting vocals anchored by Brown’s gravelly voice.

But the sound failed to gain a nationwide following and records that came after, such as “Game Seven,” could not match the success of their predecessor. The band’s best effort to follow, the single “We Need Some Money (Bout Money)” in 1984, reached No. 26 on record charts.

Still, Brown remained active in go-go music and around the Washington D.C. area. A documentary on the musical subgenre appeared in 2002 and prominently featured Brown and his sound.

He was nominated for his first Grammy Award in 2011 for best rhythm-and-blues performance by a duo or group for “Love,” and in 2005, the National Endowment for the Arts presented Brown with a Lifetime Heritage Fellowship Award.

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte, Editing by Jill Serjeant)

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Lopez, a 42-year-old divorced mother of 4-year-old twins, has been part of the “Idol” judges’ panel alongside Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler for the past two years, but she won’t return to the show next season, the insider said.

“There is just too much going on for her right now,” the source told UsMagazine.com.

“She regrets she can’t stay on the show,” the insider said. “It’s been an incredible experience and she is forever grateful that she did it.”

Lopez recently admitted to the magazine she is “a little tired right now.”

“I’m not going to lie,” said Lopez, who is planning a concert tour this summer and recording a new album. “I’ve been rehearsing, doing ‘Idol,’ promoting this movie ['What to Expect When You're Expecting'] … the kids, it’s a lot of stuff!”

However, she also said she feels “really in the zone.”

“I feel really good about everything. I feel like everything’s going so well. I feel blessed. I do,” she said.

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There’s an interesting contest going on over at Sachtler Video.  They’re looking for the oldest, still operating Sachtler Video 18 Fluid Head and are hoping to lure it out of some faithful shooters hands with the promise of a new one.

Here are the details …

Users who still have a Sachtler Video 18 are invited to submit the serial numbers to Sachtler for review.  In addition to requesting the serial numbers, Sachtler would like supporting imagery of the venerable Video 18 in action in the field.

At the end of the day, the lowest number wins the opportunity to exchanged for a new Video 18 S1 tripod system with Speed Lock CF

But those who have their hopes dashed won’t necessarily be left out in the cold either, as Sachtler will enter the remaining Video 18 users who participate into a drawing for three additional Video 18 S1 tripod systems, with the Speed Lock CF.

Initially released in 1984, the Video 18 has been a standard tool with ENG/EFP production crews.  It can operate in extreme temperatures ranging from -40° to +140° F (-40° to +60° C) and is holds up in the harshest of conditions.  when shooting in unusual conditions.

Now why is Sachtler willing to give up a brand new fluid head for a beat up and well used model?  Well, it could be straight marketing with a legacy theme, as Sachtler company plans to post photos of the elder Video 18 systems working in exotic and challenging locations.  But it may also be that they’ll have a chance to study the wear and tear patterns in real life and real time conditions (as opposed non stop testing operations in a lab somewhere).    It reminds me of when astronauts from Apollo 12 tracked down an old video camera on a Ranger lunar lander and retreived it so that scientists could study the effects of the lunar surface on machinery over long periods of time.  But that’s just the romantic in me.

The contest ends June 30, 2012. Entry form, eligibility requirements and terms of use, and further information can be found at: www.sachtler.com/video18

NEWS RELEASE

Contest offers Fluid Head owners chance to swap out their old Sachtler Video 18 for a brand new one

Valley Cottage, NY, May 16, 2012 – Premiere fluid head maker, Sachtler, part of Vitec Videocom, a Vitec Group company, is looking for the oldest of its Video 18 fluid heads in use. Owners of Video 18s worldwide are invited to submit the serial number of their fluid head and a photo. The oldest Video 18 head still in-use will be exchanged for a new Video 18 S1 tripod system with Speed Lock CF. In addition, all Video 18 owners who enter will be part of a drawing in which three additional Video 18 S1 tripod systems, with the Speed Lock CF, will be awarded.

Sachtler requests that owners worldwide send photos of their Video 18 being used in the field. The Video 18 has been setting the standard in ENG/EFP production since 1984.  Exceptionally robust, the Video 18 works dependably in extreme temperatures ranging from -40° to +140° F (-40° to +60° C) and when shooting in unusual conditions.

Video 18 fluid head owners around the world are encouraged to participate. The company plans to post photos of the legacy Video 18 systems working in exotic and challenging locations.

