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Earnings: ROO’s Revenues Rise, But So Do Operating Losses - Online video aggregator ROO Group (OTC Bulletin Board: RGRP) reported 4Q revenues of $3.75 million, a 100 percent increase over its 4Q05 revenue of $1.87 million. The company’s results also improved over 3Q06 revenues, gaining 68 percent over that quarter’s $2.23 million. For the year, revenues were $9.77 million, an increase of 45 percent versus 2005’s total $6.61 million. But, in addition to growing revenue, Roo’s string of operating losses also grew. ROO reported 4Q net operating losses reaching nearly $4.99 million ? compared to $2.90 million in 4Q05 ? and $14.63 million for the year ? compared to 2005’s $8.96 million net loss.

Yahoo Rolling Out Chinese Flickr Version In ‘07 - For anyone who noticed Flickr’s help wanted post on its company blog seeking translators, here’s why: Yahoo will start a Chinese language version of its photo-sharing site Flickr this year as the company looks to expand other user-generated content sites, such as Del.icio.us, Reuters reports. Yahoo is also coming out with Chinese versions of its email and Yahoo Groups services.  

Google Stock Strong, Despite Viacom Suit: RBC Capital - Despite Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit against it, Google’s prospects remain solid on the strength of a change to the quality score algorithm that lowers minimum bids for high-quality ads and increases minimum bids for low-quality ones, RBC Capital Markets maintains in a report released Thursday. 

Bud.TV Sputters After Launch: Experts Assess Why - Anheuser-Busch grabbed marketers’ attention when it unveiled a $30 million plan to challenge Hollywood with a branded digital entertainment network. Now, as the network languishes following a splashy Super Bowl debut, Madison Avenue evaluates why. 

IAB Urges Congress To Reconsider Spyware Legislation - The Interactive Advertising Bureau and other industry groups on Thursday urged Congress to reconsider “spyware” legislation that they believe would hinder e-commerce and consumers’ free exchange of information.

Study Finds ‘Relevance Gap’ in Pharma Digital Marketing - The findings of a new study exploring the use of digital media tactics by pharmaceutical marketers find a startling “relevance gap” between how most in the industry use Web 2.0 technologies in their own lives versus how they incorporate them professionally. Opportunity abounds.

Newspaper Web Ad Sales Hit $2.7 Bil, Up 31.5% for 2006 - Advertising on newspaper Web sites increased 31.5% to nearly $2.7 billion, the Newspaper Association of America reported Thursday. On the print side, however, ad revenues of $13.2 billion reflected a 3.7% decrease for the year.

Display Ads Still Get the Job Done - Static ads remain an important arrow in the online marketing quiver. eMarketer senior analyst and online ad specialist David Hallerman estimates that budget share for display and classified ads will remain relatively flat through 2011, with paid search inching up and rich media and video gaining sharply. A December 2006 study by Datran Media revealed that display ads remain an important tactic for US marketers, behind only e-mail and search marketing. In fact, display ads were named as important by more than twice as many respondents as online video.

One Third of Internet Users Have Logged on Wirelessly - According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Some 34% of internet users have logged onto the internet using a wireless connection either around the house, at their workplace, or some place else. In other words, one-third of internet users, either with a laptop computer, a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA), or cell phone, have surfed the internet or checked email using means such as WiFi broadband or cell phone networks.

Microsoft’s Enterprise Search “Promotions” - It’s something Microsoft started discussing about a year and a half ago that never quite came to fruition: compensating users with coupons, prizes and money for using Windows Live Search. That idea has now resurfaced, but the focus has shifted to large enterprises. According to the so-called “Microsoft Service Credits for Web Search” PowerPoint presentation: “Your organization can earn credits for Microsoft Web searches and redeem them for Microsoft or preferred partner deployment and training services.”

NPR Leads Fight Against Web Radio Royalties - With a little help from its friend, Internet radio is fighting back against the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to implement a harsh new fee structure. Luckily, Webcasters have National Public Radio on its side. On Friday, public radio officials will file a petition to get the CRB to reconsider. If that fails, NPR has vowed to bring legal action against the oversight body, which was created by Congress to settle royalty disputes in the music business.

Six Columns Digital Marketers Must Read - Max Kalehoff lists what he considers to be his six most critical articles of analyses for online marketers.

AOL Withdraws $900 Million TradeDoubler Bid - After tons of trouble from TradeDoubler shareholders, AOL has withdrawn its $900 million bid for the European provider of online marketing and sales solutions. This came after AOL failed to gain the approval of 90 percent of shareholders.

