Seattle - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) said over the weekend that it will discontinue the $130 HD DVD player add-on for its Xbox 360 video game console, in the wake of Toshiba's announcement that it cede victory in the next-generation DVD format war to rival Sony's Blu-ray. An estimated 300,000 of the devices had been sold thus far, and Microsoft will provide standard warranty support for consumers who have purchased them. "As we stated earlier, we do not believe this decision will have any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace," Microsoft said in a statement.

New York - Publisher Random House, a unit of Germany's Bertelsmann, has decided to forego digital rights management on its audiobooks and will begin selling them in the unprotected MP3 format, The Wall Street Journal reported. Authors who do not wish to participate may still have their audiobooks sold wrapped in DRM. Random House recently partnered with digital music store eMusic to test sales of DRM-free audiobooks, and found that none of its titles were pirated on file-sharing networks.

San Diego - Chumby Industries on Monday debuted the Chumby, its $179 portable Wi-Fi Internet device that lets consumers receive "a constant personalized broadcast of their favorite parts of the Web." About the size of a coffee cup, the touchscreen, squeeze- and motion-sensitive Chumby can access Web radio stations, YouTube videos, news and entertainment sites, photo-sharing and other applications. The company announced content partnerships with CBS, MTV Networks, MySpace, The Weather Channel Interactive, AOL's Shoutcast and Scripps Networks for its Chumby Network, which will feature both user-generated and sponsor-supported commercial widget applications.

New York - The New York Times Co. on Monday announced the beta launch of ShifD, an application that provides users the capability to shift content between their computers and mobile devices. Users can update information from any Web browser, by text message from a mobile phone, through a mobile Web browser or by using the downloadable application on Adobe AIR, the company said. "Developing services that allow users to access content wherever they are and on whichever device they choose is an important part of our strategy," said Michael Zimbalist, vice president of research and development operations at The New York Times Co.

Paris - Video-sharing site Dailymotion announced on Monday that it has implemented digital video fingerprinting copyright filtering technology from INA across its entire site. The system will be used with the site's professionally produced content, as well as user-generated videos uploaded through the company's MotionMaker program. In addition to INA's technology, Dailymotion said it also employs a hashing system, audio fingerprinting, and blocks videos that have already been removed from the site.

San Diego - DivX, a developer of video compression technology and provider of video distribution services, announced on Monday that it will shut down Stage6.com, a service that let users upload and store videos encoded in its DivX format. Video already uploaded to the site will be available for viewing and download through Feb. 28. The company said the move allows it to focus on its DivX licensing business while also continuing to power distribution of DivX content on third-party sites.

Los Angeles - Creators of the Internet series "quarterlife," first shown on MySpace and soon to become an hour-long series on NBC (NYSE: GE), said on Monday that the series will also be made available for purchase from Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store. The hour-long episodes will sell for $1.99 and be made available on the same day that they are broadcast on-air.

Bethesda, Md. - Following a year in beta testing, Draftix said on Monday that it has launched the commercial version of its sports season ticket sharing site, which allows users to create groups online to divide and share their season tickets. The company said that its site allows fans to use online networking to find new season ticket partners, invite friends to join their groups and hold their season ticket drafts online.

New York - In attempting to block access to its country's citizens over allegedly anti-Islamic videos on the site, Pakistan inadvertently cut off access to Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube to much of the world for several hours on Sunday, the Associated Press reported.

New York - Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive's (NASD: TTWO) board has rejected an unsolicited bid of about $2 billion for the company from fellow games maker Electronic Arts (NASD: ERTS), saying the proposal undervalues Take-Two and is a "highly opportunistic" move given the pending release of "Grand Theft Auto IV." The offer of $26 per share represents a 64% premium over Take-Two's stock price on Feb. 15, the day before EA made its proposal.

Seattle - Getty Images (NYSE: GYI), a creator and distributor of stock photography and other media, announced on Monday that it has accepted a $2.4 billion buyout offer from private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.

Los Angeles - CraveOnline, a men's entertainment site, announced on Monday that it has acquired GameRevolution, a provider of video game news and reviews, for an undisclosed sum.

New York - Glam Media, a distributed media network of over 450 lifestyle sites targeted at women, announced on Monday that it has raised $85 million in strategic financing, including $65 million in a fourth round of venture capital and $20 million in revenue-based debt financing. International publisher Hubert Burda Media led the investment round; other participants included GLG Partners, Duff Ackerman & Goodrich Ventures, Accel Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Walden Ventures and Information Capital.