San Francisco - The U.S. Department of Justice has served major record labels Universal Music and Sony BMG with notices that seek information on Total Music, a project the majors are jointly working on that would purportedly offer a $5 per month subscription to their catalogs via mobile phones, digital music players and other platforms, Wired.com reported, citing the Music Ally newsletter. [more..]

Washington - Katharine Weymouth, a 41-year-old descendent of the family that founded and has since run The Washington Post, on Thursday was named the CEO of Washington Post Media, a new unit of the company that oversees both the newspaper and washingtonpost.com. [more..]

New York - Viacom is not in talks to acquire "Grand Theft Auto" game publisher Take-Two Interactive, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter, despite various online reports that Viacom was going to make an offer of $1.5 billion for the company. [more..]

Kfar-Saba, Israel - Modu, the developer of a small mobile phone that can be slipped into a wide variety of branded "jacket" enclosures, as well as other consumer electronics that connect to the Internet, on Thursday announced that it will launch its phone in October with wireless carriers in Italy, Russia and Israel. [more..]

Los Angeles - Nokia on Thursday announced the formation of the Nokia Artists' Advisory Council, which will be tasked with "helping to create an artist friendly environment inside the company, ensuring the artists' point of view is represented in creating new content business paradigms," and said former Eurythmic and producer Dave Stewart is the first artist to sign on.
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Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft has acquired Caligari, a developer of 3D modeling and animation software, for an undisclosed sum, chief executive Roman Ormandy wrote on the company's blog. [more..]

New York - Nielsen, the media ratings and research provider, announced on Thursday that it has made a strategic investment in NeuroFocus, a Berkeley, Calif.-based firm that specializes in applying brainwave research to advertising, programming and messaging. [more..]

Emeryville, Calif. - TurnHere, a provider of online video production and distribution, and Internet video advertising services, announced on Thursday that it has raised $7.5 million in venture capital financing, from Venrock and Hearst Interactive Media. [more..]

Seattle - Social Median, a social news start-up founded by former Jobster.com head Jason Goldberg, has raised its first round of angel funding, but declined to disclose the investors or amount raised, the Seattle P-I reports. [more..]

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Search behavior on the term ‘lost’ showcases the collective curiosity about what will happen this season and beyond with plenty of searches spoilers and ‘how lost will end’, blogs Heather Dougherty of Hitwise. [more..]

Los Angeles - Comedian Damon Wayans plans later this month to launch WayOutTV.com, a site that will feature videos produced by up-and-coming comedians chosen by Wayans himself, the Los Angeles Times reported. [more..]

Dulles, Va. - Time Warner's AOL announced on Thursday a global marketing partnership with Spain-based mobile and Internet value-added services provider Zed. [more..]

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. - CBS' CBSSports.com said on Thursday that it has teamed with online social network Facebook to offer an official NCAA March Madness Brackets application to Facebook users. [more..]

New York - Next New Networks, an online producer and distributor of branded micro-networks, announced on Thursday that it will offer a range of its programming on MySpaceTV. [more..]

Silver Spring, Md. - Building off last year's launch of its direct-to-consumer mobile website, Discovery Communications said that it has launched new portals for the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Health and Planet Green. [more..]

Agoura Hills, Calif. - Video game publisher THQ said on Thursday that it plans to ship "Band Mashups" for the Nintendo Wii to retailers in April. [more..]