Los Angeles - Ticketmaster announced on Thursday that it will acquire a controlling equity interest in Front Line Management, the large artist management firm run by Irving Azoff, from Warner Music Group for about $123 million in cash. [more..]

Los Angeles - MySpace Music, the joint venture between the News Corp.-owned social network and the major record labels, announced on Thursday that it has signed a deal with IODA to bring the independent digital music distributor's catalog of more than one million tracks from over 50,000 artists to the service. [more..]

Seattle - Getty Images, a provider of celebrity and stock photography, footage and multimedia products, announced on Thursday its acquisition of Jupiterimages, a unit of Jupitermedia, for $96 million in cash. [more..]

Mountain View, Calif. - LinkedIn, an online social network for business professionals, announced on Thursday that it has landed a new $22.7 million financing round, from investors including Goldman Sachs, The McGraw-Hill Companies, SAP Ventures and previous backer Bessemer Venture Partners.
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Los Angeles - Derek Sivers, the founder of online independent music store CD Baby, made $22 million this summer from the sale of his company to Disc Makers, according to Venture Voice. [more..]

Beverly Hills, Calif. - Male-focused video entertainment site Break.com has laid off about 11 employees from its staff of 80, CEO Keith Richman told CNET News.com. [more..]

Silver Spring, Md. - Less than a week after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Worldspace, a provider of satellite radio services to foreign markets, said that it has received court approval to receive up to $2 million in debtor-in-possession financing. [more..]

Las Vegas - Martin Cooper and Donald Linder, developers of the world's first cell phone, were among 12 prominent industry leaders who have been inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced. [more..]

Rome - Neomobile, an Italy-based mobile entertainment distributor, announced on Thursday that it has acquired Arena Mobile, a Spain-based mobile content provider. [more..]

The format's best hope at this point, ironically enough, may be an influx of low-end, Chinese-made players from the likes of Olevia and Memorex--precisely the scenario Blu-ray's earliest backers set out to avoid, blogs Paul Sweeting. [more..]

Rohit Bhargava: Yesterday at the MarketingProfs event, Ariana Huffington took the stage for a keynote presentation sharing some lessons she has learned about building a successful blog network with the Huffington Post [more..]

Plano, Texas - Staying true to its promise from a marketing stunt, soft drink maker Dr. Pepper said it will offer a free soda coupon to every American when Guns N' Roses releases its 17 years-in-the-making album "Chinese Democracy" on Nov. 23. [more..]

Los Angeles - With the Entertainment Software Association's (ESA) announcement this week that it will bring an expanded E3 event to downtown Los Angeles next year, the future of partner IDG World Expo's consumer-friendly E for All event could be in doubt, GameDaily reported. [more..]

Los Gatos, Calif. - Online DVD rental service Netflix announced on Thursday that it has partnered with Samsung to offer subscribers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from its website to Samsung BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray disc players. [more..]

Los Angeles - A wireless guitar accessory for Nintendo's Wii console has been recalled after a report that a defective circuit board can cause AA batteries used in the guitar to leak, in turn creating a risk of chemical burns, GamesIndustry.biz reports. [more..]

Round Rock, Texas - PC maker Dell on Thursday announced a deal with Universal Music Group, to offer pre-loaded MP3 bundles on select new purchases on Dell.com. [more..]

Alviso, Calif. - TiVo announced on Thursday that it has added the ability for subscribers to download a range of foreign and independent films from Internet movie service Jaman.com. [more..]

Agoura Hills, Calif. - Video game publisher THQ announced on Thursday that it has acquired the publishing rights to "50 Cent: Blood on the Sand," the follow-up to the multi-million unit-selling game featuring hip-hop artist 50 Cent. [more..]

North Hollywood, Calif. - Disney Online on Thursday announced the launch of "Disney Fairies Pixie Hollow," a new online virtual world featuring the Tinker Bell character from "Peter Pan." [more..]