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Amazon adds clip sharing to the Prime Video app on iOS
You'll only be able to share snippets of select Amazon Original shows, though.
BlackBerry abandons $4.7 billion rescue deal and replaces CEO Thorsten Heins
If you were looking for positive news about BlackBerry's future, we'd suggest you look away. Canada's favorite smartphone maker has announced that its $4.7 billion rescue deal with Fairfax has collapsed. Instead, the company has switched to Plan B -- raising $1 billion in cash with a debt issue and waving goodbye to current CEO Thorsten Heins. The board is currently looking for a replacement, but in the meantime, John S Chen, former CEO of Sybase, which is now a part of SAP, will take the reins as interim CEO. The only thing we've yet to learn is what this means for BlackBerry's Global Creative Director, but she's probably preoccupied in the recording studio.
BlackBerry enters agreement for $4.7 billion sale of company to consortium led by Fairfax Financial
For the second time in as many trading days, shares of BlackBerry were halted in advance of some big news from the company. Today's news is no less big. BlackBerry has just announced that it's signed a letter of intent agreement for a sale of the company valued at $4.7 billion to a consortium led by Fairfax Financial (the company's largest shareholder). Pending due diligence that's expected to be completed by November 4th, the deal would see BlackBerry go private, with shareholders each receiving $9 per share in cash. In a statement, Fairfax Chairman and CEO Prem Watsa said, "we believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees," adding, "we can deliver immediate value to shareholders, while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company with a focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world." While BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has yet to offer any public comment on the news, the chair of BlackBerry's Board of Directors, Barbara Stymiest, drew attention to that due diligence period in her statement, saying that "the go-shop process provides an opportunity to determine if there are alternatives superior to the present proposal from the Fairfax consortium." As part of the agreement, BlackBerry would have to pay a termination fee if it accepted another offer. You can find the official announcement of the deal after the break.
Cox Northern Virginia gets 5 new HD nets: SciFi HD included
No double-takes necessary, Cox has just delivered five new HD channels in the Northern Virginia (Fairfax) area. According to a local familiar with the situation (read: watching the tube), subscribers up that way can now tune into USA HD, Bravo HD, SciFi HD, CNBC HD and Lifetime HD. Per usual, it's anybody's guess as to when (or if) these stations will find their way onto other systems, but don't ever give up hope, alright?[Thanks, Eric]
Cox Northern Virginia gets Travel Channel HD and Cinemax HD
Just days after Cox dished out ten new HD channels in the Hampton Roads / Virginia Beach area, folks up in the Northern half of the state are being treated to a new pair. And we don't want to hear any grumblings of unfair treatment -- after all, you Fairfax County subscribers got 11 newcomers of your own back in December along with HD VOD in January. Nevertheless, Northern Virginia subscribers should now have access to Travel Channel HD and Cinemax HD on slots 732 and 733, respectively -- Happy Leap Day, indeed.[Thanks, Tim]
Mythic looking for new blood to work on old games
With Warhammer Online poised to overwhelm the MMO space under thick sea of "WAAAAGH!," the last thing we really expected Mythic to be doing was building up their team working on Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online. DAoC celebrated its sixth anniversary this past year, and UO (which fell under Mythic's stewardship with the EA shakeup last fall) crested the decade mark late last year, so by gaming standards they should have been committed to a home a long time ago, only to be brought out on holidays and propped up in a chair to remind everybody else of happier times. Our own Michael Zenke predicted that 2008 would see the virtual demise of DAoC, and truthfully, I would have counted myself amongst the nay-sayers as well... that is, until yesterday.The guys and gals out of Fairfax sent out a message via The Camelot Herald that the Mythic team was looking to expand their legacy operations by taking on three new software engineers to work exclusively on the development of DAoC and UO. Granted, it's looking like this new meat would make up a considerable portion of their oldies-only teams, but certainly a promising sign for those who still count themselves amongst the faithful. Surely they wouldn't be hiring people to work on the game in anticipation of killing it off, would they? (We know, they're part of EA now, anything is possible.) But hey, if you're a software engineer in the Northern Virginia area looking for work, why not apply?[Via Allakhazam]
