Baseball

Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) has selected software from Cognos, an IBM company that provides business intelligence and performance management software, to help analyze player performance statistics. The software will provide hundreds of agents with "self-service" views and reports, and "will also enable the agents to perform ad hoc analysis on different scenarios with nearly immediate answers." (Digital Media Wire, 3/28/08)

Asia Business

Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing has closed a second $60million investment round into social networking website Facebook. The investment was made through the Li Ka-Shing Foundation, and boosts Li's holdings in Facebook to $120million. The deal values Facebook at $15billion. (Los Angeles Times, 3/28/08)

Asia Sports

Sports sponsorship growth in Asia rose by 54% in 2007, with net a spending of $643 million, driven in part by the Beijing Olympics, according to IVCast from OgilvyAction. However, there was also a large rise in the sheer number of deals being done in other Asian countries with 2,233 in 2007 versus 1,624 in 2006, showing that the popularity and relevance of sponsorship is growing. The forecast for 2008 is currently showing a small decline of 9.5% reflecting the unknown continuation of deals recorded in 2007. (SportBusiness.com, 3/27/08)

India Entertainment

Reliance Entertainment, the largest player in the Indian film industry, is making an ambitious play in the US entertainment market by quietly buying up cinemas across the U.S. and is poised to launch in April as a coast-to-coast chain. Recently, George Soros paid $100 million for a 5% stake in Reliance, which has 250 screens in 28 North American locations, including Washington DC, New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, San Jose, Los Angeles, Washington state. The company plans to rename the US sites "Big Cinemas" as their renovations are completed, and says most of the sites are close to centers of ex-pat Indian and Asian populations. The company's objective is not to force the pace of crossover by Bollywood movies but to play popular movies from a wider range of sources, including popular Chinese or Korean cinema. The company's expansion into the US entertainment market, which is likely to be followed by moves into other countries, is one of several efforts to diversify into the entertainment industry. With major positions in telecommunications, broadband Internet, video, radio, movie production and post-production, Reliance has also unveiled plans to offer up to 20 TV channels and is weeks away from launching India's fourth satellite TV platform. Overall, the move underlines Indian companies' growing appetite for international properties and influence. (VarietyAsiaOnline, 3/26/08)

The Indian entertainment sector is expected to grow by 18% per year for the next four years, and could be worth $28.6 billion by 2011, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). PwC points to record inward foreign investment of $211 million and increased digitalization, and estimates that Internet advertising will hit $104 million in 2008, and touch $272 million in 2012. Film is expected to expand from $2.37 billion to $4.35 billion by 2012 as movie players discover revenue streams beyond the traditional box office such as television, mobile, Internet, home video, merchandise, music, re-make rights, and several branded entertainment opportunities. TV, where most of the foreign investment has gone, is forecast to grow from $5.59 billion to $14.8 billion by 2012. (VarietyAsiaOnline.com, 3/25/06)

Japan Baseball

The Orix Buffaloes will accept a ruling that effectively allows the Softbank Hawks to sign with RHP Jeremy Powell following a contract dispute between the two Japanese League clubs, a senior Orix official said. Orix said it would back off from its bid to acquire Powell after acting Japanese baseball commissioner Yasuchika Negoro issued a ruling in favor of Softbank. Orix and Softbank both announced the acquisition of Powell in January, claiming the validity of their respective deals. Powell has made clear his intention of joining the Hawks, who offered the more lucrative of the two deals. (JapanBall.com, 3/25/08)

China Entertainment

Nineyou International, a developer and publisher of online games in China, has raised $100 million in private equity funding from Temasek Holdings from Singapore. Shanghai-based Nineyou withdrew plans for a $154 million IPO in Japan last year, after two Korean companies threatened legal action over disputed game licenses. (Digital Media Wire, 3/25/08)

India Business

Tata Motors, India's top carmaker, announced a deal for British luxury automakers Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford for $2.3 billion. Ford paid for $2.5billion for Jaguar in 1989 and $2.8billion for Land Rover in March 2000. The deal obligates Ford to pay about $600 million into the Jaguar-Land Rover pension fund on closing, so Ford will net only about $1.7 billion. (Los Angeles Times, 3/25/08)