Daily News Digest- 6th Oct'14

Thought of the Day:

Today in History:

Following made the Headlines:

India:

• Amazon stake in seller may come under scrutiny: Amazon is selling products on its Indian website that are sourced by a joint venture with N.R. Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, an arrangement that could draw regulatory scrutiny on the world’s largest online retailer that is already facing an inquiry for possible violation of foreign investment rules in India. Amazon Asia and Catamaran Ventures have jointly formed an entity called Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd to sell items such as books, phones and exclusive Amazon merchandise on Amazon.in under the seller name Cloudtail, according to documents available with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). Cloudtail India is a fully owned unit of Prione Business Services Pvt. Ltd, the documents show. Prione, in turn, is owned by Catamaran Management Services Pvt. Ltd, the acting trustee of Hober Mallow Trust (51%), Amazon Asia Pacific Resources Pvt. Ltd (48%) and Amazon Eurasia Holdings (1%). Catamaran is the family-owned fund of Infosys Ltd co-founder Murthy. Mint couldn’t independently verify whether Catamaran Management is completely an Indian fund or has any foreign capital. Companies such as Amazon and Flipkart, India’s biggest online retailer, operate through marketplace platforms that connect small merchants with buyers, unlike in the West where 60% of products sold on Amazon are those it has sourced itself. The change in the business model has been prompted by local regulations that bar Amazon and e-commerce websites controlled by overseas entities, including Flipkart, from selling their own inventory directly to consumers.

• Doordarshan may Get a Global Audience Soon: Doordarshan might be in the limelight for its controversial decision to telecast live RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s Vijaya Dashami address, but life for the national broadcaster is only set to become more exciting with the Narendra Modi government’s increasing emphasis on staterun media. For starters, the broadcaster’s 30-year-old dream of going global may finally come true in January next year when it will be beamed free of cost to 120 million homes across Europe and the Middle East, say I&B ministry officials. After the Maharashtra polls, I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar will hold the first inter-ministerial meeting of secretaries of ministries of external affairs, information and broadcasting, tourism, culture, and home affairs to finalise the content to be delivered to these countries. Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar told ET that the meeting is likely to set a deadline and chalk out a consultative group for the project. “We need to finalise right content to project a new, dynamic India,” he said. The new aspirations of India have to be portrayed in a manner that European and Middle Eastern audiences would appreciate and understand. Expert advice of ambassadors who have worked in these countries would be useful, as would be those of TV professionals who have foreign experience,” he said.

• Premji Junior all Set to Board Wipro's Top Deck Next Year: India’s third-biggest software exporter Wipro is preparing for a generational shift at the top after company veteran and CFO Suresh Senapaty retires next March. Rishad Premji, the elder son of Wipro’s billionaire founder Azim Premji, and also the company’s head of strategy, is set to join the board “sometime next year”, at least two people familiar with the discussions said. “It’s not that he (Rishad) was not part of the board discussions — he’s always been since becoming the CSO — but with formal induction, he will get closer to representing ownership on the board,” the first person said. There are two triggers for Rishad’s promotion to the board. Firstly, Suresh Senapaty’s retirement leaves an executive leadership post to be filled, and secondly, Rishad’s grooming over the past seven years in different roles in the company seems to have almost achieved the purpose. “In some sense, this is a generational shift,” the second person said. “It’s easily among the best managed family transitions that I have seen in India.” When contacted, a Wipro spokesperson asked not to speculate about board appointments. “You may be aware that Wipro has a board of directors with a majority of them being independent. The board has various subcommittees, one of them being Nomination and Governance consisting of independent directors and chaired by Dr Ganguly,” the spokesperson said. “Matters relating to any change in board members including new appointments are subject matters dealt with by such committee before it is deliberated by the board for a final decision (of course, subject to shareholder approval),” the Wipro spokesperson added. Experts said it makes sense for Premji to have his son represent the family while he is still on the board to ensure the transition. “The transition of leadership in a family enterprise is a challenging period for all stakeholders,” said Mike Fassler, consultant at Family Business Consulting Group in Chicago, which helps wealthy families sort through conflicts.

• Aam Aadmi Comes on Line to Help Reboot Offline Retailers: India's 1.5 lakh small to medium cell phone retailers have a new champion -the Aam Aadmi Party's Adarsh Shastri, grandson of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and a top executive with Apple and Samsung India before he entered politics. The retailers have been fighting hard to defend themselves against online sellers such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal, which are winning over customers by being able to sell phones and tablets at a discount, thus undercutting the brick-and-mortar trade. The AAP leader is seeking to mediate between traders and top brands such as Samsung, Apple and Nokia to curb such discounting.

