Even before a deal to bankroll Steven Spielberg and David Geffen’s new studio has closed, India’s Reliance ADA Group is now on the hunt for U.S. mobile content publishers including game makers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“The thought is to build a distribution model across the world,” Rajesh Sawhney, president of Reliance Entertainment, a unit of Reliance ADA, told the Journal. “For the content we’re acquiring now, we want to exploit it globally.”

Reliance hired Silicon Valley consultants VSC Consulting to scout out targets. The Mumbai-based conglomerate is also seeking to license content from big producers. This all comes on the heels of signing deals with eight Hollywood production house run by the A-listers George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt.

The latest suggests Reliance has cast its gaze beyond Hollywood.

Keep an eye on:

(Photo: Reuters / Reliance ADA Chairman Anil Ambani)

Progress?

Video games company Electronic Arts has just updated Wall Street on the latest stage in its drawn-out $2 billion bid for Take-Two Interactive Software with news that it will allow its tender offer to expire at midnight New York time.

But Take-Two, maker of the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, said it is now willing to provide a management presentation to EA containing non-public information in connection with the bid such as its three-year product release schedule and financial projections.

EA and Take-Two’s chief executives exchanged letters over the weekend and had a phone conversation on Friday.

Here’s an excerpt from Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick’s letter to EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello dated Aug 17:

 Here’s an excerpt from Riccitiello’s Aug 18 response:

(Photo Reuters)

Keep an eye on:

* Wal-Mart to sell rock band AC/DC’s album exclusively. (Wall Street Journal)

*US Federal Communications Commission will decide next month if it plans to employ unused TV channels to provide cheap high-speed Internet networks. (Wall Street Journal)

*NBC has been a surprise winner at the Olympic Games in Beijing. (New York Times)

Is silver-haired media investor Mario Gabelli playing matchmaker?

In an interview, he says that it’s about time Cablevision get down to business and hook up with Time Warner Cable. Gabelli, who runs hedge fund Gamco Investors,  a top Cablevision shareholder, tells Bloomberg the family run cable operator and networks company should be “making love with Time Warner Cable.”

Gabelli’s proposal goes much further than the potential moves proposed by Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan. Not content with just a stock buyback or a dividend or even just spinning off some businesses, Gabelli suggests Cablevision should do nothing less than break up the company and hand over the cash to shareholders.

It’s no secret how Time Warner Cable has coveted Cablevision’s New York area cable systems. On more than several occasions over the past decade, Time Warner has held talks to varying degrees to snatch the systems.

From Bloomberg: “They have made a commitment to follow through,” said Gabelli, who two days ago called on Cablevision to sell Rainbow and use the money to buy back stock. “If they don’t, there are board seats available.”

We bet he’ll be pressing his case at a series of investors meetings the Dolans are planning to hold with top investors.

And how happy would he be if Jim Dolan came through this time?

Bloomberg: Breaking up the company would be “like hitting a grand slam home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series,” he said.

(Photo: Reuters)

TechCrunch’s report on AOL’s “sunsetting” of Xdrive, AOL Pictures, MyMobile and Bluestring spread like wildfire yesterday, at a time when the future of its ownership hangs in the balance.

Are these latest actions in anticipation of an AOL sale? Actually AOL’s been trimming for some time. Who hasn’t, given the state of the economy. You just haven’t noticed.

About 50 products including a video download service, a 10-foot UI experience (Internet in the living room), AIM phone line, and Tegic, have been “sunset”, we’re told.

Here’s AOL EVP Kevin Conroy’s memo to employees, dated July 14, from TechCrunch, which we also independently verified:

We’ve always wondered whether AOL had too many irons in the fire. Yesterday’s TechCrunch scoop is just the latest in a long string of trimming actions that are not only considered rational given the state of the economy, but also in line with others considering the industry-wide belt-tightening. Even Google has dialed back spending like “drunken sailors” to borrow Bernstein’s Jeff Lindsay’s words.

Arrington further speculates on Conroy’s future. We’re hearing from sources that Kevin’s not leaving any time soon. Rumors of his departure have dogged Conroy for years. Still not true. Conroy, who has been responsible for e-mail, software products, radio, video, Apple-related products and mobile, will continue to do so. Nothing changes.

The memo follows on the heels of TechCrunch’s reporting earlier yesterday about budget cuts at AOL’s blogs division, with some bloggers being told to stop working for a couple of weeks. Before you hyperventilate — Engadget won’t be affected.

Also, an AOL source tells us that the budget trimming does not reflect a cut back in blogs, but mainly affected its stable of freelancers and was designed to meet budgets that shot past projections.

From the memo to blog staffers:

It seems Time Warner’s ongoing discussions with Yahoo and separately with Microsoft over an AOL deal has now amplified every move the Internet unit makes.

