New York - CBS announced on Thursday that it has agreed to acquire CNET Networks, a technology publishing company that operates sites including News.com, ZDNet, GameSpot, TV.com and MP3.com, in a deal valued at $1.8 billion. [more..]

New York - Angered by Yahoo's apparent unwillingness to be acquired by Microsoft, billionaire financier Carl Icahn, who in recent days has become one of Yahoo's largest shareholders, said on Thursday that he will launch a proxy fight for control of the company's board. [more..]

New York - Along with known file-sharing traffic throttler Comcast, fellow broadband provider Cox Communications is also interfering with the usage of BitTorrent and similar peer-to-peer applications by its subscribers, the Associated Press reported, citing research conducted by German's Max Planck Institute for Software Systems. [more..]

Redmond, Wash. - Microsoft has announced that its Xbox 360 beat out rival next-generation video game consoles from Sony and Nintendo to become the first to sell over 10 million units in the U.S. [more..]

Los Angeles - The major record labels that sued Tanya Andersen (Atlantic v. Andersen) for infringing their copyrights on file-sharing networks, then eventually dropped their case, have been ordered by a federal court in Oregon to pay her nearly $108,000 in attorneys fees and costs, P2PNet reports. [more..]

Oakland, Calif. - Ask.com, the search engine unit of IAC, announced on Thursday that it will acquire Lexico Publishing Group, the owner of reference sites Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com, for an undisclosed sum. [more..]

Lufkin, Texas - Nintendo of America has been ordered to pay $21 million in patent infringement damages to Texas-based Anascape, which sued the company over the design of its Wii Classic, WaveBird and Gamecube controllers, the Associated Press reports. [more..]

New York - Animoto, the developers of a Web application that lets users automatically generate video slideshows from their photos and music, announced on Thursday that it has received an investment from Amazon.com. [more..]

New York - Fantasy Sports Ventures (FSV), the parent company of the FantasyPlayers.com Network, announced on Thursday that it has acquired BaseballHQ.com, a baseball-related content site, and its parent company, Shandler Enterprises. [more..]

New York - CBS has signed a deal with "Lonelygirl15" creators EQAL for first look rights to new multiplatform show ideas from the digital studio, which will also team with CBS show producers to create online and mobile extensions for their programs, according to The Hollywood Reporter. [more..]

Seattle - Amazon.com on Thursday launched the Amazon MP3 Clips Widget, which bloggers and website owners can post on their sites to offer song samples from the catalog of over 5 million tracks at the Amazon MP3 store. [more..]

San Francisco - Adobe Systems has added better dynamic audio support to its popular Flash application, allowing developers to pass runtime generated sound samples to a computer's sound card, Wired.com reported. [more..]

New York - Universal Music Group has signed a deal to license its catalog to Deezer (formerly Blogmusik), a France-based, ad-supported music streaming service, Billboard reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - A developer has created a means of adding file-sharing functionality to iPhones that have been "jail-broken," TorrentFreak reported. [more..]

Lancaster, Pa. - FlyTunes on Thursday added audio and video podcasts to its free, 350-channel mobile content network, available on devices including the iPhone and iPod Touch. [more..]

Austin - Pluck, a provider of social media services for media companies, brand marketers and others, said on Thursday that it is now powering social media capabilities on RollingStone.com and Film.com. [more..]

San Mateo, Calif. - Jaman.com, an online movie download service, on Thursday announced the launch of 100 free, ad-supported streaming movies from its collection of 3,000 independent and international films. [more..]

Burbank, Calif. - Disney Interactive Studios on Thursday launched DGamer, its online community exclusively for Disney video games, in North America. [more..]