Techtalk/12″/mike1st/mark2nd
Largely due to George Lucas’ cheerleading and deep pockets, digital movie projectors became a reality this summer when they were tested in several local movie theaters.
The next step is for companies to develop a digital means of distributing movies to the next-generation projectors. Among them is Camarillo-based Technicolor, which by acquiring a major stake last week in L.A. digital cinema technology developer Real Image Digital has ensured that it won’t become as antiquated as celluloid reels ultimately will be.
“Technicolor understands that we’re not just in the movie print business, or just the video business, but the mass distribution business,” said Rob Hummel, Technicolor’s executive vice president of digital technologies development. “We want to position ourselves in the leadership role.”
Technicolor acquired 49 percent of Real Image Digital for $23 million, and intends to, after a trial period, invest an additional $60 million toward business development.
Hummel emphasized that Technicolor is working on developing an open standard, meaning that the technology will be agnostic in terms of needed hardware.
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Cable access update: After months of sitting on his hands, Federal Communications Commission Chairman William Kennard filed a “friend of the court” brief last week, arguing that municipalities should not require AT & T; Corp. to open up its cables to competing high-speed Internet access providers.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing a lower-court ruling that upheld Portland, Ore.’s right to require that AT & T; opens its network.
While Kennard did not specifically ask that the Portland ruling be overturned, he argued that only the FCC has jurisdiction regarding the matter and that letting cities develop a patchwork of policies could lead to “chaos.”
L.A.’s city government, which is currently deliberating on the issue, has kept a close eye on the Portland precedent.
In other legal news, the U.S. District Court in L.A. has dismissed all claims brought by El Segundo-based IT services provider Computer Sciences Corp. against Computer Associates International Inc. CSC’s lawsuit stemmed from the $10 billion hostile takeover bid by Islandia, N.Y.-based Computer Associates in 1998. CSC claimed that Computer Associates had acquired and used confidential information in its failed acquisition attempt. The court found no evidence to support the charge.
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America Online had a profitable week thanks to a couple of L.A.-based companies. Santa Monica-based eToys announced an $18 million marketing agreement with AOL. EToys will be featured as the leading toy retailer on all of AOL’s Web sites, which include Netscape and CompuServe.
Pasadena-based Petsmart.com, the Idealab! offspring that sells pet supplies and services online, announced a similar marketing agreement with AOL. Petsmart.com executives did not divulge the deal’s cost.
Sara Fisher can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].
