Dreamworks Animation is an independent animation company founded in October 12, 1994 by current CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, and David Geffen. Located in Glendale, California, the company debuted in 1998 with The Prince of Egypt. In later years, Dreamworks Animation released major franchises such as Shrek, Madagascar, and Kung Fu Panda and is planning on releasing the second installment of How to Train Your Dragon for summer 2014.
According to the newest filed annual 10-K report, revenue was reported to be $706.9 million in 2013, with a gross profit of $257.1 million and a net income loss of $55.7 million.
On March 2014, Dreamworks Animation released Mr. Peabody and Sherman, directed by Rob Minkoff and written by Craig Wright. Based on the book by the deceased Jay Ward, Mr. Peabody and Sherman tells the story of genius and accomplished hyper-advanced dog Mr. Peabody and his adopted human son Sherman traveling though time and space in Mr. Peabody's time machine, the WAMBAC to fix a problem that Sherman caused. In the midst of trying to impress his friend Penny Peterson, mischievous Sherman creates a rip in the universe, altering major events in history that would cause havoc in the present. During the journey the three go on throughout the film, Mr. Peabody learns how to do the hardest thing in all of history: how to be a parent.
Prior to being released in theaters, Dreamworks Animation promoted the film through posters, banner ads, flyers, the film's main website, the company's social media platforms, and trailers that were released via the company's Youtube channel starting October 25th of last year. The company also released the trailers in various languages so as to engage their audiences from non-American countries.
Mr. Peabody and Sherman starred Ty Burrell (Mr. Peabody), Max Charles (Sherman), and Ariel Winter (Penny Peterson). It had an estimated budget of $145,000,000 and brought in $32,207,057 on the film's opening weekend. As of April 15, 2014, the film grossed $105,851,321.
After the release of Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Dreamworks Animation added multimedia into the movie's main website such as videos and games involving the three main protagonists. These games include a jigsaw puzzle and personality quiz. In addition to their online games, Dreamworks Animation also released a downloadable game app for mobile devices, consisting of the player going back in time on the WAMBAC from the movie and answering questions to proceed throughout the game.
Following its release of Mr. Peabody and Sherman in the spring, Dreamworks Animation announced that they would be releasing the second movie for the How to Train Your Dragon franchise on April of 2014,. Simply titled How to Train Your Dragon 2, this sequel takes place five years after the events of the first film.
According to its IMDb website, How to Train Your Dragon 2 tells the story of the protagonist Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), his dragon Toothless, and their friends discovering an ice cave inhabiting new dragon species and a mysterious being who calls himself the Dragon Rider. After running into the new dragons, Hiccup and Toothless find themselves in the middle of a major battle between humans and dragons, and must use their sense of justice and friendship to find a way to bring peace.
According to Dreamworks Animation's most recently updated 10-K annual financial report, the company has made plans for its film releases up till December 23, 2015. From the graph, the upcoming films are titled Home, set for release on November 26, 2014; The Penguins for March 27; B.O.O. for June 5, and Kung Fu Panda 3 for December 23 of 2015.
Seeing that Dreamworks Animation has made plans for its future film releases two years in advance of when the 2013 10-K document was filed, the company aims to bring its film production up to another level and increase its popularity by releasing films at a faster rate.
Dreamworks Animation has released many films since its debut and has been increasing the number of films it releases annually. For 2014 and 2015, the company has put its sights on releasing three-four films each year.
For the spring and summer season of 2014, Dreamworks Animation has released Mr. Peabody and Sherman and is planning on releasing How to Train Your Dragon 2 in theaters later in June. Although Mr. Peabody and Sherman did not do well in the box office, setting the company back, the release of How to Train Your Dragon 2 is expected to make up for the loss and bring back the company's past successes in animated franchise.
CBS Corporation is a mass media corporation, primarily operated in the United States. Originally founded as Viacom in 1971, the modern-day CBS Corporation is the result the 2005 split of Viacom into two publicly traded companies. With the split, CBS Corporation retained the rights to all CBS broadcast networks as well as pay-cable stations. Their current television assets include CBS, Showtime, and CBS Sports Network. They also have a 50/50 share of the CW with Time Warner's Warner Bros division.
Sumner M. Redstone: Sumner M. Redstone serves as Chairman of the Board of both CBS Corporation and Viacom. He assumed these roles after the 2005 split of Viacom into two separate companies. Prior to the split, Redstone had served as Chairman of the Board of Viacom since 1987 and CEO of Viacom since 1996. Currently, he is the controlling shareholder of both companies.
Leslie Moonves: Leslie Moonves is President and Chief Executive Officer of CBS Corporation. He was was named CEO of CBS Corporation upon its creation in 2005. Prior to this, he had served as CEO of CBS Television since 1998 and was briefly Co-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer of Viacom from 2004 to 2005.
CBS Corporation has been publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since January 3, 2006. On March 6th, 2014, their stock price hit an all time high, reaching $67.55. Since then, the stock price has been steadily decreasing. Their current stock price is $60.64.
. CBS: The CBS broadcast network, formerly the Columbia Broadcasting System, first launched as a radio network in 1927. Currently, CBS is one of the "Big Four" television networks, competing with NBC, ABC, and FOX.
.Showtime: CBS Corporation's premium-cable channel, Showtime, launched on Ju ly 1, 1976. The original Showtime channel has served as a flagship for Showtime Networks, which now consists of over 10 premium cable channels, including The Movie Channel, FLIX, and Smithsonian Networks.