• Uber Gets Sober, Puts Brakes on Mercs & BMWs: Taxihailing app Uber which made a splash last year debuting with a squadron of BMWs, Mercedes’ and Audis appears to have dropped these luxury cars from its fleet and is instead focusing on adding more Innovas and Corollas. The company launched operations in India last year with its luxury segment, Uber Black, in cities such as Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. However, it has scaled down its luxury fleet. In cities such as Bangalore, Uber has almost entirely moved payment for its luxury vehicles to a commission basis from a lump sum at the end of the month. This has made operators move their fleet to economical sedans than an Audi or BMW, which are costlier to run. In Delhi too, Uber has moved its Uber Black drivers to a commission basis. Luxury cab operators confirm this development. “When Uber entered India, they used to hire our luxury cars like an Audi or BMW for on a monthly basis for anywhere between ₹ 85,000 to ₹ 2 lakh per car,” said the founder of one of the biggest luxury car operators in Bangalore on condition of anonymity. “In a few months, they asked us to move to a commissionbased model. As the rate was very low, we decided to stop services.” Uber charges ₹ 200 as the minimum fare followed by a rate of ₹18 per km for a Uber Black cab.

• Fabrics Major Raymond Launches Online Store: Fabrics and garments major Raymond on Sunday launched its online store, Ray mondNext.com, which integrates all Raymond products brands and services under a common e-commerce platform. The company said foraying into the e-commerce space is a step forward to ensure increased visibility and availability of its products. Raymond has launched five individual e-commerce enabled brand websites of Raymond, ColorPlus, Park Avenue and Parx with a common shopping cart. All of these websites are optimised to be viewed on smartphones and tablets. “According to industry estimates, e-tailing market is set to reach $32 billion by 2020 and hence makes perfect business sense for Raymond to capture this growing demand,“ Raymond head (e-commerce) Vijay Basrur said in a statement.

• Pepperfry.com Targets $1 Billion in GMV by 2018: Online furniture retail er Pepperfry aims to hit the $1 bil lion gross merchandise value (GMV) in four years, as increasing number of people log onto the Internet to shop for household items including home decor. The furniture and home decor market in the country is predominantly unorganised with local players accounting for a lion's share of the $25 billion segment. The offline (furniture) market in India itself is estimated to be $22-25 billion, of which the addressable market is about $1215 billion, Pepperfry.com CEO and founder Ambareesh Murty said. “This is expected to grow to $25 billion in 3-5 years,“ he added. He said the online furniture market is projected to cross $2 billion in next three years.

• Apple's revenues exceeds respective GDPs of Morocco, Libya, others; expected to touch $180 billion next year: Apple is one of the biggest companies around the world and with the latest release of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the tech giant's revenue is set to rise sharply. With an estimated 100 million iPhones likely to be sold in the second half of 2014 alone, analysts expect Apple's revenue to cross $180 billion by next year. If Apple was a country, its economy with a GDP of $171 billion (2013 revenue) would be as big as Vietnam's, and by next year, it is expected to be almost as big as New Zealand ($185 billion, GDP in 2013). While US economy, with $16,800 billion GDP in 2013, is 98 times that of Apple, Indian economy with $1,877 billion GDP in 2013, is 11 times.

• Startups like Hyperverge, Aindra Systems, others putting hi-technology ideas to commercial use: When a teacher at a government school in Tumkura town about 75 km northeast of Bangalorewould use her mobile to take a photograph of her class every morning, it seemed like an unusual habit. What she was actually doing was using 'computer vision,' a technology that helps machines interpret images and videos as humans do. The app on the teacher's phone put a name to a student's face, eliminating any attempt to falsify attendance records. And scoring attendance accurately and quickly was important because government funding for the school depended on how many children were present each day. Aindra Systems, the Bangalore-based startup that built the technology, is one of several companies developing commercial applications in an area that until recently was confined to research labs in universities. "As wearables such as smartwatches become ubiquitous, you will need people who can process and make sense of this data," said Kedar Kulkarni, founder of Chennai-based Hyperverge which is preparing for the commercial launch of its image-recognition product. Hyperverge, which is just 10 months old, has raised $550,000 (Rs 3.5 crore) from a clutch of USbased investors, including New Enterprise Associates which has backed companies such as enterprise software maker Salesforce and deals site Groupon.

