Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) said on Thursday that the New York-based Bloomberg Television network will make national cable advertising time in the U.S. available through the Google TV Ads platform. Google offers an auction-based pricing system, allowing advertisers to only pay for impressions delivered to their ads. Google's platform also counts NBC Universal and DISH Network among its clients.

London - Global news agency Reuters "looks set to endorse" a buyout offer from fellow financial news provider Thomson Corp., the Financial Times reported on Friday.

London - Jalipo on Monday announced the launch of its online video distribution network, which will initially offer rights-protected content from providers including BBC World, Bloomberg and Al Jazeera English, Reuters reported. Unlike YouTube, Jalipo will sell access to live and on-demand video clips on a pay-per-minute basis. "We're hoping to create a much more user friendly way to buy video content that means you can now monetize your content online while still maintaining your rights," Jalipo CEO Alex Taylor told Reuters. The company's management team also includes former Sony Europe president Chris Deering, who serves as chairman.

Tokyo - Sony announced on Wednesday that it has formed a joint venture with fellow Japanese game publisher Namco Bandai that will develop titles for consoles, the PC and mobile platforms, Bloomberg News reported

New York - Microsoft plans to add video game functionality to its portable Zune music and video player within 18 months, Xbox vice president Peter Moore told Bloomberg.com. The move would be Microsoft's first foray into the handheld game market currently dominated by Nintendo's DS and Game Boy Advance, and Sony's PSP. The Zune is already compatible with Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console. Microsoft expects to sell 1 million Zune players by the end of June, with the unspecified video game components coming by July 2008.