New York - A branch of the Bancroft family, the controlling shareholders of Dow Jones & Co., plan to vote against accepting News Corp.'s buyout offer of $60 per share for the company, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the situation. [more..]

Washington - The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) this week announced its support for the Internet Radio Equality Act, a bipartisan House bill that would vacate the recent music webcasting royalty rate hike. [more..]

Washington - Republican presidential hopefuls Sen. John McCain and Rep. Ron Paul are the only two GOP candidates to have signed on so far to participate in the GOP edition of CNN and YouTube's presidential debate, the Washington Post reported. [more..]

London - The BBC on Friday launched its long-awaited iPlayer, an online service that allows British users to download a large portion of the broadcaster's programming from the past week, Reuters reported. [more..]

London - Less than 10 months after the service's launch, Virgin Mobile announced this week that it will shutter its U.K. mobile TV service in early 2008, TheRegister reported. [more..]

New York - Time Warner's HBO and AOL will shutter their online comedy joint venture, "This Just In," in August, just six months after its launch, Variety reported. [more..]

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft has announced that it will acquire AdECN, a provider of online advertising technology. [more..]

San Francisco - Twitter, a social networking and blogging service that uses mobile phones, instant messaging and e-mail, said that it has raised an undisclosed sum in funding, from Union Square Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and angel investors including Marc Andreessen, Dick Costolo, Ron Conway and Naval Ravikant. [more..]

Atlanta - Creative Loafing, an Atlanta-based publisher of alternative weekly newspapers and websites, has raised an investment of undisclosed size from BIA Digital Partners, a Virginia-based investment firm. [more..]

McLean, Va. - iBelong Networks, the developer of an online platform used for social networks and interactive communities, has raised $1.5 million in its first institutional round of financing. [more..]

Scott Goldberg reviews the J*DaVeY show from Thursday night at The Roxy. [more..]

Jay Baage takes a look at how the business of in-game advertising is evolving and points to new data that was reported on this week.
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Foster City, Calif. - A group of former Sony Computer Entertainment America executives on Friday announced the formation of a new game studio, Eat, Sleep, Play, and a development deal with Sony. [more..]

Los Angeles - MySpace announced on Friday that it has partnered with Dark Horse Comics to launch "MySpace Dark Horse Presents," an online revival of the popular comic anthology. [more..]

Armonk, N.Y. - With corporate employees using online virtual worlds such as "Second Life" to actually conduct business, IBM has issued basic rules of conduct governing appropriate behavior online, the Associated Press reported. [more..]

Longmont, Colo. - Music gaming and education software developer Allegro Multimedia said on Friday that toymaker Mattell will utilize its Guitar Wizard software in "I Can Play Guitar," a video game that teaches guitar lessons. [more..]

San Diego - Electronic Arts said on Friday that its EA Chicago studio will develop a new superhero fighting game franchise using the Marvel Comics license. [more..]

San Francisco - French video game publisher Ubisoft has announced a deal with Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group, to develop and publish a game based on the popular TV series, "Heroes." [more..]