Category Archives: CNBC

7 superstar tweens and teens you should know

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While CNBC Next Listwe’ve put together a pretty thorough list of the innovators, visionaries and agents of change we expect will have a big impact over the next 25 years, we weren’t content to stop there.

There are plenty of young minds at work that didn’t make our list, because they’re largely unproven, but they’re still doing some pretty amazing things at this early stage in their life.

This collection of teen and preteen superstars—they’re all younger than 20—come from a diverse set of backgrounds and focus on widely different fields. But they all stand on the cusp of greatness … and they’re definitely worth keeping an eye on.

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What preppers are doing about Ebola

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The LIBERIA-HEALTH-EBOLA-WAFRICAso-called prepper community has a long list of concerns—and for quite some time Ebola has been near the top of it. Experts, though, are split on whether the confirmation that the disease has entered the U.S. will spur a rush in equipment sales.

Even as awareness of doomsdayers grows thanks to a reality series on the National Geographic Channel, sales of supplies like canned food and hand-cranked flashlights had actually begun to level off before Tuesday.

And since Ebola has been on the community’s radar for so long, many people have already stocked up.

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Next from Hollywood? Tetris: The Motion Picture

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Hollywood, tetriswhich has been increasingly leaning on the video game world for story ideas, might be getting a bit desperate.

Threshold Entertainment has announced plans to develop a feature film based on Tetris, the shape matching arcade game that took the world by storm 30 years ago. And while the game itself might have been a bit light on plot, that’s not stopping filmmakers from re-imagining it as a science fiction blockbuster.

No, really!

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The man who made $50 million ditching Kickstarter

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Ten chris robertsmillion dollars for a watch? Not bad. $13.3 million for a cooler? Impressive. Still, the crowdfunding records set by Pebble and the Coolest Cooler pale when compared to the amount video-game developer Chris Roberts has raised for his next title.

Since kicking off the campaign for “Star Citizen” nearly two years ago, Roberts, the designer of the classic “Wing Commander” series, has raised more than $52 million, and he’s not done yet.

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Rudy Giuliani to defend Activision in Manuel Noriega lawsuit

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Activision-Blizzard Giuliani-activisionhas tapped America’s favorite mayor to help defend its “Call of Duty” franchise from former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega.

Bracewell Giuliani will represent the company in its defense against claims by the former ruler that the videogame publisher unlawfully used his image for monetary gain. And leading the charge is former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who will serve as co-council on the defense team. His first step: Filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit Monday morning in the Superior Court of the State of California.

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The next Hollywood-produced blockbuster: A start-up

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As hollywoodtechnology and entertainment become more closely aligned, more big names in the film and television industries are launching Silicon Valley-like accelerators—short-term programs that include mentorship and education for start-ups—to get early looks at up-and-coming businesses.

Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros., along with Disney, have launched accelerators in the past few years, and more are on the way, giving entrepreneurs who focus on the entertainment space a potential head start as their businesses begin to gain traction.

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‘Minecraft’ deal could be key to Microsoft’s survival

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“Minecraft” minecraftis the videogame world’s equivalent of lightning in a bottle—an indie gaming sensation that grew organically, eventually becoming one of the industry’s biggest franchises. It was a game that opened the doors for several other independent developers, who, in turn, brought a new burst of creativity to the industry.

So Monday’s news that corporate behemoth Microsoft was buying Mojang, the developer of “Minecraft,” for $2.5 billion might seem an odd fit to some, but it could be a key strategic move for Microsoft.

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9 ways to sidestep Facebook’s rising ad rates

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It’s facebook ad ratesnot exactly a revelation that Facebook can be a powerful marketing tool for business. Sixty-two percent of the 1,000 U.S. residents recently polled by G/O Digital say they visit Facebook to learn more about small businesses. Beyond that, 30 percent of those people claimed they visit a company’s Facebook page several times before physically venturing to the business.

Finding a way to best capitalize on Facebook isn’t always easy—or cheap: The average price per Facebook ad increased 123 percent in the second quarter.

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How to turn a hobby into a career, without regrets

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Not freehouse breweryevery entrepreneur wants to build a multimillion-dollar company. Some just want to live the dream of transforming a hobby into a career.

It’s an idea that sounds great in theory: Take something you love to do in your spare time and make it your sole business focus. And for some it works out swimmingly—it may even finally convince a spouse that there was a method to the madness behind all those bills piling up over the years for what seemed like a frivolous basement activity. For others, making the move from hobby to Hobby Inc. can prove to be a hasty decision and major life regret.

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The global crowdfunding money machine

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It’s crowdfunding money machineno secret that crowdfunding is a fast-growing movement, but did you know its success leads back to the 2008 financial crisis? A report by the World Bank, issued late last year, credits the crisis as one of the main catalysts to spur interest in crowdfunding, as more traditional forms of equity to establish new businesses became harder to get.

Since then, the numbers have spoken for themselves. Up until now, most people have focused on the figures for specific projects (like the $10.2 million Pebble raised on Kickstarter) or the price tag that some of those projects have commanded in their post-crowdfunding days—i.e. Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus.

The Crowdfunding Centre, which has collected data from roughly 125,000 crowdfunded projects worldwide, recently issued a major data analysis of the fundraising practice during the first quarter of 2014. The study, the most recent data available, gives a clear look at just how big crowdfunding has become and offers some insight as to how far it still has to go.

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