New York, N.Y. - The New York Times Co. has entered into an agreement to sell its Broadcast Media Group, consisting of nine network-affiliated television stations, their associated web sites, and the company's Digital Operating Center, to Oak Hill Capital Partners for $575 million. [more..]

San Jose, Calif. - Cisco, the San Jose-based network equipment giant, said on Thursday that it will pay $830 million in cash and stock to acquire IronPort Systems, a San Bruno-based maker of messaging security appliances focusing on spam and spyware protection for large organizations. [more..]

Cambridge, UK – UK-based Plastic Logic, announced that it has secured $100 million worth of venture capital, one of the largest deals in European venture capital history. The funding was co-led by Oak Investment Partners of Palo Alto, Calif., and Tudor Investment of Greenwich, Conn. [more..]

San Francisco, CA - According to a report from comScore Networks, U.S. retail web sites collected $102.1 billion in 2006, marking a 24% increase over 2005. The report pointed to strong spending in the last two months of the year as a significant factor in pushing spending over the $100 billion mark. [more..]

New York - Warner Brothers (WB), a division of Time Warner, plans to formally announce a new dual format DVD disc, called Total HD Disc, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday, reports The New York Times. The new videodisc can play movies and television programs in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, the two competing DVD technologies. [more..]

Seoul, Korea - LG Electronics will begin selling a high-definition video disc player compatible with both the HD DVD and Blu-ray disc standards, it said Thursday. The player will be unveiled at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and go on sale in the US in early 2007, according to LG. [more..]

New York - Herb Scannell, a former vice chairman of MTV Networks and former president of Nickelodeon Networks, unveiled Next New Networks on Thursday. The new company plans to put more than 30 of what it calls "micro-television networks" on the Internet. The company also announced that it raised $8 million in its first round of venture capital, led by Spark Capital. [more..]

Washington, DC - Shares of DC-based XM Satellite Radio leveled off a bit on Thursday, a day after surging more than 5% when rival Sirius announced that it expects to end the year with more than 6 million subscribers. [more..]

New York - Mochila.com, an Internet-based media marketplace, announced that it has raised $8 million in a second round of funding. The funding was lead by Charles River Ventures, which was joined by Mission Ventures, The Greenspun Corporation, and Jerry Colonna, who co-founded Flatiron Partners. [more..]

Los Angeles - The AP reported today that Hollywood studios have approved a new technology and licensing approach that would make it easier for consumers to burn movies purchased digitally over the Internet onto a DVD that will play everywhere. Introduced today, the solution - named Qflix and developed by Sonic Solutions – provides a standard digital lock to DVDs burned in a computer or a retail kiosk. [more..]

Exent Technologies, a global market solutions provider for broadband-based monetization of PC and video games, has appointed longtime Intel executive, Alan Snodgrass as its President. In this role, Alan will oversee all of Exent’s business operations from the company’s North American headquarters, in Bethesda, Maryland. [more..]

Dallas - World Digital Media Group (WDMG), a multi-platform music and digital content company, today announced that they have been chosen by Lycos as the first music content provider for the web portal’s newly launched proprietary entertainment platform Lycos Cinema, which allows users to chat online in real-time while watching videos. [more..]

New York - MomJunction, a New York-based social networking website for mothers, has raised $1.5 million in its first round of venture capital, led by a group of media and technology investors, including PointRoll CEO Christopher Saridakis and founder Jules Gardner, as well as entrepreneur Pat Croce. [more..]

The Los Angeles Times yesterday launched an online voting pool for the Grammys and Golden Globes titled The Road To Gold. The interactive feature allows awards enthusiasts to test their “insider” knowledge against actual award voters and other online participants.
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Chapel Hill, N.C. - Search engine giant Google has quietly owned a small software development firm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, called Skia in since 2005, Local Tech Wire reported on Thursday. The company employs just five people and apparently focuses on graphics software engineering. [more..]