New York - The long-rumored online advertising and search partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo is reportedly close to being a done deal, according to the blog All Things D. [more..]

Port Washington, N.Y. - U.S. video game sales plunged 31% in June, to $1.17 billion, the most precipitous drop since the industry saw a 41% year-over-year decline in September 2000, according to figures from market research firm NPD Group. [more..]

Dallas - A federal judge on Friday dismissed an insider trading lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against billionaire Mark Cuban, an Internet entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, the Associated Press reported. [more..]

New York - Time Warner's Warner Bros. Entertainment paid a total of $49 million to acquire the assets of bankrupt video game publisher Midway Games, as opposed to the $33 million purchase price stated when the deal was announced in May, Gamespot reported, citing a regulatory filing. [more..]

New York - Viacom's MTV Games plans later this year to launch a service that will let any musical artist upload and submit their songs for possible inclusion in its "Rock Band" music video game, Billboard reported. [more..]

Seattle - Amazon.com has changed its policy, and will now offer free replacement Kindle e-book reader devices to owners whose screens were cracked due to a possibly defective cover for the device sold by Amazon, CNET News.com reported. [more..]

Washington - SBNation, a network of sports-related blogs, has raised $8 million in new financing, led by Comcast Interactive Capital. [more..]

Vancouver, Canada - Lat49, a provider of geo-contextual online advertising services, has closed a $1.34 million first round of venture capital financing, led by PenderFund Capital with participation from previous backer Discovery Capital. [more..]

Los Angeles - Sony has distributed more than 500 million pieces of content to PlayStation 3 and PSP owners via its PlayStation Network over the past year, Variety reports. [more..]

London - Spotify, the ad-supported streaming music service available in the U.K. and parts of Europe, plans to launch in the U.S. this summer, co-founder Daniel Ek told Forbes.com. [more..]

London - Coldplay has become the first band to sell over 1 million digital albums in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan data. [more..]

New York - Mail.com Media Corp., which in recent months has re-launched Movieline.com and acquired Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily, announced this week that it has hired former US Weekly editor Bonnie Fuller as president of its HollywoodLife.com. [more..]

San Francisco - Current Media, the multiplatform media company co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, on Friday named cable industry veteran Mark Rosenthal as its new CEO. [more..]

Los Angeles - Former Variety deputy editor Anne Thompson, also a blogger at ThompsonOnHolywood, has signed a deal to publish her blog with IndieWire, the independent cinema publication, TheWrap.com reported. [more..]

Detroit - WaTunes, a provider of digital distribution services for independent artists and record labels, on Friday announced the launch of its iTunes Daily Trending Service. [more..]