The contest ends June 30, 2012. Entry form, eligibility requirements and terms of use, and further information can be found at: www.sachtler.com/video18

For more information visit www.sachtler.com or contact: Sachtler, 709 Executive Blvd., Valley Cottage, NY 10989, Phone: 845-268-0100, Fax: 845-268-0113, Email: info-cd-usa@vitecgroup.com

######
About Sachtler
Sachtler, founded in 1958 by cameraman Wendelin Sachtler, is a worldwide market leader for professional camera support systems for cinematography and television production, its name a symbol of top quality and reliability for decades. With an extensive range of camera support systems as well as a finely modulated product line of reportage lighting, Sachtler is the highly qualified partner for broadcast and film applications. Since 2000 Sachtler has been offering the artemis modular camera stabilizer system. With its numerous workshops and training sessions, the Wendelin Sachtler Academy has become a top address worldwide for invaluable know-how and the exchange of information, creating the ideal international platform for creative talents.  Along with other leading brands in the broadcast and professional videographer industry, Sachtler is part of Vitec Videocom, a Vitec Group company.  For more information on Sachtler, visit www.sachtler.com

About Vitec Videocom
Vitec Videocom brings together some of the most respected, most innovative and most sought-after brands in the industry: Anton/Bauer, Autoscript, Litepanels, OConnor, Petrol, Sachtler, Vinten and Vinten Radamec. It acts as an endorsing brand for these market-leading broadcast, film and pro video products, encouraging multi-brand system sales and simplifying the way that customers worldwide do business.

Vitec Videocom is an operating division within the Vitec Group, an international business serving customers in the broadcast, photographic and military aerospace and government markets. Vitec is based on strong, well known, premium brands on which its customers rely on worldwide.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Verizon Wireless is planning to force customers to give up their unlimited data plans when they move to its high-speed wireless service, a top executive for parent company Verizon Communications Inc said on Wednesday.

For now, Verizon Wireless customers who move to the company’s highest-speed fourth generation (4G) network from its older network can still use the company’s unlimited wireless data plan for a flat monthly fee.

But that will change after Verizon Wireless launches a new shared data plan offering this summer, according to Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo.

“As they start to migrate they’ll have to come off unlimited and go to the shared data plan,” said Shammo who told analysts that he expects the shared plans would boost revenue for Verizon Wireless over time.

Under the new plan, customers will be able to share a monthly data allowance among different devices, unlike current offerings, where they have to sign up for a separate data plan for every device connected to the wireless operator’s network.

But because their data use will be metered under the new plans, customers monthly fees will increase as they increase their usage.

Shammo said he also expects the new offering to encourage customers to connect more of their devices to its network. As a result, he expects them to have to sign up for higher-tier data services that come with higher fees.

“We’re fairly confident we’ll start to see people uptick in the tiers, which is where we’ll see the revenue accretion.” Shammo said in a webcast of an investor conference.

The company declined to comment on when exactly it expects the policy changes to take place.

Once the shared plans are available, Shammo said he would change how he reports wireless revenue. Instead of reporting average revenue per user, Shammo said the company would start reporting average revenue per account.

One area where carriers like Verizon have been missing out is tablet computers as consumers have been hesitant to pay the extra cost of connecting their tablet to the cellular network. But Shammo said this may change with shared data plans.

Another sticking point is that operators like Verizon do not subsidize tablet computers. Shammo said this would not change any time soon.

“We’re holding pretty strong with the model of no subsidies on these devices,” the executive said.

The high price of devices such as the Apple Inc iPhone have hurt operator margins as Verizon and its rivals pay hefty subsidies for the device so it can offer the phones at a discount to customers who sign a two-year contract.

But Shammo said he is looking closely at moves by European operators to back off on subsidizing smartphones.

“I think the industry is going to look hard at these types of models going forward,” he said.

Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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By Dan Levine (Reuters) – Activision Blizzard Inc and arch rival video game company Electronic Arts Inc have settled a lawsuit in which Activision accused two former executives of breaking their employment agreements to develop games for EA.

“Activision and EA have agreed to put this matter behind them,” the companies said on Wednesday in a joint statement. Neither company disclosed details of the settlement.

Two former Activision executives, Jason West and Vincent Zampella, developed the original “Call of Duty” game and several others in the series.

After leaving Activision in 2010, West and Zampella formed a new development studio, Respawn Entertainment, and signed an exclusive publishing and distribution deal with EA.

Activision said EA executives urged West and Zampella to meet with them, and enlisted intermediaries to help, even though West and Zampella were under contract with Activision.

West and Zampella sued Activision over their dismissal and sought $36 million in royalty payments and damages. Activision then counter-sued, seeking $400 million in actual and punitive damages from EA and the former executives.

Activision Blizzard is the world’s largest stand-alone game publisher. Electronic Arts, which made its name on sports games, publishes titles like “FIFA 12 ” and “Need for Speed.”

West and Zampella have not reached a settlement with Activision. Their trial is scheduled for May 29 in a Los Angeles state court.

An attorney for the two former Activision executives could not be reached immediately for comment on Wednesday.

The case in Superior Court of the State of California, Los Angeles County is Jason West v Activision Publishing, No. SC107041.

(Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Gary Hill and Paul Tait)

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By Tim Molloy - NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – For its upfront presentation to advertisers, CBS went big, broad and a little goofy – words that also describe many of its shows.

