Washington - President-elect Barack Obama plans to tap Julius Genachowski, a co-founder of DC-based venture capital firm Rock Creek Ventures, to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), The Wall Street Journal reported. [more..]

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Carol Bartz, the former CEO of Autodesk, will be named the new CEO of Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing "people familiar with the situation." [more..]

Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the federal government to submit an opinion on Cablevision's proposed network-based digital video recorder, which drew a lawsuit from movie studios and television networks that is currently under appeal, Reuters reported. [more..]

Los Angeles - Activision's "Guitar Hero III" is the first video game to surpass $1 billion in sales, but the current iterations of both that franchise and MTV's "Rock Band" sold fewer copies last year in the U.S. than their predecessors, according to market research firm NPD Group. [more..]

Seattle - RealNetworks announced on Tuesday that it has defeated a legal effort by Friskit to revive a patent infringement suit against the company that sought more than $70 million in damages. [more..]

London - With enough cash reserves to weather the economic climate, Apple's iPhone will command 40% of the global smartphone market by 2013, according to a report from market research firm Generator Research. [more..]

London - Slicethepie, a site that lets fans help finance the recordings of artists they like, on Tuesday announced the launch of SoundOut, a new feature that lets labels and artists test the popularity of new tracks out with the Slicethepie community, which earns credits for rating and reviewing new music. [more..]

Charleston, S.C. - avVenta Worldwide, a provider of online advertising, digital production and interactive services, has raised a $20 million investment from TZP Group, a New York-based private equity firm. [more..]

Santa Clara, Calif. - Go Internet Media, an online ad firm that offers customized consumer acquisition services for vertical markets, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $10 million in its first round of financing, led by U.K. private equity firm Kennet. [more..]

San Francisco - MixMatchMusic, the provider of an online music collaboration and fan engagement service, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Mix2r, a similar site geared towards the electronica genre. [more..]

Los Angeles - Online casual games site Café.com has sold its Boonty digital distribution platform to France-based Nexway, a provider of online distribution services in Europe, GigaOM reported.
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Shanghai - Chinese online game developer and operator Giant Interactive Group on Tuesday announced the establishment of an online game incubator program, designed to offer resources to individuals, small project teams and full-fledged studios. [more..]

Los Angeles - The Writers Guild of America has announced nominees for its second annual video game writing award, with nods going to "Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3," "Fallout 3," "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed," "Tomb Raider: Underworld" and "Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble!" [more..]

London - Andrew Lloyd Webber's production company Really Useful Group is in talks with a number of video game publishers, reportedly including Electronic Arts, on the prospects of his musicals as the basis for music-based video games, according to PaidContent. [more..]

Los Angeles - HBO will offer songs featured in each episode from the new season of its comedy "Flight of the Conchords" for purchase and download on iTunes the day after each episode airs, according to The Hollywood Reporter. [more..]

New York - The Orchard, a digital distributor of independent music and video content, said on Tuesday that it has signed a deal to provide physical and digital distribution for Vice Music releases in North America. [more..]

Santa Monica, Calif. - Video game publisher Activision said on Tuesday that Bruce Springsteen will make two songs available for purchase and download for play with its "Guitar Hero: World Tour" game. [more..]