International:

• Hewlett-Packard plans to split into two companies: Hewlett-Packard Co plans to split into two companies, separating its computer and printer businesses from its corporate hardware and services operations, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The company plans to announce the move as early as Monday, the Journal said in a report on its web site that cited people familiar with the matter. The division would be made through a tax-free distribution of shares to stockholders next year, according to the report. A company spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. HP and some of its investors have long considered such a move, the newspaper noted. As one of the older big computer companies, for several years HP directors have discussed ways to restructure to keep up with technology upstarts. Company split-ups in which shares of new divisions were spun off to stockholders in the past have resulted in higher stock market returns for investors. Many investors and analysts have called for a break-up of the company, or a sale of the personal computer business, so that HP could focus on the more profitable operations of providing computer servers, networking and data storage to businesses. Company executives have said in the past that personal computers underpin and support the company as a whole.

• Samsung to invest $14.7 bln in new South Korea chip facility: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd plans to invest $14.7 billion to construct a new chip production plant in South Korea, a major bet on its semiconductor business amid a smartphone earnings slump. Samsung, the world’s biggest memory chip maker, said the new plant will help boost its competitiveness in the semiconductor industry, which it is showing steady growth due to increased demand from mobile devices. The plant will make either logic or memory chips, Samsung said, adding that a final decision on products had not been made yet. The firm said its chip production capacity was expected to increase by a “low double digit percentage”. The plant will be located in Pyeongtaek, a city roughly 75 kilometres south of Seoul and construction is scheduled to be completed by the second half of 2017. The chip business is likely to be a lone bright spot in what’s otherwise expected to be a poor third quarter for the South Korean giant. Profits for company’s key smartphone business are slipping rapidly as Apple Inc. grabs the lion’s share of profits at the high end of the market and Chinese makers of cheap and feature-rich smartphones, like Lenovo Group Ltd and Xiaomi Inc., erode margins at the low end. The mean forecast from a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S survey of 42 analysts calls for the firm’s July-September operating profit to come in at 5.6 trillion won, its weakest performance since the fourth quarter of 2011. Some analysts forecast that the chip division could deliver stronger operating profit than the handsets division in the third quarter for the first time in more than three years.

• Ex-Pimco boss Bill Gross 'exuberant' at leaving management: In his first interview since leaving the bond fund Pimco, former boss Bill Gross has said he is 'uniquely exuberant' at leaving management responsibilities behind in his new job. Speaking to Barron's, he said he had "always been an investment guy" and the "hiring, paying people, planning and so on" became a problem for him. Mr Gross told the financial magazine that "managing money is in my blood". The co-founder of Pimco left abruptly last week to join rival Janus Capital. It has been reported that he was at odds with the executive committee of Pimco, the world's largest bond fund, which is owned by the German insurer Allianz. In his interview, Mr Gross says he's grateful to Janus's chief executive for "putting this [job opportunity] together so quickly, in a matter of 24 to 48 hours at most, and I don't intend to disappoint". While at Pimco, Mr Gross was seen as a key figure, and since his departure investors have withdrawn record amounts of money.

• Aéropostale to Launch in Chile: Aéropostale, the mall-based specialty retailer of casual apparel for young women and men, said on Friday that it plans to launch the Aéropostale and P.S. from Aéropostale brands in Chile through a licensing agreement with Sociedad Comercial Grupo Yes. “We are excited to bring the Aéropostale and P.S. from Aéropostale brands to Chile as we continue to expand our international presence,” said Julian R. Geiger, chief executive officer. “Chile represents a major step in extending our business into key Latin American markets. Chile’s stable economy, and its consumers’ strong appetite for the Aéropostale brand and our fashions, make Chile an attractive retail market. We’re pleased to be working closely with such an established partner as Grupo Yes as we execute our expansion plans for Aéropostale and P.S. from Aéropostale.”

• Disney extends CEO Robert Iger’s contract through June 2018: Walt Disney Co.’s board extended chairman and chief executive Robert Iger’s contract through June 2018, keeping him at the helm of the media and theme park company two years longer than he previously planned. Disney announced the contract extension on Thursday but did not say who would succeed Iger, who has led the company to record profits. He plans to name a chief operating officer next year, a person with knowledge of Iger’s thinking said, setting up a likely successor. Tom Staggs, head of the company’s theme parks division, and chief financial officer Jay Rasulo are considered leading candidates to replace Iger, Wall Street analysts say. The media company has thrived since Iger became CEO in 2005. He oversaw the acquisitions of movie studios Pixar, Marvel and LucasFilm, which will release a new “Star Wars” movie in December 2015. A theme park in Shanghai also is slated to open next year. Disney’s board earlier this year asked Iger to extend his contract for two years. Iger said he accepted so he could continue working on the major initiatives he put in place.

