From the Portland Press Herald: "A federal bankruptcy
judge on Friday approved a plan to auction off the
failed BroadcastAmerica.com in an attempt to raise money and pay
off more than $4 million to creditors.
"Under the plan proposed by the company and approved
by Judge James B. Haines Jr., sealed bids must be submitted by
Jan. 31. The company will select winning bids and present them
to the court Feb. 8...
"In December, the company was forced to tell its employees
they would no longer be paid. The company has been operating since
then with the help of some former employees who have been working
for free.
"Any bidder that wants to walk away with BroadcastAmerica's
contracts with more than 700 radio stations 
and
70 television stations will have to beat a $1 million bid from
BA Funding, a BroadcastAmerica lender and business partner.
"The $1 million is the amount BA Funding promised
to provide to BroadcastAmerica last November in a deal that BroadcastAmerica
principals hoped would save their company. In return for the money,
BroadcastAmerica pledged to give SurferNETWORK, a BA Funding affiliate,
a 10 percent stake."
Read the entire story here.
From the company press release: "Hiwire today announced
staff reductions. While the growth in listening for
Internet radio and Webcasting remains strong from a macro perspective,
many individual netcasters are experiencing difficulty.
"As a result, Hiwire determined that strategic staff
reductions are a necessary economic move to maintain a strong company
through 2001.
"'In choosing to make staffing reductions and to streamline
internal administration, we will strengthen the company’s prospects
while maintaining our ability to serve our growing ad network,'
stated Warren Schlichting, CEO of Hiwire. 'Hiwire continues to make
progress on all fronts – from developing leading technology to attracting
top-tier advertisers and broadcasters.'"
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From i-Street LA: "Santa Monica-based
Launch.com,
an online music provider, joined the growing list of dot-coms to
begin the new year with a little bloodletting. The music portal
laid off about 20 of its 260 employees, but declined to give a reason
for the cutback.
"Like many of its industry peers, Launch Media has seen
its stock take a severe beating on Wall Street, losing about 95
percent of its value...
"Launch's woes follow the demise of MusicMaker.com,
a digital music retailer that sold CD compilations. The Reston,
Va.-based company, which debuted in mid-1999 with a first
day valuation of $717.6 million, shut down last week after its board
of directors decided to liquidate the company."
Read the story
here
(click the newsletter from 1/10/2000).
Launch Senior VP of Content Licensing
Dan
Forth led the class of layoffs Forth formerly served
as President/CEO of Sony Worldwide Networks, and is a veteran of
ABC Radio Networks.
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From ZDNet.com: "
Thomson
Multimedia is working to develop a new version of its patented
MP3 technology in a
bid to stave off rival Web audio formats that achieve similar or
better quality using smaller files.
"The France-based company on Tuesday said the new format,
dubbed
MP3Pro, will offer the
same audio quality as the MP3 format -- by far the most popular
audio format on the Web -- in about half the file size.
"The companies said the new format will be compatible
with existing MP3 content and players. It will be
available
in mid-2001...
"One key factor in keeping formats relevant is the 'bit
rate' at which audio files are encoded. MP3 streams at a bit rate
of 128 kbps. Some competing formats (Windows Media, for instance)
stream at a bit rate of 64 kbps,
offering the same quality while taking up less bandwidth for streaming
companies and less memory for consumers.
"Thomson said MP3Pro will match the 64 kbps, allowing
streaming companies to save money on audio delivery and customers
to store more files on limited memory devices such as portable MP3
players."
Read this article
here.
Read the official Thomson press release
here.
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Try
it out! Explore the wide world of
Internet audio by clicking the screenshot above.
