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The Dow Jones had its largest one day gain ever, up 936 points to 9387.61. The Dow went up as investors learned of the governments plan to invest $250 billion in nine of the country’s top banks. Shares of Apple were up 19%, while Microsoft saw a 14% increase. Viacom was a big winner, with a 23% increase in share value.
As expected, Dreamworks signed a seven year theatrical distribution deal with Universal Studios. The Dreamworks-Universal pact, which could produce as many as six films as year, is expected to distribute its first film by September of 2010. Dreamworks, now private and supported by over a billion dollars of private equity money, will pay Universal an 8% distribution fee, while Universal will advance the marketing costs of films.
President Bush signed an anti-piracy bill yesterday that will increase enforcement related to sales of counterfeit music, movies, drugs and software. The bill will create an administrative coordinator in charge of protecting the U.S’s intellectual property. The administrator will be in the President’s cabinet, rather than the Department of Justice.
Apple is expected to unveil a refreshed line of laptops today. Initial rumors had Steve revealing a new low-end MacBook, however, as reports come out that seems to be less likely. However, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber believes that instead Jobs will introduce a sort-of MacBook-Air hybrid, complete with two NVIDIA GPU’s and a glass, button-less trackpad, which is actually a button itself. As usual, all eyes on Steve.
Plus, today’s consulting question, “How did Google violate copyright laws in Germany?” Shelly has the answer on today’s MediaBytes.