The CW: The CW was launched on September 18, 2006. The CW is the result of merger between UPN (formerly operated by CBS) and the WB (formerly operated by Warner Bros). The CW's target demographic skews a bit younger than CBS and Showtime networks.
CBS Sports: CBS Sports is sports-oriented cable channel that was originally launched as the National College Sports Network in 2002. In 2011, the channel was re-branded as CBS Sports Network. The channel currently airs the PGA tour, US tennis, NCAA basketball, and college football.
 TV by the Numbers, "Late Night TV Ratings For April 7-April 11, 2014", Retrieved April 20th, 2014.
 CBS, "CBS ANNOUNCES STEPHEN COLBERT AS THE NEXT HOST OF THE "LATE SHOW", Retrieved April 20th, 2014.
 CBS Sports, "CBS to broadcast eight Thursday night football games in 2014", Retrieved April 20th, 2014.
As the world's largest start up company, Yahoo is a global technology corporation that started as a simple search engine and has grown into a web portal at the global forefront of highly personalized, "daily habit" products and services. Whether through the Yahoo home page or their own personalized page, affectionately named My Yahoo, 800 million monthly users in 60 countries around the world have access to weather, mail, sports, finance, games, and many more powered through Yahoo services.
Founded in 1994 by two Stanford PhD candidates, David Filo and Jerry Yang, Yahoo initially began as a website, titled Jerry and Dave's Guide to the World Wide Web, that listed David and Jerry's favorite internet sites. After gaining heavy popularity, the two discovered that their little guide could become a successful business and renamed it. The web directory continued to change in the 1990s and diversified into a web portal to provide eager users with the services of Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Games, and Yahoo! Groups. Adding weather, sports, and finance to the mix, the web portal became the center of daily habits. In 2005, it acquired the popular photo sharing service Flickr and its 1 million loyal and consistent users. In 2013, it continued to expand its reach towards more active online users by buying the famous blogging site, Tumblr, for $1.1 billion. Specializing in search, content, and communication tools, Yahoo is standing its ground at the forefront of technology.
close at $36.38.  On April 15th, 2014, the Yahoo! Inc. reported its first quarter 2014 results in accordance with a live stream online. While the company's stock has performed exceedingly well at the markets over the past two years, its revenues have failed to gain traction. The GAAP revenue for the quarter was $1.13 million, down 1% from the Q1 2013. The company's quarterly GAAP net earnings also dropped by 20 percent to $312 million. Net earnings per share for the quarter were $0.29, down 17 percent.
The Comeback Kid: With 13 years of employment at Google, including the title of first female engineer at the company, it was only right for Marissa Mayer to set her sights on Yahoo. Named Yahoo CEO, President, and Director in July 2012, Mayer has been determined to lead Yahoo out of its 3rd place spot and into a place at the forefront of technology. With about two years as evidence, she is well on her way after rolling out a new homepage, redesigning Yahoo Mail and saving Flickr from near death. As she continues to orchestrate more acquisitions for the company, such as her biggest move yet to buy Tumblr, Marissa Mayer is breaking Yahoo records and making strong steps towards modernizing the pioneer portal.
As Yahoo works to repair and reorganize within its own systems, Marissa Mayer and the company are looking to journey outside of Yahoo's own boundaries, finding a place within Television. Yahoo is in talks to acquire News Distribution Network Inc., which could make Local TV news a big part of the online landscape. In addition, Yahoo is rumored to have interest in producing its own TV content in competition with Netflix original programming. Combined with its latest creation, Yahoo Smart TV, Yahoo hopes to bring its sphere of influence to the Televised world.
AOL Inc is a brand company that focuses on producing original content that connects and engages its audience on a local and global scale.
The leaders at AOL Inc. are constantly looking at the realm of media and figuring out innovative ways to constantly push forward their presence in the industry. In the beginning of the year, Hale, an investment firm that specializes in distressed business, joined AOL Inc in the holdings of Patch. Patch was acquired by AOL in 2009. Armstrong had high aspirations for this company, but it gave back little financial return. The idea for Patch was that AOL would be able to use it as a platform to create a series of hyper-local news sites, which would then allow AOL to get its hands into local and even national advertisement . Unfortunately, in April AOL agreed to sell its minority holding to Hale as it was not reaping the benefits it had expected . While Patch failed to be AOL's ticket to advertising revenue, its new project shall be its next venture into further success in the advertising world.
In March AOL announced that they plan to lau nch One. One will be an ad system/software that helps companies automate the process of buying and selling advertisements online. According to Armstong, "the move represents a switch in focus from original content to ad technology." With this expansion, AOL will now be able to reach audiences that its original contest would not have reached. With AOL making $1.6 billion in ad revenue, Armstrong plans on taking full advantage of this new window of opportunity .
Other than advertisements being part of the new wave of media experience, video has become another popular avenue. In April AOL announced its media makeover on its site. In an interview with Maureen Sullivan, president of aol.com, she talks about the overwhelming increase of video streaming. More and more AOL users are consuming more video based content. This caused for AOL to push more towards video. With content producing partners such as: ESPN, HSN, and Conde Nast, AOL will begin providing its users with more video content related to their previous searches. This will allow users to have a more personalized web experience and also allow advertisers to reach a more direct audience.
These shows have allowed AOL not only to reach the number one spot for premium curated network on the web, but also to give advertisers a whole different platform to reach consumers. AOL's full slate of new original series for 2014 will be announced at the Digital Content NewFronts on April 29th in Brooklyn, New York .
With AOL moving from content producing to a largely advertisement based company, it will be interesting to see how these new ad based ventures benefits the company and contributes to the ever growing world of media.