The network’s upfront at New York City’s Carnegie Hall on Wednesday had the feel of a big, grinning victory lap – and not just because it included Super Bowl-winning quarterback Eli Manning parading his trophy.

Network CEO Les Moonves jokingly questioned whether the most-watched network needed to do an upfront at all.

Critics sometimes hold up their noses at the middle-of-the-road quality of CBS hits like “Two and a Half Men” and “2 Broke Girls,” and the formulaic approach of its procedurals.

At ABC’s upfront Tuesday, Jimmy Kimmel cracked that CBS has its finger on the pulse of people with barely any pulse, a dig at the relatively high median age of its large audience.

But broad works and CBS’ upfront, like its schedule, almost always went for mass appeal over edginess.

Guest Tim Tebow dropped in for a video that also included David Letterman, Regis Philbin and “2 Broke Girls” stars Beth Behrs and Kat Dennings.

They ran down the aisles of Carnegie Hall in their waitress uniforms from the show bearing boxes of cupcakes like the ones their characters hope to build into a biz.

How goofy did it get?

Jo Ann Ross, president of CBS Networks sales, also walked out in a “Broke Girls” waitress outfit, promising cupcake-sweet returns on advertisers’ investments.

“Sorry we don’t deliver. We over-deliver,” she said. “It’s always my pleasure serving you, even in uniform.”

Then there was an opera song that “NCIS: Los Angeles” star LL Cool J turned into an updated version of 80s’ hip-hop anthem “Rock The Bells,” with lyrics praising CBS.

He introduced Moonves as the “mack daddy behind this whole CBS phenomenon.”

“Mad respect to my main man LL Cool J,” said Moonves, because there’s no comedy broader than a middle-aged man talking hip-hop talk.

Why the self-congratulatory feel? Because CBS not only leads in total viewers but, according to Moonves, leads by the largest margin of any network in 23 years.

The network is also close to matching Fox, which is top rated in the 18-49 demo, in the ratings.

CBS is making few changes to its lineup next season, largely because of the success of its current one.

It will air the AFC Championship Game, Super Bowl and Grammys just weeks apart, which was the excuse for Manning to drop by the upfront for an interview with sportscaster Jim Nantz.

The network also offered advertisers the customary look at its new lineup. That meant they got a first look at how the new Sherlock Holmes drama “Elementary” will update the old Holmes.

Remember the original’s fondness for cocaine? The current Sherlock, played by Johnny Lee Miller, is a recovering addict under the watchful eye of Lucy Liu’s Watson.

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SEOUL (Reuters) – Japan’s Elpida Memory Inc has been supplying more than 50 percent of its production of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip for mobile devices to Apple Inc since late last year, a source with direct knowledge of Elpida’s sales breakdown said on Thursday.

“Elpida resorts to one single customer for its mobile DRAM supplies and it’s been selling over 50 percent of output from its 30 nanometer class design to Apple,” said the source.

The source declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

“Apple has been diversifying its suppliers and the deal with Elpida had no major impact on other major suppliers as Elpida’s share of the global mobile DRAM market is quite small.”

Another source familiar with the matter said Apple was sourcing around 30 percent of its mobile DRAM requirements from Elpida.

Taiwan’s DigiTimes, an online trade news site, reported that Apple recently placed large mobile DRAM orders with Elpida’s 12-inch plant in Hiroshima, Japan, sending shares of Samsung and SK hynix tumbling on Wednesday.

Samsung shares extended losses to over 2 percent in early trade on Thursday, after opening down slightly and losing more than 6 percent in the prior session.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

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By Brent Lang - LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – There is a thick veil of secrecy surrounding “Prometheus,” but co-writer Damon Lindelof hinted to fans this week that the upcoming science-fiction chiller may lead to sequels.

The indication that more deep-space terrors could await even after the final credits roll on the film came during a studio-sponsored question-and-answer session on Twitter Wednesday.

In response to a question about a possible “Prometheus” franchise, Lindelof replied, “If you like it and want more, there is TOTALLY a design for this story to continue in cool and unexpected ways.”

Of course, “Prometheus” is a prequel of sorts itself to director Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic “Alien.”

The director has stopped short of using the “p” word but has said that fans will recognize “strands of ‘Alien”s DNA” in the film. He also promised “a new, grand mythology” that gives credence to Lindelof’s hints that “Prometheus” was never intended as a one-off.

Gone, however, is Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, who held sway over the previous films.

Instead, the new cast of potential alien food boasts Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, and Noomi Rapace. Lindelof, who co-wrote the script, is best known for his role in creating ABC’s “Lost.”

When it came to the plot details of “Prometheus,” Lindelof remained cryptic on Twitter.

“If we did our job right, both,” Lindelof tweeted. “The characters ask questions. They get answers. Then they run and scream a lot.”

“Prometheus” hits theaters on June 8.

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