Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo said yesterday that it will lay off 1,000 employees, or about 7% of its staff of 14,300, as part of a company realignment, after reporting that its fourth quarter profit was down 23%. [more..]

Washington - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and members of Congress are proposing an increase in the number of TV ads notifying consumers of the impending transition to digital TV broadcasting in 2009, when an estimated 15.5 million U.S. households relying on analog broadcasts will lose their signals, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. [more..]

Port Washington, N.Y. - While most kids (70%) ages 9-14 say they are now downloading music each month, after Apple's iTunes Store (49%), the most popular source for music downloads was the Limewire free file-sharing network (26%), according to a recent survey conducted by market research firm NPD Group. [more..]

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s MySpace online social network on Wednesday announced the appointment of Amit Kapur as the company's chief operating officer, who among other things will oversee partnerships related to the upcoming Developer Platform the company plans to launch on Feb. 5. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - WonderHowTo.com, a Web index of over 90,000 how-to videos, on Wednesday announced its launch and the closing of a first round of financing, led by General Catalyst Partners. [more..]

Boulder, Colo. - Lijit Networks, a provider of search tools and statistics for blog publishers, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired BigSwerve, a provider of blog comment discovery services. [more..]

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San Francisco - Loomia announced on Wednesday the launch of SeenThis?, an application that lets social network members see what their friends and group affiliations are reading and viewing on the sites of Loomia launch partners The Wall Street Journal, NBC Universal and CNET Networks. [more..]

Los Angeles - Rapper Percy "Master P" Miller has been named president of Udub Music, a digital label launched by entertainment content distributor UrbanWorld Wireless, Billboard reports. [more..]

Arlington, Va. - PBS said on Wednesday that much of its programming is now available for free on iTunes U, a dedicated area of Apple's iTunes Store showcasing educational content. [more..]

New York - ROO Group, a provider of Web video and advertising distribution services, announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Abacast and Pando Networks, to offer peer-to-peer streaming services to its customers. [more..]

Cannes, France - The Orchard, a digital distributor of independent label music, on Wednesday partnered with Chinese mobile firm ZTE, to develop marketing programs and content bundles to bring Orchard content to ZTE partners, including China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. [more..]

Seattle - ReelTime Rentals, a provider of movie and TV show rentals and subscription services over a broadband network, said on Wednesday that it has licensed content from children's TV producer Nelvana for distribution on its service. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - Video-sharing site Metacafe, which claims 28 million unique monthly visitors, on Wednesday announced partnerships with several mobile entertainment firms. [more..]

Hollywood, Calif. - Video game developer Brash Entertainment said on Wednesday that it plans to publish a video game based on the "Saw" horror film franchise from Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures in October 2009. [more..]