Redwood City, Calif. - After having its two previous buyout offers rejected, video game publisher Electronic Arts said on Friday that it has extended the expiration date on $2 billion offer for Take-Two Interactive until April 18. [more..]

New York - Major label Warner Music Group this week hired Jim Griffin, former head of digital at Geffen and a vocal industry critic, to oversee a plan that would have consumers pay a monthly fee through their Internet service providers for unlimited access to music, Portfolio.com reported. [more..]

Hong Kong - Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire and chairman of Hutchison Whampoa who invested $60 million in the Facebook social network back in November, has raised his investment to more than $100 million, and may sink even more of his fortune into the company, MarketWatch reported. [more..]

Tokyo - Google's YouTube has reached an agreement with a Japanese rights holder, and will pay an undisclosed royalty for the rights to allow YouTube users to post cover song videos of tracks by Japan Rights Clearance (JRC) acts like Mr. Children and Spitz, Japan's Mainichi Daily News reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - Viacom's Paramount Pictures has formed a new division in its interactive department to fund the development of video games based on its films, Variety reports. [more..]

New York - Glam Media, an advertising and website network for lifestyle and fashion-related content, has acquired StyleMob, a San Francisco-based social network and "street fashion" destination site, Valleywag reported.
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Sausalito, Calif. - Glassdoor.com, a stealth-mode "social networking company focused on employment conditions in the workplace," has raised $3 million in a second round of funding led by Benchmark Capital, according to PEHub.com. [more..]

Given the inherently conflicting views of the value of the music, and the contribution of the other elements of a service, the arguments are difficult to resolve, as there may be no common ground on which agreement can be reached, blogs David Oxenford. [more..]

There is an art to sucking up. Done too blatantly it will backfire. Done too weakly, you won't get what you want. [more..]

New York - CBS has launched a test of high-definition streaming on its website, offering some clips in H.265/AVC format at 480p resolution through an HD player, TechCrunch reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - PaidContent, an online publisher of business and technology news, announced this week that it has hired Nathan Richardson as the new chief executive of parent company ContentNext Media. [more..]

New York - Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive will allow players of its forthcoming "Grand Theft Auto IV" to download any of the over 150 songs they hear within the game from Amazon's MP3 store. [more..]

New York - SpiralFrog, a free, ad-supported music download service, claimed on Friday that it is now the third-largest legal music download site in the U.S., behind only iTunes and Rhapsody, "based on reported user numbers." [more..]

Basking Ridge, N.J. - Verizon Wireless announced on Friday that Viacom's MTV Tr3s and Disney's ESPN Radio have launched mobile TV channels exclusively for its V CAST Mobile TV service. [more..]

New York - Lime Wire, a provider of peer-to-peer file-sharing software, this week announced an agreement with independent music aggregator and distributor BFM Digital, to sell the company's tracks in its DRM-free LimeWire Store. [more..]

Burlington, Mass. - Cognos, an IBM company that provides business intelligence and performance management software, announced on Friday that the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) has selected IBM Cognos software to help analyze player performance statistics. [more..]