Canada Wireless Subscribers Investment Canadian direct investment assets abroad increased $44.6 billion or 7.0% by the end of 2011 to $684.5 billion. However, foreign direct investment in Canada increased at a slower pace in 2011, up $22.4 billion or 3.8% to $607.5 billion.

1

Week of April 23, 2012

Global Motorola/EU Probe The European Union’s competition watchdog has officially opened investigations into whether Motorola Mobility, which is being purchased by Google, is unfairly restricting competitors from licensing patents. Marathons The most finishers in the world’s largest marathons in 2011, according to Running USA, as reported by USA Today:

Wireless Carriers 2011 Subscribers 2010 Subscribers % Change

Rogers Wireless 9,335,000 8,977,000 + 4.0%

Bell Wireless 7,427,482 7,242,048 + 2.6%

Telus Mobility 7,340,000 6,971,000 + 5.3%

MTS Mobility 496,432 483,754 + 2.6%

Wind Mobile 403,000 232,641 + 73.2%

Videotron 287,500 92,600 + 210.5%

Marathon Finishers

ING New York City 47,133

Bank of America Chicago 35,755

Virgin London 35,126

BMW Berlin (Germany) 32,816

Tokyo International 32,395

2

Corporate Avon/Coty’s Direct cosmetics seller Avon has rejected a $10 billion buyout offer from smaller beauty products maker Coty. Some facts and figures, as reported by The Wall Street Journal: Burger King Burger King, the fast food chain taken private in 2010 by New York investment firm 3G Capital and currently the third largest burger chain, is going public. Sirius In the U.S., digital radio platform Sirius XM Radio (21.9 million subscribers) asked the FCC to “dismiss or deny” an application made by John Malone’s Liberty Media, a 40% equity holder, for approval to take “de facto” control of the satellite radio broadcaster. Sony Electronics and entertainment behemoth Sony is projecting losses of $6.4 billion in 2011. The company plans to slash 10,000 jobs as well as slim down their TV line.

Category Avon Coty

Founded 1886 1904

Revenue $11.3 billion $4.5 billion

Trading Public Private

Facebook/AOL After recently spending $1 billion to purchase photo-sharing application developer Instagram, Facebook is further enriching its intellectual property by paying $550 million for 650 AOL patents and applications, as well as a license to AOL patents and applications that Microsoft will purchase and own. The portfolio that AOL is reported to be selling includes patents that cover e-mail, instant messaging, browsing, search, advertising, and other internet-related technologies.

B2B

3

Litigation Facebook/Yahoo In response to Yahoo’s lawsuit alleging violation of 10 of its patents, Facebook has launched a 10 infringement patent lawsuit of its own against Yahoo. Groupon Daily deal site Groupon is facing investigation in the U.S. on its accounting practices and now some of its shareholders are initiating a lawsuit. The accounting issues surfaced when Groupon disclosed that they had not set aside adequate reserves for customers seeking refunds through its “Groupon Promise” program.

Retail Walmart/Dollarama

With the first Canadian Target store scheduled to open in early 2013, Dollarama plans to open 60 new stores this year while Walmart expects to spend more than $750 million to open, relocate or remodel 73 stores, all in hopes to capture a larger share of the retail market.

Sears Canada/Return Policy Sears Canada has revamped their returns policy. Starting in May, Sears will eliminate re-stocking fees for returned goods and make it easier for shoppers to return items. For returns without a receipt, Sears will issue a one-year store credit at the lowest selling price in the past 60 days. Toronto Premium Outlet Construction is slated to begin soon on Toronto Premium Outlets, a new 500,000 square-foot mall in Halton Hills, located west of Toronto and just north of Oakville. The new outlet center is expected to create more than 500 full-time and part-time jobs, in addition to the hundreds of local construction positions over the next 16 months. The new mall is expected to open in the summer of 2013.

Image source: styleblog.ca

Image source: mylot.com

4

Sports NCAA/Baylor Baylor has become the first NCAA basketball team – women or men – to complete a 40-0 season to become the NCAA women’s champion. National Hockey League/Goalies Goalies with best save percentage in Stanley Cup playoffs, as reported by USA Today:

Goalie Percentage Saves

Dominik Hasek .925

Ed Belfour .920

Martin Brodeur .919

Patrick Roy .918

Publishing Magazines MediaFinder.com, an online database of U.S. and Canadian publications, has reported that more magazines launched than closed in the first quarter of the year, which saw the debut of 52 titles versus just 12 titles shuttered. The top category of new launches was restaurants, followed by hunting and fishing, and lifestyle. Tablet/Circulation Reportage The association of magazine media in the U.S., have released a set of voluntary guidelines for reporting tablet based circulation. The new rules: when a publication’s digital editions constitute over 2% of its total circulation (and average at least 3,000 copies), the publishers must report net digital circulation by platform type, including web, apps and multiplatform offers. The new report format requires publishers to report several key metrics for digital magazine consumption via tablet apps and web browsers, including the number of unique browsers or devices, total visits and average visit duration.

5

Online YouTube/Video Channel Ad Model YouTube has unveiled a new ad model to support its batch of video channels – selling sponsorships (display, overlay and pre-roll) rather than TV style demographics. Annualized cost projected to be between $4 million to $6 million. The deal: YouTube provides an initial grant for channel production, then splits profits from ad sales with creators after the initial investment is recouped. Channel sampling: Moms, Young Hollywood and Automotive. WeddingGiftRefund.com WeddingGiftRefund.com’s unique proposition: when you buy a wedding gift, you register on the website and upload an image of your receipt, pay a fee of 8% of the purchase price and if the marriage ends within 36 months you notify the site and get your purchase price back. Pinterest/Amazon/eBay

Amazon and eBay have added Pinterest buttons to product pages, whose users can share product images and page links directly to the retailers.