• Neiman Marcus Adds Online Shopping Feature: Shopping online and shopping in stores are two different animals, yet Neiman Marcus is looking to innovation to bring a sense of “seamlessness” to the experiences. Neimanmarcus.com has added myNM, an automated feature discretely located on the top-left corner of the homepage. Executives say it’s geared to personalize the shopping experience by replicating to some degree how you might shop the physical store. Essentially, myNM edits the site down based on data accumulated from past shopping and browsing online. Fifteen widgets, like “new since your last visit” or “just for you” help direct the online experience, making it quick and efficient. In addition, myNM goes beyond the suggested selling feature that some other Web sites offer, where products pop up, presumably ones customers would be interested in due to past purchases. MyNM reveals top pins from neimanmarcus.com and what items are trending best on the Web site, and has look books from preferred designers as well as editorial features.

• Smaller Bloomingdale's Sets Tone for Expansion: Bloomingdale’s store count is lower than the competition’s, but now it has the legs it hopes to use to catch up. On Oct. 10, the 34-unit department-store chain will open a three-level, 125,000-square-foot “reimagined” store in the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, Calif., replacing Bloomingdale’s 18-year-old, 220,000-square-foot unit in the mall. The new store has 68 designer shops and 100 brands not previously carried there, creating what Bloomingdale’s executives call a “full-line assortment consistent with flagship locations” that are much larger. The store assembles all of the latest in Bloomingdale’s consumer-facing shopping technologies and services, and represents an advancement from such specialized, scaled-down units operating in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood and in Glendale and Santa Monica, Calif.

• Valextra Confirms Álvaro González’s Departure: Valextra said Friday Álvaro González will leave his role as design director of the brand to focus on his own accessories label, called Álvaro, which he launched last year. “I have admired Valextra since first discovering it 20 years ago, a label that epitomizes Made in Italy,” said González. “It’s been a challenging yet very satisfying journey, creating a new dialogue for the house between its past, the present and the future.” The brand’s in-house team will now design the collections. Before joining Valextra in July 2013, González, an industry veteran and well-respected designer, had served as style director of accessories at Jimmy Choo and worked with brands including Stuart Weitzman, Tod’s, Loro Piana, Emilio Pucci, Valentino and Genny.

Tech:

• Pre-booking for iPhone 6 series to start in India from October 7: Pre-booking for the latest Apple iPhone 6 series will start in India from October 7. "iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be available in India beginning Friday, October 17, from an expansive network of Apple Authorized Resellers. Customers can pre-order iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus beginning Tuesday, October 7," Apple India said in a statement today. The company did not disclose the price at which it will sell iPhone 6 series in the country, but said, "Pricing details will be soon made available by Apple's partners: Ingram Micro, Redington, Rashi Peripherals and Reliance." Even before the official announcement on sale, vendors through e-commerce have starting offering the premium smartphones at price starting from around Rs 56,000. Amazon website showed that iPhone 6 is selling for around $750, including shipping cost, in US which amounts to about Rs 46,000.

• Telcos Hike Internet Rates by up to 100%: Telecom operators have raised mobile internet rates up to 100% in June-September period across country. Airtel is latest to increase mobile rates by up to 33% while Vodafone and Idea have started gradually implementing the increased mobile internet rates from June. The three companies jointly hold around 57% mobile services market share. While no comments were received from Airtel and Idea Cellular, Vodafone India spokesperson said “Around 2 months ago, we changed the base tariff of 2G for 1GB pack from ₹ 175. This has been carried out in a phased manner across circles.“ Airtel and Idea, too, have increased the rate of 1GB 2G mobile internet pack to around ₹ 175 from about ₹ 155 GB. Telecom operators generally don't make public announcement about increase in mobile tariff. The change is noticed on their website after the new rates are implemented. They generally inform their post-paid customer through SMS about change in rates of services before their next billing cycle starts. Pre-paid customers, which constitutes over 90% of market, get to know about rate revision when they go to recharge their mobile phone or through website of companies. Telecom operators are required to report change in tariff to telecom regulator Trai. Vodafone and Idea Cellular increased rack rate, charged without any offer or scheme, by up to 100% from 2 paise per 10 kb of data usage to 4 paise per 10 kb. This means on Vodafone and Idea network 1 GB of 2G or 3G mobile internet will cost over ₹ 4,000 (from ₹ 2,000) which these companies under scheme are selling for around ₹ 175. 

