Palo Alto, Calif. - News Corp. is firing MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe, with the core MySpace executive team to depart the company as well, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources. [more..]

Cupertino, Calif. - Apple on Wednesday reported a 15% profit increase for the second quarter, to $1.21 billion, beating Wall Street analysts' estimates. [more..]

New York - Worldwide recorded music sales fell 8% in 2008 to $18.4 billion, dragged by a 19% decline in the U.S., Reuters reported, citing a report from record industry trade group IFPI. [more..]

Los Angeles - Automattic, developers of the WordPress blogging software platform, have acquired Blo.gs, a provider of blog ping and trackback technology, from Yahoo for an undisclosed sum. [more..]

Dayton, Ohio - NCR, a maker of automated kiosks that recently signed a DVD kiosk deal with Blockbuster, announced on Wednesday that it has acquired TNR Holdings Corp., the second-largest DVD kiosk operator in North America. [more..]

Chicago - Playboy Enterprises announced on Wednesday that it has received noticed from the New York Stock Exchange that it is not in compliance with minimum listing criteria, because its average market capitalization and shareholders' equity over the past month were below $75 million.
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McLean, Va. - Looking for ways to boost revenue in the midst of an advertising slowdown, Gannett, the publisher of USA Today and 84 other daily papers, on Wednesday announced a new online ad network, tying together more than 100 of its Web properties with a combined audience of about 25 million. [more..]

Bellevue, Wash. - Zango, an "adware" company that provided free game, song and other downloads in exchange for the ability to serve targeted ads while browsing the Web, has shut down and sold its assets to video search firm Blinx for an undisclosed sum. [more..]

Arlington, Va. - PBS, the public broadcasting entity with 357 member stations, on Wednesday announced the beta launch of its new video portal, which will bring thousands of hours of national and local PBS programming to the Web, and ultimately include feature-length films and documentaries, as well as live events and performances. [more..]

Los Angeles - In the wake of the guilty verdict in Sweden for operators of The Pirate Bay, a number of other BitTorrent file-sharing tracker sites have closed down in the country, TorrentFreak reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Twitter CEO Evan Williams' appearance on Oprah last week, which saw the talk show host herself join the microblogging service, resulted in a 37% increase to Twitter.com from new visitors, CNET News.com reported, citing Hitwise data. [more..]

New York - Journalist Keith Olbermann, the ESPN sports anchor-turned political show host on MSNBC, has been hired by Major League Baseball Advanced Media to pen a new column on MLB.com. [more..]

Seattle - Amazon.com on Wednesday announced the availability of HD movies and TV episodes from its Amazon Video On Demand service. [more..]

San Francisco - Linden Lab plans later this year to introduce a separate "continent" within its virtual world, "Second Life," earmarked for adult content and adult-themed activities, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

New York - Lifetime Networks, which will be the new home to the fashion reality show "Project Runway," announced that it has posted more than 500 broadband clips from past episodes of the show to promote the upcoming fifth season. [more..]

Washington - SnagFilms, the documentary film site recently launched by AOL vice chairman emeritus Ted Leonsis, said that it has formed alliances with the Hot Docs, Outfest and Full Frame film festivals, as well as film competitions group CINE and the International Documentary Association. [more..]

Redwood City, Calif. - Electronic Arts (EA), the large developer and publisher of video games, said on Wednesday that people now have played its EA Sports titles online 500 million times since the company launched its 2009 product line last June. [more..]