Google Gmail Google has increased the storage capacity for the popular email system. Effective immediately, all Gmail users will receive a boost of 33% in space, from 7.5G to 10.0G for free. YouTube YouTube has added monetization options to its live streaming platform (YouTube Live) in which publishers can charge for live events (advertising or paid).

Image source: weddinggiftrefund.com

Image source: lisasuttora.com

6

Gaming EA/Advertising Models Video gamer EA has defined the four types of advertising models that are the focus of their revenue generation: 1.  Traffic Drivers: ads that drive players in the game to visit a brand’s

Facebook page, where they can download a free in-game virtual good 2.  Quests: players that will have to take a number of steps inside the game to

earn a valuable item at the end 3.  Store Tabs: in the virtual goods store there will be a whole tab dedicated to

the brand 4.  Media Integration: users can watch a short video advertisement or other

type of media to unlock a virtual good Playstation/Amazon Prime Amazon Prime Instant Video app is now available for Sony Playstation 3 console, letting Playstation Network users who subscribe to the Amazon service stream more than 17,000 movies and TV shows.

Video Rental Marketplace According to a study conducted by Toronto based Convergence Consulting Group and reported by Home Media magazine on its website, streaming video on demand from companies such as Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime will account for 25% of the theatrical rental share vs. 13% a year ago. Kiosk rentals led by Redbox will see their share augmented to 22% from 19% in 2011, while video by mail rentals will plunge to 16% from 25%.

Airlines Allegiant Air Allegiant Air, a low-cost U.S. airline based in Nevada, has started charging passengers up to $35 to stow carry on bags in its overhead storage bins.

Image source: jaunted.com

7

Paramount/YouTube/Google Play Hollywood studio Paramount has pacted with Google to allow its movies to be rented through YouTube and Google Play. Rentals will be priced at $3.99 for new releases and $2.99 for older titles, with movies available for viewing for 24 hours after they’re initially rented. Note: the deal gives Google rental rights from all of the major studios except 20th Century Fox. Dreamworks/Reliance India’s Reliance has invested another $200 million in struggling Hollywood studio Dreamworks. Under its new deal with Reliance, which invested $325 million in the studio in 2009, Dreamworks will scale back its release schedule to 3-5 movies per year, all of which are due to be released by Disney, and will find co-financiers for all of the films. Bob Marley/Facebook For the first time Facebook will stream a movie online on the same day that it opens in theaters. The movie, Marley, a documentary about the late reggae singer Bob Marley that is being released by Magnolia Pictures, will be available for a rental fee ($6.99) commencing April 20th.

Events Groupon/Ticketmaster GrouponLive, the joint-venture between the two companies that let users get deals on local entertainment events have announced a new feature called G-Pass. Instead of stopping by the box office to exchange for the actual event tickets, G-Pass allows GrouponLive customers to bypass the counter and head straight to the entrance for those events.

Movies

Image source: jayblessed.com

8

Religion Pope/Ordaining Women/Ending Celibacy The New York Times reported that during his Holy Thursday, homily Pope Benedict XVI denounced “disobedience” in the Roman Catholic Church, chastising priests who sought the ordination of women and the abolition of priestly celibacy. In 2006, the Rev. Helmut Schuller, the former director of a Catholic aid agency, Caritas Austria, recommended removing the obligation of priestly celibacy and to permit priests to give holy communion to divorced Catholics who have remarried without an annulment as well as allowing the ordination of women. His concern was the shortage of priests. Pop XVI referred to Pope John Paul’s 1994 apostolic letter saying that the church “has no authority whatsoever” to ordain women, citing among its reasons that the apostles of Jesus Christ were all men.

Technology App Stores The chart below shows the number of apps that the major platforms house (February 2012), according to comScore, as reported by The Wall Street Journal: Google Glasses Google Glasses, currently in prototype stage, are designed with a small see-through display screen above a person’s eye that can show maps and other data. The wearer could use voice command to interact. HDTV’s A new study released by ABI Research listed the most popular high definition TV brands by manufacturer:

Platform Apps

iPhone 585,000+

Android 450,000+

Blackberry 70,000+

Windows 70,000+

Manufacturer Share of Mind

Samsung 20%

Sony 19%

LG 12%

Vizio 11%

Image source: bbc.co.uk

9

Contact Information: 473 Adelaide St. W, Suite 300 Toronto, ON M5V 1T1 416-920-6864 @MPG_MC_Canada

Personalities Mike Wallace Mike Wallace, legendary 60 minutes anchor, has passed away. He was 93 years old. The RMS Titanic The world celebrated the 100th year anniversary of the loss of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, off Newfoundland, on its maiden voyage from Southhampton, England to New York, on April 15th. Of more than 2,200 passengers and crew only 712 (or 713) survived, largely for lack of lifeboats. “Have Struck Iceberg.” The three words were received April 14, 1912, at the Hatteras Weather Bureau Station on North Carolina’s coast, via telegraph.

Broadcast CBS/David Letterman CBS has extended Late Night talk show host David Letterman’s contract through 2014, which will officially make him the longest running night talk show host in TV history. David has helmed his late night franchise since 1982 and thereby will be surpassing Johnny Carson’s current record of 30 years in late night TV.

Image source: nj.com

Image source: blog.zap2it.com