Deluxe Entertainment Services Group Inc. has finalized its acquisition of Ascent Media Corporation’s (NASDAQ: ASCMA) Creative Services and Media Services businesses, including such mainstay shops as Company 3, Beast, Method Studios, Rushes, Encore Hollywood and Level 3 Post.
Many of the acquired business units provide creative and media services in television and commercial postproduction that go beyond Deluxe’s portfolio of services for the theatrical market.
“In the coming weeks and months, Deluxe will be advising customers on the new service offerings,” said Cyril Drabinsky, president and CEO of Deluxe. “We look forward to providing our customers with the best that the combined companies and teams of talented employees have to offer.”
Deluxe’s agreement to purchase Ascent Media’s creative services and media services units was initially announced in November 2010 at a purchase price of approximately $68 million (after the assumption of certain indebtedness). The deal met closing conditions and formally came to fruition on Dec. 31, 2010.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More