Los Angeles - German media conglomerate Bertelsmann is looking to sell its 50% stake in major record label joint venture Sony BMG back to Sony for $1.5 billion, an unnamed source told Financial Times Deutschland. [more..]

Los Angeles - FunnyorDie.com, the comedy site backed by Will Ferrell that offers original video programming, has received an investment from Time Warner's HBO in exchange for a "small equity stake," Variety reports. [more..]

Hanhzhou, China - Chinese digital music distributor 5fad.com announced on Wednesday that it has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against leading Chinese search engine Baidu in federal court in New York. [more..]

New York - Merlin, a new trade body founded a year ago with the aim of representing the rights of independent labels worldwide, announced on Wednesday that its membership has grown to over 12,000 labels, representing over 8% of the U.S. market -- equal to that of major label EMI Music. [more..]

London - In what is thought will become the first prosecution in the U.K. involving pre-release music, a London-based DJ and music critic has been arrested on suspicion of theft and money laundering in connection with his alleged selling of 150 pre-release albums on eBay, according to a statement from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a record label trade group. [more..]

Toronto - The amount of time Americans spend watching TV and other video content each day is expected to nearly triple over the next five years, matching the amount of time they spend sleeping by 2013, according to a report published on Wednesday by Solutions Research Group. [more..]

Basking Ridge, N.J. - Expanding on the band's existing extensive library of live recordings, Verizon Wireless announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Pearl Jam to distribute mobile "bootleg" recordings from the band's 12-city U.S. tour this summer. [more..]

Seattle - More than one in five (20.5%) of players of casual video games have a physical, mental or developmental disability -- compared with 15.1% of the overall U.S. population who are disabled -- according to a survey conducted by Information Solutions Group on behalf of casual games publisher PopCap Games. [more..]

San Francisco - Mobile marketing firm 5th Finger announced on Wednesday that it has raised $7 million in first round funding from Australia's Starfish Ventures. [more..]

Los Angeles - Capzles has announced that it has raised an undisclosed sum in first round funding from unnamed investors, and launched its "social storytelling" network. [more..]

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Madrid - Spain-based telecommunications firm Telefonica announced on Wednesday that it will distribute Apple's iPhone in 12 Latin American countries and the Czech Republic, expanding on previous deals and brining the total number of countries the company will offer the iPhone in to 16. [more..]

Bentonville, Ark. - Retail giant Wal-Mart announced on Wednesday that veteran rock band Journey's new 3-disc CD/DVD album "Revelation" sold more than 104,000 copies in its first week on sale exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in North America, and via the retailers' websites. [more..]

Seattle - Delve Networks, formerly known as Pluggd, on Wednesday announced the launch of its Internet TV and online video publishing platform for medium to large-sized publishers. [more..]

Plymouth, Minn. - Primera Technology on Wednesday introduced a new "Rent & Rip" program that will let consumers rent its professional-grade equipment and software for a week for the purpose of ripping their entire CD collections to a computer. [more..]