Mountain View, Calif. - Google announced on Friday that it will acquire Internet advertising company DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash. The deal, expected to close by the end of 2007, is the largest acquisition in the company's history, coming six months after Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube. [more..]

New York - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has suggested that movie studios ban ads for R-rated movies on websites where more than 45% of visitors are under 17, The New York Times reported. [more..]

New York - Major record label Warner Music Group has demanded that standalone MP3 albums from its artists be removed from AnywhereCD, a music venture launched yesterday by MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, Reuters reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has announced plans to stop selling the 20GB version of its PlayStation 3 in North America, saying consumers have been purchasing the 60GB, more fully-featured model by a ratio of 10 to 1, the Associated Press reported. [more..]

San Francisco - Digital civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a brief with a federal court in New York, asking a judge to allow the target of a music industry file-sharing lawsuit to file counterclaims alleging the industry's lawsuit was a misuse of copyrights and intended to harass him. [more..]

Fort Mill, S.C. - Muzak and DMX, two providers of background music and other services for businesses, announced on Friday that they are contemplating a future consolidation or combination, and have sought federal antitrust clearance for such a transaction. [more..]

New York - Rolling Stone magazine plans to launch its own online social network, a separate site that will offer the standard profiles along with the ability to vote on the magazine's "Best of" lists. [more..]

McLean, Va. - USA Today said that its USAToday.com website saw a substantial increase in traffic and registered users following its re-launch in March. The company said that unique visitors to its site, which features several new interactive capabilities, increased 21% from February, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, and site registrations jumped 380%. [more..]

Washington - The Washington Business Journal reported on Friday that National Public Radio is looking for 400,000 square feet of space to consolidate its offices and "make room for digital media programs proposed for the future." The article said NPR could likely sell its existing headquarters in downtown DC near Union Station for around $115 million. "We have outgrown our space," Emily Lenzner, a spokeswoman for NPR, was quoted as saying in the article. "Our existing building needs significant reinvestment. And even with that, it would be too small to satisfy our current and future initiatives." [more..]

Brooklyn, N.Y. - Cruxy, a developer of software that helps independent creators sell their songs, films and other media online, on Friday announced the release of a media player widget for the virtual world "Second Life" that can be passed between avatars. Brooklyn-based Cruxy said it also plans to release a system for digital media transactions within Second Life using the world's virtual currency, Linden dollars. [more..]

San Francisco - Japanese game publisher Capcom Interactive said on Friday it is developing four new mobile game titles, including versions of "Mega Man II" and "Street Fighter II" for cell phones. In addition, Capcom will publish "Millionaire Music Edition," an all-music edition of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire," and "Shade II," a massively multiplayer mobile game slated for release in early 2008. The other titles will become available by June. [more..]