Bravo Makes First Media Buy Of Its Own: Acquires TelevisionWithoutPity.com - NBC Universal’s Bravo is expanding its online content―and its snark factor―with the acquisition of TelevisionWithoutPity.com, a site with the motto “spare the snark, spoil the networks.” Bravo’s homegrown online portfolio includes BravoTV.com, and Trio suite BrilliantbutCancelled.com, getTRIO.com (broadband), OUTzoneTV.com. TWoP will keep its own url and its own editorial identity but will be linked to the Trio suite.

Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Buys Student-Run DC Shopping Newsletter - An interesting acquisition by Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, the online arm of the WaPo company, and possibly a pre-cursor of more such smaller local deals to come: it has bought out ShopDC, a Washington, DC shopping and fashion newsletter and website guide founded by MBA student Zoey Rawlins. It has now been relaunched as DC Scout. Financials of the deal were not disclosed.

Tom Group Offers To Buy Out Tom Online For $201 Million - Chinese company Tom Group has offered a proposal to buy the shares of Tom Online currently listed on the Hong Kong and Nasdaq share markets, reports Bloomberg. Tom Group already owns 65.7 percent of Tom Online, which sells mobile content in the Chinese market, and has offered to pay a total of HK$1.57 billion (US$201 million) for outstanding Tom Online shares, with the exception of the 10 percent stake owned by independent investor Chau Hoi-shuen.

New York Observer’s Parent Buys PoliticsNJ Site - We missed this on Friday: Observer Media Group, owner of the weekly New York Observer, has bough out political news and community site PoliticsNJ. Observer owner and publisher Jared Kushner bought the site a month ago and it relaunched last week. Last Monday he hired a new editor; over the next days he signed former Governor Christine Todd Whitman and former U.S. Senator Robert G. Torricelli as columnists, says this NYTimes story. Kushner bought NYO for a reported $10 million in 2003.

Digital Marketer Viewpoint Buys Makos Advertising - Interactive marketing agency Viewpoint is finalizing plans to acquire Makos Advertising, a full service agency that primarily works in broadcast video. Viewpoint’s purchase of the Austin, TX.-based agency is part of a strategy to offer clients a range of cross platform campaign capabilities. In particular, Viewpoint plans to absorb Makos’ line of broadcast and in-house digital advertising production services with the New York firm’s Unicast product group.

Daily Mail Group Buys Majority In Croatian Jobs Site, And Buys Slovakian Motors Site - Northcliffe International, a division of the Daily Mail & General Trust in UK, has made two small acquisitions, with the toal value below $10 million: it bought a majority stake in the Croatian job search portal MojPosao. It bought a 60 percent share in the company. The portal has an 85 percent market share for online intermediating in job searches in Croatia.

Google Buys Data Visualization Tool Trendalyzer; Adscape Sale Official - Google has done a software acquisition: it has bought data visualization software Trendalyzer from its parent company Gapminder. It is now making the tool available for free here. From Gapminder’s blog: “Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations. We believe that Google’s acquisition of Trendalyzer will speed up the achievement of this noble goal.

Microsoft Corp. has agreed to acquire Tellme Networks Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of voice applications like directory assistance and mobile search. No financial terms were disclosed, although various reports put the price tag in excess of $800 million. Tellme raised around $263 million during 1999 and 2000, from firms like Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, AT&T, Amerindo, Bowman Capital and Van Wagoner Capital Management. Some of the VC shares since have been acquired on the secondary marker by firms like Millennium Technology Ventures and Saints Capital. www.microsoft.com www.tellme.com  

Capella Intelligent Subsystems Inc. (f.k.a. Capella Photonics), a San Jose, Calif.–based provider of wavelength selective switch modules, has raised $20 million in venture recap funding. Levensohn Venture Partners and Rustic Canyon Partners co-led the deal, and were joined by Formative Ventures. The deal also included a small debt tranche from Square 1 Bank. Capella previously had raised around $48 million in total VC funding. Existing shareholders Bay Partners, BCE Capital and Vanguard Ventures did not participate. www.capellainc.com  

WhiteFence, a Houston, Texas-based online comparison shopping site for residential home services, has raised $14 million in second-round funding. Adams Street Partners led the deal, and was joined by return backer Internet Capital Group. www.whitefence.com  

T-Vips, an Oslo, Norway-based developer of VoIP solutions, has raised around $2.45 million in second-round funding. Return backers included Northzone Ventures and Selvaag Venture Capital. www.t-vips.com  

MovingHealth Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of online consumer health information, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst Partners, according to a regulatory filing.

