AT&T Becomes First Provider To Offer TV And Wireless Bundling

Shortly after AT&T officially acquired DirecTV, the carrier is offering TV and mobile plans on a single bill.

Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters

The first ever TV-wireless packages are here, and they're being offered by AT&T, just weeks after the carrier officially bought DirecTV for $48.5 billion.

The novel bundling, the company says, is one way consumers are benefitting from the DirecTV acquisition, which made AT&T the largest pay-TV provider in the world.

One of the main packages offered is a $200 monthly plan, combining HD TV with unlimited talk and text and 10GB of wireless data that can be shared with up to four wireless lines and four TVs.

Other deals revolving around the signature all-in-one plan include a $300 bill credit for TV customers who add a wireless plan, and a monthly combined bill discount.

"Today is the first of many planned moves to enable our customers to enjoy a premium entertainment experience almost anywhere," said Brad Bentley, AT&T's executive vice president and chief marketing officer. "We're going to deliver more TV and entertainment choices to more screens — when and where our customers want it."

As mobile use and internet streaming continue to shift the consumption of entertainment away from the living room, the company hopes its unique bundling offers will lure people away from competitors, and add to its 26 million TV customers in the U.S.

The Federal Communications Commission, which approved the acquisition last month, expects the newly bolstered AT&T to increase competition by driving down prices and expanding offerings.

The Commission regarded the deal, which was first proposed in 2014, as serving the public interest, believing AT&T would be in a better position to challenge incumbent cable companies.

LINK: AT&T Buys DirecTV For $67 Billion In Second Major Deal To Reshape TV Industry

Source

Twitter Product Executives Are Leaving In A Hurry

Interim Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said his product team’s shortcomings are “unacceptable.” Now, they’re walking out the door.

Jack Dorsey is experiencing his first wave of executive departures since returning to Twitter as interim CEO earlier this month.

Dorsey lost three top product execs this week. On Tuesday, right after the company's earnings results were announced, news broke that Director of Product Management Todd Jackson and Head of Growth Christian Oestlien were on the way out.

And then, on Friday, Twitter confirmed to Re/Code that Trevor O'Brien, the product lead in charge of the company's apps, is also leaving.

The departures could be little shakers that amount to nothing, or tremors foreshadowing a larger tectonic shift.

Dorsey hasn't hid his dissatisfaction with Twitter's product efforts. He's also made clear that he's willing to rethink the social media platform's fundamentals in order to grow the service.

"Product initiatives we'd mentioned in previous earnings calls, like Instant Timelines and Logged-Out experiences, have not yet had meaningful impact on growing our audience or participation," Dorsey said during the earnings call earlier this week. "This is unacceptable and we're not happy about it."

Both Oestlien and Jackson are headed to new jobs — Oestlien to YouTube and Jackson to Dropbox. There's no word yet on what O'Brien's plans are.

The moves didn't happen overnight, but the wheels begin turning during times of uncertainty: That head hunter you turned down a few times all of a sudden gets a few minutes. One conversation turns into another. And then it's decision time.

As Dorsey sets out to remake the company, he's losing a fair deal of institutional knowledge. But for someone who's said, "I want us to question everything to make it better," that may not be a bad thing.

Source

Famous Silicon Valley Matchmaker's Charity Is Not Actually A Charity

Instead of charging a fee, Pari Livermore asks clients to send donations to her pet charities. Problem is, one of them was not a charity at all and donations went straight to her home address.

Pari Livermore at her home in San Rafael, California, on Oct. 30, 2007.

Darcy Padilla/The New York Times

Pari Livermore, a matchmaker to many Silicon Valley elites, has become famous for the unconventional bargain she strikes with her clients: Instead of paying her directly for her services, they instead donate to her chosen charities. Glowing profiles in the New York Times and GQ, among others, have attested to the thousands of singles who paid to attend her "Red & White" parties and to private clients who paid $10,000 a year or more for her services. She often says her introductions have led to hundreds of marriages.

Over the years, Livermore has championed a variety of charities, but at least since 2007 she has directed some clients to support an organization called Spotlight on Heroes, which she described as a charity helping underserved kids in Northern California and other causes.

But BuzzFeed News has found that Spotlight on Heroes is not in fact a charity.

---

View Entire List ›

Source

Which Celebrity Is Young Twitter CRO Adam Bain?

You be the judge…

---

View Entire List ›

Source

Mark Zuckerberg Announces Pregnancy With First Child And Opens Up About Past Miscarriages

“We hope that sharing our experience will give more people the same hope we felt.”

"Priscilla and I have some exciting news: we're expecting a baby girl!" Zuckerberg writes.

View Video ›

The 31-year-old Facebook founder and 30-year-old doctor have been married since 2012. The pregnancy marks a new chapter in the couples' lives, as they prepare to "make the world a better place for [their] child and the next generation."

facebook.com

Zuckerberg continues the announcement by sharing that this pregnancy marks the end of a difficult struggle with miscarriages over the past few years.

"We've been trying to have a child for a couple of years and have had three miscarriages along the way," Zuckerberg writes. He goes on to explain how isolating and lonely the experience was for him and his wife.

"You feel so hopeful when you learn you're going to have a child," he writes. "You start imagining who they'll become and dreaming of hopes for their future. You start making plans, and then they're gone. It's a lonely experience."

Mark Zuckerberg / Via facebook.com

"Most people don't discuss miscarriages because you worry your problems will distance you or reflect upon you [...] So you struggle on your own. [But] When we started talking to our friends, we realized how frequently this happened — that many people we knew had similar issues and that nearly all had healthy children after all."

"In today's open and connected world, discussing these issues doesn't distance us; it brings us together. It creates understanding and tolerance, and it gives us hope [...] We hope that sharing our experience will give more people the same hope we felt and will help more people feel comfortable sharing their stories as well," Zuckerberg writes.

---

View Entire List ›

Source