1. WPP is leading a $250 million round of investment in Bruin Sports Capital, a sports marketing firm launched by George Pyne, the former president of IMG Worldwide’s sports and entertainment division and COO of NASCAR. The holding company will have a preferred partnership arrangement with the firm, it said Tuesday morning in a statement.
2. Rachel Noerdlinger, the former chief of staff to New York City first lady Chirlane McCray, has joined Mercury Public Affairs, she tweeted Monday night. Noerdlinger left the city hall role in November after revelations about her personal life became public, including anti-police remarks made by her boyfriend and her son’s arrest.
I'm elated to start the new year as Managing Director at #Mercury! I'm thrilled to join one of the best firms in the country!
— Rachel Noerdlinger (@rachelnoerd) January 5, 2015
Boston’s mayor is also getting a new press secretary, his third in the past year.
3. There’s a new Congress in town. Besides having more Republican members, it’s also younger and more female than its predecessor, but still mostly made up of career politicians and lawyers.
4. Speaking at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday night, Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai thanked supporters for sticking with the company after the November cyberattack against it and ensuing political drama over the launch of The Interview.
5. Google is lobbying US regulators to allow it to take over mostly unused and low-cost parts of the spectrum so it can compete with carriers such as Verizon and AT&T. The company contends that entrepreneurs could use it to build cheaper ways for consumers to access the Internet in public.
6. The biggest endorsement in books in 2015 could come from Mark Zuckerberg. The Facebook chief created a page called "A Year of Books" over the weekend, where he’ll discuss the two tomes he’s planning to read every month with the platform’s users.
Love how Zuckerberg talks about books as if they are funky new app he has discovered. From @thetimes pic.twitter.com/rum1YGcSt8
— Sathnam Sanghera (@Sathnam) January 6, 2015
7. TVs, specifically super-high-definition models, stole the show at CES on Monday. The mega trade show is also an opportunity for Chinese companies whose products are familiar to US consumers, but their brands are not.
8. Twitter went down for about 90 minutes on Monday night, resulting in empty timelines for many users. The company has not yet explained the reason for the outage.
#TwitterDown pic.twitter.com/TEtHEf5uBa
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) January 6, 2015
