Redmond, Wash. - Following three months of failed attempts to buy Yahoo, Microsoft said that it is has resumed talks with the company regarding an alternative "transaction," not involving a full-fledged acquisition. [more..]

New York - Apple is in talks with some of the major labels on offering a wider selection of ringtones and a mobile music delivery service, while at the same time the labels are pressing Apple to budge on its 99-cent song pricing at the iTunes Store, The New York Times reported. [more..]

Dulles, Va. - Two months after first unveiling the deal, AOL said on Monday that it has completed its $850 million acquisition of Bebo, a U.K.-based online social network with more than 40 million members. [more..]

Malden, Mass. - Ars Technica, a publisher of IT and science news and information, has been acquired by the publisher Conde Nast. [more..]

New York - Take-Two Interactive said on Monday that, despite fellow game publisher Electronic Arts' third extension of its unsolicited bid to acquire the company, it is still opposed to the "highly conditional offer" that "fails to compensate our stockholders for our exceptional portfolio of intellectual property, world-class creative resources, and our successful revitalization initiatives," CEO Ben Feder said in a statement. [more..]

Los Angeles - Mininova, currently the most popular BitTorrent site with over 30 million unique monthly visitors, is soon to be the target of a lawsuit at the hands of Dutch anti-piracy organization BREIN, TorrentFreak reports. [more..]

Los Angeles - News Corp.'s .Fox Networks, an international ad network, on Monday announced the launch of Worthnet.Fox, a vertical online ad network focused in Latin America that will target international consumers of financial news and investment advice online. [more..]

Waltham, Mass. - Steinway Musical Instruments, the maker of pianos and other instruments, announced on Monday that it is paying $4.5 million to acquire ArkivMusic, an online retailer of classical music recordings. [more..]

Seattle - GridNetworks, a developer of peer-to-peer video distribution software, announced on Monday that it has raised $9.5 million in its first round of venture capital financing, led by Panorama Capital. [more..]

Seattle - Wetpaint, the provider of an embeddable wiki platform for social publishing sites, announced on Monday that it has raised a $25 million third round of funding, co-led by DAG Ventures and an unnamed financial investor. [more..]

Shanghai, China - South Korean wireless carrier SK Telecom has paid $7.8 million for a 30% stake in Magic Tech Network, a unit of Chinese online game company Magicgrids Networks, Pacific Epoch reported. [more..]

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Although we are heading towards Monday night finale, the market share of visits to the show's website still remains lower than the peaks during the launch of the show, blogs Heather Dougherty. [more..]

Redmond, Wash. - Nintendo on Monday announced the U.S. launch of "Wii Fit," its fitness-based suite of games for the Wii console that comes with the new Wii Balance Board accessory. [more..]

London - Musician Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios has partnered with U.K.-based audio equipment maker Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) on a new digital music subscription service, Billboard reports. [more..]

Los Angeles - LucasArts, the video game development arm of director George Lucas' Lucasfilm, has followed Activision and Vivendi in leaving the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the video game industry trade group that produces the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Next-Gen reported. [more..]

Philadelphia - Comcast announced on Monday that it has added full-length streaming episodes of Viacom-owned programs including "South Park," "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" to the offering at its Fancast.com service. [more..]

San Antonio - Clear Channel Radio said on Monday that it has signed a deal with Reciva, a provider of Internet radio modules for use with broadband applications, to stream all of its stations on Reciva-powered receivers. [more..]

Boston - WeeWorld, the provider of a personalized avatar creation service, on Monday announced the launch of a virtual world where users can interact with one another via their "WeeMee" creations. [more..]