Mountain View, Calif. - Even as its stock fell sharply on Friday following weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings, Google said that it will spend at least $4.6 billion in the federal government's upcoming auction of wireless spectrum if the FCC agrees to certain rules that could spur more broadband competition. [more..]

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft's entertainment and devices division posted a loss of $1.9 billion for its fiscal year, due in large part to the $1 billion the company set aside to deal with repairs and extension of warranties on its Xbox 360 game consoles. [more..]

Brussels - The European Commission has endorsed Germany's proposed $165 million investment into developing a pan-European multimedia search engine, to challenge established leaders like Google and Yahoo. [more..]

Los Angeles - Radio giant Clear Channel has dropped a waiver it had been asking independent and unsigned artists to sign to make them eligible for online airplay, which many had construed to mean that such artists would forego any royalties for this airplay. [more..]

New York - Neteller, a provider of online payment processing for about 85% of all gambling sites that was targeted by U.S. authorities for violating the country's online gambling ban, has agreed to forfeit $136 million as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Dept., The Wall Street Journal reported. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - In its first-ever acquisition, social networking site Facebook said that it has acquired Parakey, a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup run by Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, the co-founders of open-source Web browser Mozilla Firefox. [more..]

New York - Two former executives with video game publisher Take-Two Interactive pleaded guilty this week on charges connected to a stock options backdating scandal that has already seen the conviction of former chief executive Ryan A. Brant, The New York Times reported. [more..]

Stamford, Conn. - Worldwide PC shipments rose 12% in the second quarter, compared with the prior year, according to a report released on Thursday by IT research firm Gartner. [more..]

San Francisco - VodPod, a service that lets users collect and organize videos from more than 1,000 video-sharing sites, has raised an undisclosed sum in its first round of venture capital financing from True Ventures, PaidContent.org reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Ujogo, a provider of free, rewards-based online games, said on Thursday that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its first round and launched the beta version of its new online poker site for U.S. players. [more..]

Scott Goldberg takes a look at the growing trend of Apple stickers on cars, and comes up with 10 things that are cooler.

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Jay Baage blogs about Gartner's recently released version of its "hype cycle" - a graph which charts how technologies are built up and adopted. [more..]

Beijing - Baidu, China's largest search engine, has been sued by a Chinese music site that says Baidu links to sites offering free downloads of its copyrighted works, Variety reported. [more..]

Burbank, Calif. - The Walt Disney Studios said this week that it has partnered with Panasonic on "Disney's Magical Blu-ray Tour," a promotion for the next-generation DVD format that will bring interactive kiosks to 18 U.S. shopping malls between August and December. [more..]

Los Angeles - Viacom's Spike TV network plans to debut a new series, "The Kill Point," that will be accompanied by an online episodic multiplayer game updated with each week's new episode, Variety reported. [more..]

New York - Fotolog, a photo-blogging site with a large audience in Europe and Latin America, said on Friday that it has signed a multi-year search technology deal with Google. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts this week announced the in-game soundtrack for its upcoming "NASCAR 08" title, which is slated for release on July 26. [more..]