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DMW Daily, October 7, 2008

Top Stories
o Report: U.S. Online Ad Revenues Up 15.2% in First Half of '08
o News Corp. Acquires Rest of Jamba From Verisign for $200M
o Spotify Gets Label Deals, Debuts Ad-Supported Music Service
o Yoko Ono, EMI Withdraw Copyright Suit Against Filmmakers
o Microsoft, Universities Fund Research on Educational Games
o U.S. Private Equity Firms on Pace to Break Fundraising Record
o Social Media Advertising Firm Appssavvy Lands $3.1 Million
o MindFuse Gets Funding for Multiplayer Casual Games
o IPTV Firm KIT Digital Acquires Visual Connection
Opinion & Analysis
o DMW Vlog: Ksharp on the Bright Future for Professional Gamers
Briefly Noted
o Hulu to Stream Remaining Presidential Debates Live
o "Weird Al" Parody Debuts While Original Song Still at No. 1
o MySpace, HP Partner to Promote Photo Printing
o The Orchard Details First Physical Album Releases via TVT
o PBS Adds Downloadable TV Shows to Xbox Live
o Qtrax Adds Former RIAA, IFPI Head Berman to Advisory Board
o Music Choice Debuts Interactive TV Photo, Text Shout-outs
 Top Stories
o Report: U.S. Online Ad Revenues Up 15.2% in First Half of '08 
New York - U.S. Internet advertising revenues for the first half of 2008 totaled $11.5 billion, an increase of 15.2% from the same period a year ago, according to a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers. [more..]
o News Corp. Acquires Rest of Jamba From Verisign for $200M 
New York - News Corporation announced on Tuesday that it has acquired the rest of mobile entertainment firm Jamba from joint venture partner Verisign for about $200 million. [more..]
o Spotify Gets Label Deals, Debuts Ad-Supported Music Service 
Stockholm, Sweden - Spotify, the Sweden-based developer of an ad-supported digital music service, on Tuesday announced its launch with the signing of licensing deals with all four major record labels, as well as independent labels represented by Merlin and The Orchard. [more..]
o Yoko Ono, EMI Withdraw Copyright Suit Against Filmmakers 
Stanford, Calif. - Major record label EMI and recording artist Yoko Ono have withdrawn all copyright infringement claims against Premise Media, the producers of a documentary called "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" that uses a 15-second clip of a John Lennon song. [more..]
o Microsoft, Universities Fund Research on Educational Games 
New York - Microsoft's research arm on Tuesday announced the formation of a joint research endeavor with New York University and a range of other schools, which aims to "provide the fundamental scientific evidence to support games as learning tools for math and science subjects among middle-school students." [more..]
o U.S. Private Equity Firms on Pace to Break Fundraising Record 
New York - Despite significant turmoil in the public financial markets, U.S. private equity firms actually picked up the pace of their fundraising during the first three-quarters of this year, and are on pace to break an all-time record, according to a new report by Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst. [more..]
o Social Media Advertising Firm Appssavvy Lands $3.1 Million 
New York - Appssavvy, a provider of social media advertising services, announced on Tuesday that it has secured a $3.1 million first round of funding, led by True Ventures with participation from About.com founder Scott Kurnit. [more..]
o MindFuse Gets Funding for Multiplayer Casual Games 
Berkeley, Calif. - MindFuse, a developer of multiplayer online casual games, has raised $1 million in convertible debt from the Keiretsu Forum, and also expects to raise an undisclosed sum of venture funding over the next month, VentureBeat reported. [more..]
o IPTV Firm KIT Digital Acquires Visual Connection 
Dubai - KIT digital, a provider of IPTV delivery technology, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Visual Connection, a Czech Republic-based provider of digital media and IPTV services, for $2.5 million in cash plus $7.5 million in performance-based payouts. [more..]
 Opinion & Analysis
o DMW Vlog: Ksharp on the Bright Future for Professional Gamers 
n/a
 Briefly Noted
o Hulu to Stream Remaining Presidential Debates Live 
New York - Hulu, the online video joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., has announced that it will stream both of the remaining presidential debates live on its site, including the NBC debate tonight and the Fox News debate on Oct. 15. [more..]
o "Weird Al" Parody Debuts While Original Song Still at No. 1 
New York - "Weird Al" Yankovic has utilized Apple's iTunes Store to release his first parody song to come while the song being parodied is still No. 1 on the Billboard charts. [more..]
o MySpace, HP Partner to Promote Photo Printing 
San Diego - News Corp.'s MySpace on Tuesday announced a partnership with HP that will encourage MySpace users to print the photos they publish to the site. [more..]
o The Orchard Details First Physical Album Releases via TVT 
New York - The Orchard, a digital distributor of independent music and video content, on Tuesday announced the first label signings to its recently-acquired TVT Distribution physical sales platform. [more..]
o PBS Adds Downloadable TV Shows to Xbox Live 
Arlington, Va. - PBS said on Tuesday that it will make several of its television shows available for download on Xbox LIVE, the online games and entertainment network of the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console. [more..]
o Qtrax Adds Former RIAA, IFPI Head Berman to Advisory Board 
New York - Qtrax, an ad-supported peer-to-peer music download service, announced that it has added Jay Berman, former head of the record label lobbying groups the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), as co-chairman of its advisory board. [more..]
o Music Choice Debuts Interactive TV Photo, Text Shout-outs 
New York - Music Choice, a provider of music and video content on pay-TV and other platforms, on Tuesday introduced ShowOff, an interactive TV feature that lets viewers submit text message and photo "shout-outs" that will appear on-screen during programming. [more..]