The 11th Hour Dispatch — Thursday, September 13, 2018
YOUNG MONEY
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos took a break from creating nosey robots and sitting on his personal fortune of $163.8 billion to launch a $2 billion fund to support homeless families and build a network of non-profit preschools in low-income areas. The Bezos Day One Fund will award organizations doing “compassionate, needle-moving work” for families in need. Interesting move for Bezos considering his company has been at least partially blamed for Seattle’s growing homeless population. Amazon has faced criticism as of late over the wages it pays its warehouse workers and the skyrocketing prices of housing in Seattle because of the e-commerce behemoth’s presence in the city. Though a source close to Bezos stated that the $2 billion was a “starting point,” the fund is noticeably small in comparison to those of other billionaires. Microsoft founder Bill Gates has poured $35.8 billion into The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation since 1994. Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett announced in 2006 that he would give most of his fortune to the Gates Foundation, a number that at the time was around $30 billion. And the villain of the hour, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, pledged in December 2015 to give away 99% of their Facebook shares over their lifespans. At the time, that was valued at $45 billion.
BINGE WATCH
The UK’s Virgin Media has partnered with zone·tv to launch a customizable children’s channel. My Virgin TV Kids will allow the tiny humans to create personalized playlists of popular children’s shows. Kids will be able to access My Virgin TV Kids through the Virgin video-on-demand channel and find the shows they want to watch in the guide, including favorites like Teletubbies, Caillou, and Bob the Builder, regardless of when they normally air. The channel, using zone·tv’s AI technology, will gradually learn the child’s viewing habits and start recommending related content and playlists. Nothing like starting ’em young.
BIG BUSINESS
iHeartMedia is acquiring podcast provider Stuff Media in a deal that the Wall Street Journal valued at $55 million. This will greatly expand iHeartMedia’s place in the podcasting landscape. It already has partnerships with major players including NPR, WNYC, and Gimlet, which give it distribution rights to over 20K podcasts through its iHeartRadio Podcast Network. This deal, in addition to its prior partnerships and the 750+ original shows it produces, will expand its reach greatly. Stuff Media, the production company behind the popular Stuff You Should Know podcast (aka the first podcast to reach 500 million downloads on iTunes), has a library of over 10K episodes and boasts one billion downloads to date. iHeartMedia reported that its listener numbers have increased 73% year-over-year between 2017 and 2018.
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
This legitimately made me tear up it made me so happy. What is wrong with me.
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