Atos Origin SA shares jumped as much as 30% yesterday on a Dow Jones report that Permira and Cerberus Capital have made a €4 billion, or €58 per share, buyout bid. Atos Origin is a France-based IT services provider. www.atosorigin.com  

BigBand Networks Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based provider of broadband multimedia service routers, priced 10.7 million common shares at $13 per share ($10-$12 range), for an IPO take of approximately $139.1 million. It will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol BBND, while Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch served as co-lead underwriters. BigBand has raised $100 million in VC funding since its 1999 inception, from firms like Charles River Ventures, Cedar Fund, Lauder Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Time Warner Ventures. www.bigbandnetworks.com  

Consona Corp. (f.k.a. Made2Manage), an Indianapolis–based provider of enterprise customer management and process solutions, has completed its acquisition of Knova Software Inc. (OTC BB: KNVC). The deal was valued at approximately $47 million in cash, or $5 per share. M2M is owned by Battery Ventures and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners. www.consona.com www.knova.com  

Esprit Capital Partners has sold NetEconomy to Fiserv Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV) for an undisclosed amount. NetEconomy is a Netherlands–based provider of financial crime management and compliance solutions to financial institutions. www.neteconomy.com  

Google To Anonymize Search History - Google has announced that it will implement a new policy designed to offer more privacy protection to its users by the end of the year, reports CNet. “Under the new policy…the company will anonymize the final eight bits of the IP address and the cookie data after somewhere between 18 months and 24 months, unless legally required to retain the data for longer.

Smaller Niche Social Sites Gaining Traction - MySpace continues to dominate the social networking space with an 80% market share based on visits, but smaller alternative sites are gaining strongholds in their respective niches. Photo-sharing community Buzznet registered triple-digit growth rates for the latest period tracked by Hitwise.

ContextWeb Lets Publishers Pick Rates - Ad network ContextWeb Wednesday completed a rollout of its new pricing model, allowing publishers to select the rates at which they wish their ad space to be sold.

IAB Releases Lead Quality Guidelines - The Interactive Advertising Bureau Thursday released guidelines for judging the quality of leads, evaluating each lead on the basis of its origin, the customer’s motivation, the exclusivity of the lead, how old the lead is, and how thoroughly the lead has been verified. The most heavily weighted component is the verification level of the leads, followed by consumer motivation, origin, age, and exclusivity. 

Hotel Sites Go Back to Basics - What’s the latest thing in online marketing for hotels? Site design. Hotels have awakened to the challenge from online travel agencies, and they are shifting money into online marketing to meet it, according to a new study by Hospitality eBusiness Strategies (HeBS). The worldwide study of hospitality executives found that 68% of hoteliers plan to shift their budgets from offline to online marketing in 2007.

Streaming Video, Themed Merchandising and Clearance Items Highlight Customer Improvements on E-Tail Sites - According to the 9th Annual Mystery Shopping Study by the E-Tailing Group, rich media, coupons and themed merchandising areas lead a broad range of customer-focused improvements on retail web sites, reported by Internet Retailer. Based on a survey of 100 retail web sites online audio files, found on 41% of sites, were up from 15% in Q4 2005. During the fourth quarter of 2006 Streaming video was found on 38% of sites, up from 20% in 2005. Color change, 46%, up from 34%. Alternate views, 57%, up from 45%.

comScore Hopes New Metric Will Add Clarity And Please Publishers, Hold Off Auditor  - Despite the promise that measuring an online audience would be much easier than doing so in other media, it’s still pretty hard to figure out how many people are visiting your site. Now many media sites are moving from an HTML-based paging system to ones that makes greater use of Ajax tools, which throw multiple wrenches into existing means of measuring audience. comScore Media Metrix wants to add another term to the mix. The AP reports that comScore “is now reporting on site ‘visits’ - defined as the number of times a person returns to a site with a break of at least a half-hour.”

Earnings: Jupitermedia Q4 Profit Falls; Online Division To Be Renamed Internet.com - Jupitermedia (Nasdaq: JUPM) reported Q4 profit decreases, citing charges and higher operating expenses. Specifically, net income dropped to $502,000 from $5.4 million a year ago - a 90 percent decrease. On the revenue side, 4Q revenues were $34.8 million, which represents a $1.6 million or 6 percent increase over results for Q405’s $33.2 million. Meanwhile, online images ? Jupitermedia’s largest revenue segment ? increased to $27.1 million from $24.8 million.

