Search Results for: thursday

Norio Ohga, chairman of the Sony Corp. board of directors, was hospitalized Wednesday after suffering a “fainting spell” while conducting the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra at the Beijing International Festival, a company spokeswoman said. Ohga was in stable condition and conscious, the spokeswoman said. Further details were not available. Ohga, credited with spearheading Sony’s development of the compact disc and its push into music and movies in the 1980s, assumed the largely ceremonial post of chairman of the Sony board in June 2000. Nobuyuki Idei is Sony’s chief executive officer and has more direct operational responsibility. Shares of Sony fell 6… Read more »

Global music channel MTV will hope to bring a little international glamour to Frankfurt Thursday when Germany’s buttoned-down financial center hosts its European awards show. Although Frankfurt is better known for staid bankers than flashy rockstars, MTV expects to draw up to a billion viewers worldwide for the 2001 European Music Awards with a line-up including performances by Kylie Minogue, R.E.M. and Depeche Mode. Presenters will include local German favourites such as tennis star Boris Becker and supermodel Heidi Klum, as well as American actor Ben Stiller and Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. The show will be hosted this year by… Read more »

The Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company, Tuesday said it donated $2 million to the R&B Foundation to establish the Motown/Universal Music Group Fund. The fund will provide financial assistance for health, welfare and medical purposes for R&B recording artists or surviving spouses formerly affiliated with Universal or any of its labels in the form of monetary grants Universal, a unit of Vivendi Universal, established the fund two days prior to the R&B Foundation’s annual Pioneer Awards ceremony in New York Thursday. “This extraordinary endowment gift will enable the foundation to continue for a long time its funding… Read more »

Almost a week late, Britney Spears finally kicked off her Britney 2001 Tour Thursday night after the flu and a kink in her pre-production held her up. Obviously the fans who flooded the Nationwide Arena expected the concert to be all about Britney – the person, that is. And sure, she explored some personal issues/interests, appearing with a bald head at one point, bungee jumping and fighting off faceless nemeses during her performance, but the singer kept true to her promise to make a large portion of the show about Britney, the album. She previewed several cuts off of her… Read more »

Teen pop queen Britney Spears has again delayed the start of her U.S. concert tour, postponing the launch date this time by one day, to Nov. 1, due to unspecified production delays, her record label said Monday. Instead of a Halloween opening on Wednesday at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., Spears will debut her tour on Thursday at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, Jive Records said in a statement. The Washington show has been rescheduled for Dec. 21, now the last date of the tour. A Dec. 4 New York City stop at Madison Square Garden also has… Read more »

A dissident investor in Liquid Audio Inc. that has offered to buy the company for some $68 million in cash said on Thursday it could pay more if the company’s board will meet and make a case for that. Liquid Audio has said the unsolicited $3-per-share offer sent this week from New York-based Steel Partners II will be considered at the next board meeting, although it has not said when that would be. In a public letter send to the Liquid Audio board on Thursday, Steel Partners managing partner Warren Lichtenstein called for an early meeting with the Liquid Audio… Read more »

No Doubt songs produced by hip-hop producers Timbaland and the Neptunes, recently pulled from the final sequencing of the group’s upcoming album Rock Steady, might still see release at a later date. No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumont noted that the songs “didn’t fit in,” but tells LAUNCH that it doesn’t mean they’re not quality. “They’re good songs that I’m sure will find the light of day at some point,” he says. “They were just a little more hip-hoppy and didn’t feel right with the rest of the songs we had for the record.” The Timbaland song is called “It’s A… Read more »

There are only two days left to bid on a one-of-a-kind U2 collectible, an artificial pumpkin signed by all four members of the rock group, which is being auctioned online at metromix.com. The current bid stands at $1125 and has attracted interest from U2 fans as far away as Canada and France. The pumpkin, signed by the band during the Chicago stop of their Elevation tour, is carved and inked with an American flag and the U2 Elevation Tour logo by artist Hugh McMahon. One hundred percent of the winning bid benefits the Chicago Remembers Fund – established to help… Read more »

Sony Corp is expected to report weak results for the July-September quarter after a profit warninglate last month, with analysts looking for more aggressive restructuring moves to confront the slowing global economy. The world’s largest maker of audio and video equipment cut its consolidated operating profit forecast for the full year to next March by more than half to 120 billion yen ($980 million) and announced a handful of restructuring steps, including procurement cost cuts. “That’s not enough,” said Merrill Lynch analyst Hiroshi Kuriyama. “Of course it has made efforts in the past, but current business conditions are far worse… Read more »

Microsoft Corp. today announced that as part of its worldwide launch of Windows ® XP in New York, it would host a public concert dedicated to the people of New York City on Thursday, Oct. 25. International recording artist Sting will perform at the midday concert in New York’s Bryant Park. The concert will be webcast around the world on MSN ®, the most popular portal destination on the World Wide Web. “We’re honored to be doing the Windows XP launch in New York and couldn’t be happier that Sting has accepted our invitation to perform,” said Bill Gates, chairman… Read more »