Keep an eye on:

(Photo: Reuters / AOL CEO Randy Falco)

Microsoft’s president of platforms and services Kevin Johnson, who spearheaded the company’s pursuit of Yahoo, plans to bolt for the top job at nearby Juniper in a move that deals a setback to the software giant’s online chase after Google.

AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher comes up with a shortlist of candidates from her sources that include a roster of insiders, led by aQuantive’s Brian McAndrews, with SVP Satya Nadella, who will run search, MSN and ad platform engineering efforts in a new reorg, and Strategic Partnerships SVP Yusuf Mehdi, who has previously led online businesses at Microsoft, considered long shots.

Heading the list of external candidates is former AOL Chief Jon Miller, who also happens to be a candidate for Yahoo’s board after activist investor Carl Icahn settled with Yahoo this week.

For a guy who was unceremoniously ejected out of Time Warner, Miller, now a partner at tech investment firm Velocity Interactive Group, is emerging as the prettiest girl at the dance.

(AllThingsD)

Keep an eye on:

(Photo: Reuters)

Is Yahoo letting the fox in the hen house or did activist investor Carl Icahn settle after eyeing weakness in his campaign?

Whatever the case, Yahoo’s settlement with Icahn, who had planned to run a rival board slate but now gets three board seats including himself and possibly former AOL Chief Jon Miller, averts what was expected to be a bloody battle on Aug. 1.

Miller, who was pushed out of the Time Warner division, was responsible for turning the subscriber-losing AOL into an Internet company after dismantling its walled garden.

Left unanswered: What will Microsoft say later today? Did Icahn get assurances from the software giant that it would be willing to negotiate any deal with Yahoo in the new board configuration?

(Reuters )

Keep an eye on:

We can spend a lot of time analyzing how Yahoo really feels about Carl Icahn and his rival slate. But this, found at the top of Yahoo’s latest proxy filing and its homepage, says it all.

(Photo: Yahoo)

Time Warner’s talks with Yahoo and separately with Microsoft have taken on renewed urgency as a pivotal Yahoo annual shareholders meeting approaches, a source tells us.

But are the discussions earnest or is AOL being used as a pawn in an increasingly ugly battle that will ultimately lead to a linkup of Microsoft and Yahoo? It’s hard to tell at this point as a steady stream news, punctuated by public accusations of “misleading” statements come from Microsoft, Yahoo and billionaire investor Carl Icahn, make handicapping the outcome difficult.

Icahn, who holds a 5 percent stake in Yahoo, has waged a proxy battle to remove Yahoo’s board and has aligned himself with Microsoft to seal a deal.

Some on Wall Street, including Bernstein Research’s Jeff Lindsay have sung the praises of AOL’s stock and cash deal for Yahoo, which in April was believed to be worth as much as $37.01 per share. But when asked, most industry and financial analysts hold firm a belief that Yahoo is still Microsoft’s to lose.

Ignoring signals that there will be no deals with AOL before Yahoo’s Aug. 1 shareholders meeting, Time Warner appears intent on pressing its case with the potential suitors perhaps eyeing an opportunity — especially after this past weekend’s fallout between Microsoft/Carl Icahn and Yahoo.

Keep an eye on:

(Photo: Reuters)

Thanks to New York Times Andrew Ross Sorkin’s DealBook blog here’s a sked of who’s going to be speaking at this year’s annual media mogul and new media upstart get-together organized by Allen & Company in Idaho’s Sun Valley.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, IAC/InterActive Corp’s CEO Barry Diller, and Google co-founder Larry Page will be among those speaking today.

Other key names speaking tomorrow include Sir Howard Stringer, chairman of Sony Corp. , Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of Dreamworks Animation.

As usual there are other super big names who aren’t directly connected to media, including former Microsoft honcho Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett (NYT points out he is a big shareholder and board member of the Washington Post Company) and Coca Cola CEO Muhtar Kent. The real outsider this year and special guest is His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan (pictured above) - as we pointed out in our earlier blog.

 (Photo: Reuters)

Consummate dealmaker Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corp, strolled into the Sun Valley Inn for the first full day of Allen & Co’s annual mogul retreat.

Asked by CNBC reporter Julia Boorstin whether he was buying anything, he shot back, “Not today. Not this week.”

That might provide some small comfort for shareholders who have sent shares of News Corp sinking close to 30 percent since the beginning of the year on a variety of issues, including a sluggish economy and threats of an advertising recession. Shareholders also craw about the dreaded “Murdoch Discount” — investor concern the media tycoon will suddenly make another a big purchase.

Recent actions to privatize NDS Group, which nets News Corp an estimated $1.7 billion in cash, have only exacerbated those fears.

(Photo: Rick Wilking for Reuters)