Clear Channel Communications has postponed its shareholder vote on the proposed $19 billion buyout by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, from March 21 to April 19. The move comes after proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis became the latest organization to publicly oppose the deal, saying that it undervalues Clear Channel. Other critics have included large Clear channel shareholders like Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price.

Travelport Ltd. said today that it plans to sell part of its online travel-booking subsidiary Orbitz via an initial public offering. No specific size or price details have yet been determined. Blackstone Group and Technology Crossover Ventures bought Travelport from Cendant earlier last year for $4.3 billion, and later agreed to added on PE-backed Worldspan for $1.4 billion. www.travelport.com  

Aicent Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of mobile data network services, has raised $14.3 million in Series C funding led by Warburg Pincus, according to a regulatory filing. www.aicent.net  

Advasense Inc., an Israel-based developer of mobile phone image sensors, has raised $14 million in Series B funding. Genesis Partners led the deal, and was joined by VentureTech Alliance, Giza Venture Capital and BlueRun Ventures. www.advasense.com  

Slacker Inc., a San Diego-based provider of a personalized online music service, has raised $13.5 million in startup funding from Austin Ventures, Mission Ventures and Sevin Rosen Funds. www.slacker.com  

QuickCycle Inc. (f.k.a. Lumenare Networks), a Santa Clara, Calif.–based provider of lab automation and test management software, has raised $8.9 million in new VC funding from Crescendo Ventures. It now has raised around $40 million in total VC funding since its 1998 inception. www.lumenare.com  

FreedomPay Inc., a Wayne, Pa.-based provider cashless payment and loyalty solutions, has raised $6 million in Series D funding. Core Capital Partners led the deal, and was joined by return backers like BlueRun Ventures. www.FreedomPay.com  

Progress Financial Corp. has secured $4.4 million of a $5 million Series B round led by Greylock Partners, according to a regulatory filing. The San Jose, Calif.-based financial services company focuses on providing unsecured consumer loans to the unbanked and underbanked Hispanic community.

Amimon Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based fabless semiconductor company focused on wireless uncompressed high-def video, has raised an undisclosed amount of strategic funding from Motorola Ventures. Last August, it had raised $14 million in second-round funding from Stata Venture Partners, Argonaut Private Equity and return backers Cedar Fund, Walden Israel and Evergreen Partners. www.amimon.com  

Coupa Software, a Foster City, Calif.-based provider of e-procurement solutions, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding led by BlueRun Ventures. www.coupa.com  

Avantce Software, a private equity firm focused on the IT market, has acquired Radcliffe Inc., a provider of warehouse management solutions. No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which results in Radcliffe being combined with existing Avantec portfolio company Robocom Systems International. www.avantce.com  

Hammond Kennedy Whitney & Co. has acquired Aero-Metric Inc., a Sheboygan, Wis.-based provider of professional geospatial photography services. No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which was first reported by LBO Wire. www.aerometric.com  

eTelecare Global Solutions Inc., a Philippines-based business process outsourcing company, has filed for an IPO of 5.5 million American depository shares at between $12.50 and $14.50 per share. It plans to trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol ETL, with Morgan Stanley serving as lead underwriter. Shareholders include Electra Partners Mauritius, AIG Asian Opportunity Fund and Crimson Velocity Fund. www.etelecare.com  

SS&C Technologies Inc., a Windsor, Conn.-based financial management software provider owned by The Carlyle Group, has acquired the assets of Northpoint LLC, a Clark, N.J.-based provider of accounting and administrative solutions for the private equity industry. www.ssctech.com www.northportpm.com

Cisco Systems has agreed to acquire NeoPath Networks Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of network file management solutions. No financial terms were disclosed. NeoPath has raised has raised $29 million in VC funding since 2004, from firms like Cisco, August Capital, DCM-Doll Capital Management, Gabriel Venture Partners, HighBar Ventures and Dot Edu Ventures. www.cisco.com www.neopathnetworks.com

EDS has agreed to acquire RelQ Software Private Ltd., Bangalore, India-based software testing company. No financial terms were disclosed. RelQ has raised VC funding from firms like ICICI Venture and Karnataka Asset Management. www.relq.com  

NTelos Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: NTLS), a Waynesboro, Va.-based provider of wireless and wireline communication services in Virginia and West Virginia , has registered for a $230 million secondary offering of common stock. All of the shares are being offered by Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners and Quadrangle Capital Partners. Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are serving as co-lead underwriters. www.ntelos.com  

Viacom/Google Fallout: Prime Time For Smaller Competitors To Woo Content Partners - It’s prime time for smaller video players to step in and make content partnerships as relationships between Google and traditional media companies grow increasingly frosty. That’s one predicted outcome of industry watchers in the wake of the $1 billion federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by Viacom.

