Los Angeles - Confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal last week, concert promotion giant Live Nation and Ticketmaster on Tuesday announced plans to merge, in an all-stock transaction valued at $2.5 billion. [more..]

Palo Alto, Calif. - Facebook paid $65 million to settle a lawsuit from the founders of ConnectU, a rival social network that claimed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea from them while they were all at Harvard, a legal blog called the The Recorder reports. [more..]

Vancouver, Canada - A Toronto mad has filed a $410 million lawsuit against Ticketmaster Entertainment, over the company's alleged shunting of prospective ticketbuyers to its TicketsNow service, an auction site where tickets go to the highest bidder, Reuters reported. [more..]

Brussels - Facebook, MySpace and fifteen other social media sites available in Europe have signed on to an agreement proposed by the European Commission that aims to eliminate "cyber-bullying" and protect children's privacy, Reuters reported. [more..]

Tokyo - Video game and pachinko machine firm Sega Sammy Holdings has announced plans to cut 560 employees, or over one-sixth of its workforce, as well as close 110 amusement centers and reduce research and development costs by 20%. [more..]

Fort Mill, S.C. - Muzak, the provider of in-store and on-hold messaging music, announced on Tuesday that it has filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy in the state of Delaware. [more..]

Marina, Calif. - Listening to Web radio music stations increased by 37.6% in 2008, to 6.67 billion hours, and in-stream audio sold against ad-supported cumulative listening hours was up 46% to $74 million, according to a report from AccuStream iMedia Research. [more..]

Cambridge, Mass. - In response to current economic conditions, Forrester Research, a provider of research on the IT, marketing, and technology industries, on Tuesday announced a reduction in workforce of about 50 jobs, or an estimated 5% of its total headcount, across various functions and locations. [more..]

Carlsbad, Calif. - More than $823 million was spent on promoting video game titles in the U.S. in 2008, according a report from Nielsen Monitor-Plus. [more..]

San Francisco - ZoomSystems, a provider of automated retail vending machines that stock consumer electronics items like MP3 players, announced on Tuesday that it has closed a $20 million, fifth round of financing. [more..]

San Mateo, Calif. - Oodle, the provider of a search engine for local classified ads, announced on Tuesday that it has raised an additional $5.6 million in funding from existing investors Greylock Partners, Redpoint Ventures and JAFCO Ventures. [more..]

Tel Aviv, Israel - Tvinci, a developer of customized live and on-demand video systems for wireless carriers and pay-TV providers, has raised $1.6 million in its first round of funding from Kaedan Capital, Israel's Globes Online reported. [more..]

Santa Clara, Calif. - VUDU announced on Tuesday that it has cut the price of its entry-level, Internet-connected TV set-top box in half, to $149. [more..]

Milpitas, Calif. - SanDisk said on Tuesday that it plans to begin mass producing flash memory chips with up to 64GB capacity, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

New York - Digital music service eMusic said on Tuesday that it has paid out about $100,000 to unsigned bands over the past year, as part of its eMusic Selects A&R initiative. [more..]

Amsterdam - MMO Life, the operator of a network of portals that offer news, reviews and demos of massively multiplayer online games, said on Tuesday that it has acquired a 49% stake in Germany's MMOCluster, a multi-language network of gaming-related portals. [more..]