Warner Bros. Rushes Tech Accelerator Into L.A.

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Warner Bros. is bringing another tech accelerator into Los Angeles – this one with a specific focus on new-media companies.

The program, called Media Camp, is a collaboration with Turner Broadcasting System Inc., which last year began an entertainment tech accelerator in the Bay Area. Turner and Warner Bros. are both owned by New York media giant Time Warner Inc.

The L.A. spinoff of Media Camp has a broad scope. It’s looking to take in and mentor any company working to innovate and disrupt the current media landscape.

“We thought there was a whole category of companies that the world was interested in finding,” said Darcy Antonellis, president and chief technology officer of Warner Bros. Technical Operations Inc. “Seeing the success with Turner, we thought it made sense to expand upon the model and bring it here.”

The Burbank movie studio is accepting applicants from around the country, generally aiming for startups that are not at the earliest stages. Companies in the program would work out of offices on the studio lot, although moving to the city wouldn’t necessarily be a requirement.

Warner Bros. executives didn’t give specifics about how much it would invest in each company or how much equity it would take. Much of the value of the program would come from the mentorship angle, where startups have the chance to work with top executives within the studio.

Media Camp is another step by the entertainment industry to bridge the gap between old media and tech – two industries that have not always been in step. But Warner Bros. has been pushing itself as the tech-friendly studio: It was the first studio to rent its movies through Facebook and Time Warner has invested millions in YouTube content creator Maker Studios in Culver City.

Executives at Warner Bros. see the L.A. accelerator as a way to keep the studio directly involved in the technology development process.

“We find ourselves in a market that’s changing how consumers experience content,” said Thomas Geweke, president of digital distribution at the studio. “It’s a big part of being a leader in the marketplace to help drive that change.

Good Reception

J2 Global Inc. recently made news with its acquisition of publisher IGN Entertainment Inc. through its new digital media division, formed through the acquisition of Ziff Davis Inc. Those moves heralded the Internet fax company as a force in the original content industry and added to a record-breaking financial quarter that has sent the stock soaring.

J2’s shares closed up 14 percent to $36.31 on Feb. 14, the day after it reported quarterly earnings. Net income for the quarter was $30.2 million, 65 cents per share, up from 62 cents a share in the year-earlier period. Its $102 million in quarterly revenue was a 20 percent increase from the same period a year ago and far outpaced analysts’ estimates of $91.9 million.

Part of that healthy bottom line came from the $48.5 million in revenue acquired through the Ziff Davis purchase, but the majority was from the continuing success of online faxing. The company’s “cancel rate,” which measures how many members have closed accounts, was at a record low of 2.2 percent of its subscribers.

Its faxing business accounted for 75 percent of its revenue, but with the entry into digital media, company executives project that to fall to 55 percent.

“This is an amazing achievement thinking about the fact that but three months ago we were not in this space at all,” said Hemi Zucker, J2’s chief executive.

Email Security

There’s a constant war of attrition between email programs and hackers, and victims abound. Most recently, a cadre of foreign journalists in Myanmar noticed their Gmail accounts were being snooped in an apparent state-sponsored hacking spree.

Sean Leonard of West L.A.’s’ Penango Inc. thinks his company’s Web email encryption service could have kept the correspondents’ info safe. The company recently unveiled a browser plug-in that integrates with Gmail to keep people’s messages strictly for their eyes only. Penango has already sold its service to some high-profile government clients, including the U.S. Navy and several national laboratories.

People use Panango by downloading the plug-in and getting a special number-based password. When someone enters the password, the plug-in authenticates the computer and encrypts the email so only the sender and intended recipient can read the message. A hacker breaking into an email account without the Penango password would only see a blank message.

Right now Penango is only for Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, with Chrome and Safari support soon to come. And it’s just for Gmail, so it wouldn’t have helped President George W. Bush, whose personal artwork was revealed to the world when his sister’s AOL account was hacked.


Staff reporter Tom Dotan can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549- 5225, ext. 263.

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