New York - News Corporation is in negotiations with Microsoft to join its hostile takeover bid for Yahoo, while Yahoo, which has rebuffed Microsoft's advances, has itself been holding talks with AOL and News Corp., The New York Times reported on Thursday. [more..]

San Francisco - Gay media firm PlanetOut announced on Thursday that it will sell its publishing business -- which includes the magazines Out and The Advocate -- to fellow gay media firm here Networks for $6 million. [more..]

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo announced on Thursday a three-year video and advertising partnership with MLB Advanced Media, that will see out-of-market MLB games streamed live and on-demand on Yahoo Sports. [more..]

Los Angeles - Blockbuster is developing a set-top box that will deliver streaming films to consumers' televisions, and is expected to announce details on the plan sometime this month, according to The Hollywood Reporter. [more..]

New York - Nielsen Business Media, the division of the ratings, publishing and events company that publishes titles including The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Editor & Publisher, Mediaweek and Adweek, has laid off 40-50 staffers, according to reports on Fishbowl NY and Folio.com. [more..]

Indianapolis, Ind. - Angie's List, a site that offers user-generated ratings and reviews on local service providers, announced on Thursday that it has received a $35 million equity investment from Battery Ventures, which will take a minority stake in the company. [more..]

Los Altos, Calif. - Ustream.TV, a provider of Internet video broadcasting services, announced on Thursday that it has raised $11.1 million in its first round of venture capital financing, from DCM, Labrador Ventures and The Band of Angels. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - Jaxtr, a provider of Internet telephony services for social networks, blogs and other sites, has raised around $6.4 million in a second round of venture financing, PEHub.com reported, citing a regulatory filing. [more..]

Los Angeles - Modelina, a stealth-mode site that will focus on supermodels, has received around $5 million in financing from Polaris Venture Partners, PaidContent.org reported. [more..]

Pity the poor regulator who, someday soon, will be faced with evaluating some proposed combination of all or parts of Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and/or News Corp. (is there anyone else left?), blogs Paul Sweeting. [more..]

New Chinese regulation require government permits from two separate Chinese government agencies before webcasting operations can begin, blogs David Oxenford. [more..]

There is a dirty little secret in the cable industry. Its being kept secret not by the cable distributors, but by the big cable networks. [more..]

Cannes, France - News Corp.'s MySpace on Thursday announced a deal with ShineReveille International that will see its original content series distributed internationally through TV, DVD and merchandise. [more..]

Dulles, Va. - AOL on Thursday announced the launch of the AOL Technology Network, which will include technology-focused blogs including Engadget, Switched, TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog), DownloadSquad, Engadget Mobile and Engadget HD. [more..]

Seattle - Online retail giant Amazon.com has announced that it will offer any consumer who purchased an HD DVD player on its site a $50 store credit, following similar moves by retailers Best Buy and Wal-Mart. [more..]

San Diego - MP3tunes, the online music locker service started by MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, on Thursday launched a new feature that lets users automatically move their digital music between their own computers. [more..]