Media’s Caught In Love/Hate Relationship With YouTube - Since the rise of YouTube, television networks have wavered over whether to embrace or eschew the potent media channel. Concerns over inadequate compensation–or none at all–weigh against the exposure YouTube can provide a show at little or no cost.

Internet Display Ad Spending Up 17.3% in 2006: TNS - Internet display advertising registered a 17.3% increase to $9.6 billion in 2006, as marketers continue to migrate online, TNS Media Intelligence reported on Tuesday. Total ad spending, meanwhile, was up a more modest 4.1%. Top 20 Display Advertisers 2006; Percent Share of 2006 Category Ad Spend Allocated to the Internet.

The Auto Industry Takes a Digital Turn - Despite a 3.4% decline in ad spending in 2005, the last full year for which figures are available, at $21 billion in overall spending the automotive industry is still the single-largest US advertising category. “Automakers and dealers pulled dollars out of television, newspaper and magazine media buys and redirected them to digital media in 2006,” says Lisa Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and the author of the new Automotive Online: The Race Is On report, “including rich media ads and microsites, search engine optimization and mobile marketing, and short films and video-on-demand.”  

Online Product Searches Begin Offline - Old media drives online product searches. Multitaskers might be doing marketers a favor. Consumers said that they search online after exposure to ads or products in magazines (47%) and newspapers (42%), on TV (43%) and while reading articles (44%).

Spotzer Devises Customizable Web Video Campaigns - Inspired by do-it-yourself ad firm SpotRunner, Wit Capital veteran Andy Klein has founded Spotzer, a European-based entrant into the customizable “ready-to-air” online video space.

Disney Refurbishes Family.Com As One-Stop Parenting Source - Disney is taking a plunge into Web 2.0 with Family.com, which introduces a slew of social networking functions. Analysts suggest that user-generated content will be an interesting challenge for the brand, but think the site makes sense as an advertising option. Now in beta, Disney executives officially announced its content plan on Tuesday.

Online News Ad Growth Slowing, Sites Finances Need Review: Report - The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) has released its State of the News Media annual report for 2007, which found that as audiences for news media shrank, the organizations were limiting their ambitions by looking for certain areas to build their coverage around, or going very local. In terms of online content, the report found that while online ad revenue was still growing, that growth is slowing. Newspaper sites are the most successful of the media’s online efforts, claiming 41 percent of the online media ad revenue. This is followed by internet companies (25 percent) and online Yellow Pages sites (16 percent).

Microsoft To Open Online Gaming Service To Windows Users - Microsoft has announced that it will extend its online gaming service for Xbox consoles to gamers on the Windows PC platform, reports the NYT. The service is scheduled for May 8 and will have the unwieldy moniker Games for Windows―Live… there are 6 million Xbox users, but reportedly 200 million gamers on Windows PCs.

Sony Movie Downloads Via Lovefilm; VW Ad-Support To Free Indie Cinema - Lovefilm, a UK-based, online DVD rental service, is working with Sony and another unnamed movie studio on allowing consumers to download and burn the studios’ titles starting next month, among the first such efforts in the UK market. The initial offering will include Sony movies such as Adaptation and Spider-Man 2. Since launching the download and burn option last April, Lovefilm has 2,500 movies in that service. In addition to Sony, it has deals with Warner Bros., Universal, Momentum, Icon, Tartan and Freemantle.

Kyriba Corp., a San Diego-based provider of Web-based cash and treasury management solutions, has raised $14.4 million in new VC funding. BRED Banque Populaire led the deal, and was joined by return backers like GRP Partners. www.kyriba.com  

IntelliDOT Corp., a San Diego–based provider of patient safety and workflow management solutions for the healthcare market, has raised $10 million in Series D funding. Psilos Group led the deal, and was joined by Menlo Ventures, American River Ventures, Integral Capital Partners, Shoreline Ventures, Shea Ventures and Dick Allen. The company has raised $33.5 million in total VC funding since its 2002 inception. www.intellidot.net  

Xcerion AB, a Linkoping, Sweden-based developer of a collaborative XML Internet operating system, has raised $10 million from Northzone Ventures in its first round of institutional funding. www.xcerion.com  