• Xiaomi Offers 25,000 Mi3 Devices Under Diwali Offer: Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi will put 25,000 Mi3 devices directly into shopping carts of as many Mi fans who have made more than five unsuccessful attempts to buy it on Flipkart, as the company prepares to woo customers before the festive season of Diwali. The Mi 3 phones will be added to the carts on October 6 while Mi3 fans will be able to purchase them without going through a flash sale, without having to register or even hit the “buy“ button, Xiaomi said. Flipkart will hold a day long mega sale on October 6, where it is promising to give customers hefty discounts and great deals. Xiaomi has sold over 300,000 Mi smartphones, including Mi3 costing ₹ 13,999 and the Red Mi 1S priced at ₹ 5,999, since July, when it began operations in India. People eligible for this festive surprise will be intimated directly on October 5 that they will have the Mi 3 made available directly in their cart on October 6 and will have about 1 to 2 hours to checkout. If there are dropouts or a fan declines to purchase the device, a second batch will have the device in their cart the same day, the company added in statement. Manu Jain, GM and head of India operations at Xiaomi said: “We would like to pay tribute to our most passionate fans through this little gift of recognising their passion for our products. Even though they have repeatedly tried to get the device and failed, their determination to get Mi 3 clearly sets them apart as fans.“

• Verizon’s Redbox Instant streaming video service will close down on October 7: US video streaming service Redbox Instant announced today that it is to shut down on October 7, after signup was disabled for three months due to a security problem. Gigaom asked Redbox Instant if the service was closing down last week but a PR representative refused to comment. A FAQ on the Redbox website attributes the closedown to the service being “not as successful as we hoped it to be.” Current customers are able to get a refund for the full month of October and Redbox rentals continue to be available.

• Apple May Unveil New iPads on October 16: Apple plans to hold a “special event“ on October 16, where it is expected to launch its new iPads, technology website Re Code said, citing sources. Apple executives were not immediately available for comment. The iPhone maker is expected to unveil the new iPads and the latest updates to its iMac line, the website said, citing an article published by technology website 9to5Mac earlier this week.

• Google to Speed Up Search on Slower Mobile Internet: Aimed at strengthening its foothold in the Indian mobile In ternet space, tech giant Google will enable a faster search capability for mobile phones with slower network connections. Using a new streamlined version of its search results page, the US-based company will automatically check if a user has a slow wireless connection and deliver a fast loading version of Search. “Increasingly, people in India are accessing the Internet through mobile devices such as their smartphones. However, not all of these devices come with fast, cheap connections,“ Google Distinguished software engineer Bharat Mediratta said in a blogpost.Fewer bytes means users get answers faster and cheaper, he added. “Google's high-quality results will remain the same, but elements such as images and maps will only show up when they are an essential part of the result,“ he said.

• Apps Help Telcos Connect With Users: Top carriers Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India are developing apps and pushing carrier billing to connect directly with a surging smartphone user base in a bid to stay relevant, but internal challenges limit them from aggressive changes such as making acquisitions in complementary businesses such as cable TV , a strategy their global peers are using to counter the threat from over-thetop (OTT) players. As part of its `Smartphone Network' campaign, Bharti Airtel, India's No. 1 operator, has hired close to 30 IT professionals for an innovation team under its new IT head, Harmeen Mehta, with a focus on creating original content for use on smartphones. No. 2 Vodafone India has asked various healthcare and education sector entities to join hands with the company to develop applications to create successful ehealth and e-education products.No. 3 operator Idea Cellular, though, isn't into the content game, saying its predominant rural subscriber base has basic needs from mobile Internet, and that it needs to educate its users more on the usability of the Internet, rather than build apps just yet. “To meet the growing demand for mobile data, operators need to create capacity and once they create capacity, they would obviously not like to be used by other application providers simply as channels to get through to consumer, hence comes the play of content,“ said Mohammad Choudhury, the India telecom lead at consulting firm PwC, outlining the broad contours for the growth of the operators. Industry experts though feel that Bharti and Vodafone need to ramp up scale and their bouquet of ser vices to tap a substantial part of the growing smartphone consumers in a market where such device sales are expected to cross 80 million by the end of this year, nearly double of last year, as prices fall sharply .

