London - Amazon (NASD: AMZN) is preparing to bring its MP3 store to the U.K., the Telegraph reports, and Amazon executives met with British record label heads last week to firm up the details. People familiar with the matter told the Telegraph that the store, which launched in the U.S. last year and is the only digital retailer to offer DRM-free MP3 tracks from all the major labels, is due to launch in the U.K. before the final quarter of the year.

San Francisco - Online social network Facebook has signed a deal with credit card provider Visa that will bring $2 million in advertising spending on the site, while providing Visa with the opportunity to market its services to the 80,000 small businesses with profiles on the site, the Associated Press reported. Visa will offer a $100 ad credit to the first 20,000 businesses that download its Facebook application, which will offer businesses relevant online tools and information from partners including Google, The Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur magazine.

Rochester, N.Y. - Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) announced that it is entering the imaging technology market for mobile devices. "There are more than 600 million digital images captured each day, and more and more photos are being taken with mobile devices," said John Blake, general manager of digital capture and imaging devices group, and vice president of Eastman Kodak Co. "KODAK Imaging Technology addresses the three main issues that frustrate consumers about these shots - poor image quality, difficulty transferring images off their mobile devices, and the inability to easily share images with family and friends."

New York - Interscope/Geffen recording artist Beck will preview his new album "Modern Guilt" via 10,000 Internet-connected digital jukeboxes on TouchTunes' nationwide network a week before its official release on July 8. Meanwhile, fans who pre-order the album from Apple's iTunes Store are being made eligible to participate in a special concert ticket presale for Beck's upcoming tour, in conjunction with Ticketmaster.

Dallas - Video rental giant Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) on Tuesday announced a partnership with PayPal, whose online payment service will now be accepted as a payment method for its online DVD rental service. To promote the deal, Blockbuster is offering PayPal customers $10 cash back if they sign up for a new online rental subscription plan; the company's online DVD rental service has struggled to gain traction against market leader Netflix.

Los Angeles - European Web-based karaoke site RedKaraoke on Tuesday launched an English-language version of its service, which offers a catalog of 14,000 songs, and claims more than 400,000 users worldwide, TechCrunch reports. Users can browse songs and upload their performances to the website, as well as use online tools such as a tone control, to fix off-pitch singing. The company was founded in Spain in 2007, and plans to expand further into Japan, Germany and France, as well as release an application for Facebook.

Palo Alto, Calif. - IMVU, developer of a site that lets young adults meet each other through 3D avatars, said on Tuesday that it now features a catalog of virtual goods with more than 1.5 million items. The four-year-old company, backed by Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital and Bridgescale Partners, generates 90% of its revenue through the sale of credits that members use to purchase virtual products. The site, which is still in public beta, also now has 20 million registered users.

Washington - Leonard Downie Jr., who has served as executive editor of The Washington Post since 1991, said that he plans to retire in September. No successor has been named. Under Downie's leadership, Post reporters and editors have won 25 Pulitzer Prizes, including six in 2008. Downie, 66, joined the paper as a summer intern in 1964. He eventually became a well-known local investigative reporter, and in 1984 was promoted to managing editor. The Post reported that Downie will become a vice president at large for The Washington Post Co., the same position currently held by his predecessor as editor, Ben Bradlee.

So is a deal between Blockbuster and Circuit City getting more likely, or less? Hard to tell, exactly. Things looked grim yesterday, after analysts said Circuit's ugly first-quarter numbers, reported last week, could lead Blockbuster to dial back its $6-$8 a share bid for the floundering electronics chain, which caused CC shares to dive more than 20%. This morning, however, the company said it had agreed to add three new members to its board hand picked by activist investor Mark Wattles. Wattles, who once built Hollywood Video into Blockbuster's largest competitor, has been an outspoken proponent of a deal with his formal rival, which would seem to make a deal more likely. Wattles, in fact, said three potential suitors, presumably including Blockbuster, are looking through CC's books and that a deal would be announced probably within a month.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Jaxtr, a provider of Internet phone services for social networks and blogs, said on Tuesday that it has raised $10 million in its second round of funding, led by new investor Lehman Brothers Venture Partners.

New York - InterActiveCorp. (IAC) (NASD: IACI) has announced plans to launch an online advertising network that will cover all of its 26 various brands and Web properties, including Evite, Citysearch and Match.com.

Washington - Google's (NASD: GOOG) proposed online advertising partnership with Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) is drawing a good degree of scrutiny in Washington, where, along with the Senate Judiciary Committee -- which has already announced plans to hold a hearing on the deal -- four other Congressional committees in addition to the Justice Dept. are said to be examining different aspects, AdAge reported.

Waterloo, Canada - Close to half (44%) of all Internet traffic in North America is peer-to-peer file transfers, an increase of 3% from a year ago, according to a report due to be released today by Sandvine, a company that markets bandwidth monitoring technology, Ars Technica reported.

Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) is planning to introduce a new Internet audience measurement service, to compete with existing ratings provided by comScore and Nielsen, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. While those companies track which websites users visit by conducting surveys or using tracking software on select user groups -- and charge for their services -- Google's service will be free, and based mainly on data from Web servers, potentially providing broader results.

Espoo, Finland - Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced on Tuesday that it plans to acquire the outstanding shares of Symbian, which develops the operating system that runs Nokia mobile phones, that it does not already own in a deal valued at about $410 million. Under the terms, Nokia will pay EUR 3.647 per share for 52% of Symbian.

San Francisco - Yoono, the developer of a social Web browser extension for Mozilla's Firefox, has added $4 million to its first round of venture capital financing, which was led by AGF Private Equity, TechCrunch reported.