Whalerock Industries

Whalerock Industries
Private company
Industry Media
Technology
Predecessor BermanBraun (2007-2014)
Founded 2014, USA (2014, USA)
Founders Lloyd Braun
Headquarters West Hollywood, California, United States
Brands Tested
Mom.me
Tasted
Wonderwall
Mandatory
Purple Clover
Website www.whalerockindustries.com

Whalerock Industries is a West Hollywood-based media and technology company. Its digital brands include the Kardashian/Jenner multimedia apps, Tyler the Creator’s golf media app, Wonderwall, Mom.me, Purple Clover, Moviefone, Cinefix and Tested.[1][2]

Founded in 2007 by Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun as BermanBraun, the company was relaunched as Whalerock Industries following Berman's exit in January 2014.[1]

BermanBraun's first television production deal was in September 2007, producing a 10-episode order of the American version of the game show Duel for ABC.[3]

MSN partnered with BermanBraun in June 2008 to produce a destination site for MSN aggregating celebrity, entertainment and pop culture news, which launched as Wonderwall in February 2009.[4][5][6]

In March 2012, the company acquired Whiskey Media, a San Francisco-based media and technology company founded by CNET founder Shelby Bonnie, adding Web sites Anime Vice, Screened and Tested to its digital portfolio as well as Whiskey's proprietary publishing layer, built on top of the Python-powered Django framework.[7][8] That same month, Mythbusters co-hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage joined Tested, which also expanded its focus from technology to include subjects such as "science, art, nerd culture and the maker movement".[9]

AOL turned over its moribund Moviefone brand to BermanBraun for a revamp in October 2013.[10] The revamped Moviefone Web site launched in May 2014.[11]

In January 2014, Gail Berman announced she was leaving the company she had co-founded nearly seven years before.[12] Having acquired Berman's share, Lloyd Braun took sole ownership of the company the following month, changing the name from BermanBraun to Whalerock Industries.[13][14]

Whalerock shut down the Screened Web site in March 2014, redirecting traffic to Moviefone, and shuttered Anime Vice in April 2015.[15]In June 2016, it sold the CineFix brand to Mashable for an undisclosed term[16]

References

  1. 1 2 Barnes, Brooks (February 18, 2015). "Coming Soon: Celebrity Web Networks From the Media Company Whalerock". New York Times. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  2. ↑ Greenberg, Julia (September 22, 2015). "Like It or Not, Kylie Jenner Is the Celebrity of the Future". Wired. Retrieved 11 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Nordyke, Kimberly (8 September 2007). "Game on for Berman Braun:'Duel' is company's first pickup". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Swisher, Kara (2 June 2008). "BermanBraun Will Make Both MSN Celeb Site and Also Yahoo "Lunacy Report"". AllThingsD.com. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  5. ↑ West, Jackson (2 June 2008). "Lloyd Braun returns to Yahoo, extends reign of terror to Microsoft". Gawker. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  6. ↑ "MSN and BermanBraun Unveil Wonderwall, a New Online Destination for Entertainment and Celebrity Information" (Press release). 5 February 2009. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Swisher, Kara (15 March 2012). "Exclusive: BermanBraun Buys Most of Shelby Bonnie's Whiskey Media". AllThingsD.com. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Shaw, Lucas (15 March 2012). "BermanBraun Acquires Whiskey Media (Updated)". Thewrap.com. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  9. ↑ Smith, Will (15 March 2012). "So What's Happening with Tested [Video] - Tested.com". Tested. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  10. ↑ Swisher, Kara (24 October 2013). "AOL Turns Moviefone Over to BermanBraun for Reboot". AllThingsD.com. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  11. ↑ Spangler, Todd (5 May 2014). "AOL Relaunches Moviefone with New Look, Expands Into TV Content". Variety. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  12. ↑ Wallenstein, Andrew (29 January 2014). "Gail Berman Exits BermanBraun". Variety. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  13. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (28 February 2014). "Berman- Braun Unveils New Name, Combines Film & TV Divisions Under Andrew Mittman". Deadline.com. PMC. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  14. ↑ James, Meg (28 February 2014). "BermanBraun becomes Whalerock Industries". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  15. ↑ BermanBraun (28 February 2014). "Important Screened News". Screened. Archived from the original on 8 March 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  16. ↑ http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/mashable-buys-cinefix-1201799387/
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