• BBC iPlayer Now Has a 30-Day Catch-Up Window: There’s good news for UK TV viewers today – the BBC has boosted iPlayer’s hitherto seven-day catch-up window to 30 days. BBC Director-General Tony Hall first made the announcement almost a year ago to the day, though no concrete date had been given for the move. Though a handful of shows were already available via iPlayer for more than seven days, the vast majority were limited to a week-long window. From today, however, the British broadcaster will be shifting the viewing and listening window for both iPlayer and its radio-focused cousin iPlayer Radio to a full month. Launched way back in 2007, there’s little question that BBC iPlayer has set the benchmark for what an online catch-up service should look like in the 21st century. Today, viewers and listeners place more than seven million TV and radio programme requests each day across the country, so by increasing the window to 30 days this can only lead to an increase in viewing (and perhaps binge-watching).

• Cyanogen refuses Google's money in an effort to keep Android 'open': For a lot of start ups, winning Google's interest is the goal. Not Cyanogen. According to The Information, the Cyanogen CEO Kirt McMaster told shareholders that it recently shrugged off Google SVP of Android Sundar Pichai's interest in purchasing the company -- choosing instead to focus on obtaining a $1 billion valuation to aid in its third round of funding. The company's grounds for that number, and perhaps Google's interest for the company, lie with its long-term goal: to become the third most popular mobile ecosystem. Considering the fact that Cyanogen's third-tier mobile OS is essentially a more "open" version of Android, it's no surprise the company has Mountain View's attention. Even so, dismissing Google's interest is a pretty bold move -- especially considering that the company is now looking for more funding on top of the $30 million it collected last year. There's confidence there, however: Cyanogen investors are being told that the company has struck a deal with Micromax to build Cyanogen-based phones, echoing its partnership with OnePlus to bake its flavor of Android into the One. It's still too early to say if Cyanogen's efforts will pay off in the long term, but the company is definitely on Google's radar, and that's something.

• Code hints that Facebook Messenger will let you pay your friends: If you've ever had a Facebook friend in need of some money, you may soon have a way to pay them without much fuss. Stanford student Andrew Aude has shown off hidden code in Facebook Messenger's iOS app that will let you send funds much in the same way that you share a photo; you just have to add a payment card and a PIN code. The transaction is private and appears to be free at the moment, although it won't be surprising if Facebook eventually takes a small cut of each transfer. It's not certain when payments will be available, and there's a good chance that you'll be waiting a while. Security guru Jonathan Zdziarski found the first traces of e-commerce code last month, and Facebook's own Mark Zuckerberg warned that there was "so much groundwork" necessary before the social network could flip the switch. However, the company recently hired former PayPal CEO David Marcus to head up its instant messaging efforts -- there's no question that money will eventually play an important role.

• Redbox To Kill Off Its Streaming Service Next Week: 18 months after opening its doors to the public, Redbox Instant (the online streaming arm of those Redbox kiosks you see in grocery stores around the country) is shutting down. The service will officially hit the lights and kill the servers on October 7th. The idea behind Redbox Instant wasn’t a terrible one: for $6 a month, you got access to their online streaming catalog and four DVDs a month from their physical kiosks. In theory, this allowed customers to access newer movies than streaming alone would allow. Alas, it really just never caught on. While Netflix’s catalog may have some gaps, Redbox’s paled in comparison. As GigaOm points out, the company’s execs publicly admitted to being disappointed by the subscription numbers back in August. Add in the fact that Redbox has been unable to sign up new customers for months due to suspicions that credit card thieves were using the sign-up system to test stolen cards, and the whole thing sort of just fell apart.

• Snapchat Wanted MessageMe Before Yahoo Bought It For Up To $30-$40M: Earlier today we reported that messaging app MessageMe was getting acquired by Yahoo — which MessageMe has now confirmed on its site, along with the inevitable news that the app is shutting down, effective November 7. Now we’ve also learned some more details. MessageMe had also been courted by Snapchat as well as an app maker out of Europe, Truecaller. And, after earnouts retention bonuses, we hear the price that Yahoo will be paying to acqui-hire MessageMe is between $30 million and $40 million. While Snapchat would have made the deal at the same price as Yahoo, we understand that MessageMe chose purple for two reasons: Yahoo is acqui-hiring eight people, more than Snapchat would have done; and at Yahoo the team will get to stay together to work on a new messaging product. (Sidenote: Isn’t it funny that Snapchat’s involvement in a bidding game against Yahoo comes to light on the same day that reports surface of Yahoo potentially investing around $20 million in Snapchat?) Working on a new messaging app, in a sense, could represent closure, or perhaps a continuation, for the MessageMe team after they shut down their eponymous app.