SkyRecon Systems, a Paris, France-based vendor of endpoint security solutions, has raised $6.5 million in second-round funding co-led by Ventech and ACE Management. www.skyrecon.com  

Eurekster Inc., a San Francisco–based search company, has raised $5.5 million in its first round of institutional funding. Technology Venture Partners ( Australia ) led the deal, and was joined by Transcosmos Investments. The company previously had raised $1.5 million from individual angels. www.eurekster.com  

StrikeIron, a Durham, N.C.-based provider of live data and business functionality over the Web, has raised $5 million in Series C funding. Ascent Venture Partners was joined by return backers Ascent Venture Partners and NC IDEA. The company has raised $9.3 million in total funding since its 2006 launch. www.strikeiron.com  

Telefonica SA said that it may sell all of part of its 75% ownership stake in Dutch television producer Endemol Entertainment Holding NV. The deal would be worth around Euro 3 billion, with a number of private equity firms reported to be interested.

GSI Technology Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of static random access memory products for networking and telecom equipment, has set its proposed IPO terms to eight million common shares at between $6.50 and $8 per share. It plans to trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol GSIT, with Needham & Co. and WR Hambrecht & Co. serving as co-lead underwriters. Shareholders include Monet Capital. GSI had filed for a $103.5 million IPO in 2004, but withdrew its registration later that year. www.gsitechnology.com  

Xantrex Technology Inc. (TSX: XTX) has completed its $108 million cash acquisition of Elgar Electronics Corp. from J.F. Lehman & Co. Elgar is a San Diego-based provider of programmable power products and systems. www.elgar.com

AOL Signs Preferred Portal Deal With PointRoll - AOL gets first dibs on the newest rich media ad formats and platforms from provider PointRoll, as well as a dedicated team of rich media experts, through a two-year preferred portal agreement announced Monday.

MTV Adds User-Generated Category To MTV Movie Awards - MTV and Yahoo, along with Mark Burnett Productions, are teaming to add user-generated interactive layers to this year’s MTV Movie Awards. Aspiring filmmakers will be able to upload original parody shorts for consideration in the “Best Movie Spoof” category. Separately, MTV is attracting a record number of streams.

Merrill Lynch: Yahoo Still Strong Despite AT&T Worries - Reports suggesting that Yahoo and AT&T’s broadband access partnership may be at risk should not be overstated when considering the strength of Yahoo’s business, said Merrill Lynch in a research note released Monday. The stock price started to pick up Monday.

Undertone Launches Search Practice - Online ad network Undertone Networks on Monday launched a search engine marketing and optimization practice called Undertone Search.

Jupiter Finds 48% of Brand Marketers Plan To Use Social Marketing - Nearly half-48%-of brand marketers plan to use social marketing tactics in the next year, compared to 38% who did so last year, according to new findings from Jupiter Research. Advertiser adoption of social tactics will increase competition for attention on social sites among users who are engaged in intense social activity with their peers, according to Emily Riley, Jupiter Research analyst and lead author of the report.

Web Audience Up 10% Since January Last Year - According to a recent comScore Networks announcement, 747 million people, fifteen and over, used the Internet worldwide in January 2007, a 10-percent increase versus January 2006. Among the top 15 countries by penetration, Internet audiences in India, the Russian Federation and China increased the most in 2006, growing 33, 21 and 20 percent, respectively. China now represents the second-largest Internet population in the world, with 86.8 million users, after the U.S., which rose 2 percent year-over-year to 153.4 million users age 15 or older in January 2007.

Social Networking Demographics Have Spread Out - Kids have Club Penguin and boomers have Eons. Social networking is not just for young adults anymore. Three years ago, if you were a marketer with a MySpace account keeping up with the latest thing, you either had to position yourself as cutting edge or keep quiet about the fact that you were fraternizing with a bunch of 15-year-olds. The success of MySpace and Facebook has invigorated the market for social networking sites targeting people beyond the high school and college crowds.

Online Movie Marketing Spend Creeps Upward - The 2006 numbers are in, and Hollywood has increased the percentage of its marketing budget that it spends online. Barely. Hollywood studios, as tracked by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), spent 3.7% of their media ad dollars on the Internet. Movie marketing spending changes from year to year, especially when TV upfront spending spikes. Marketing costs also vary from studio to studio because each one releases a different number of films each year. That said, movie marketing costs were actually down on average in 2006, to $34.5 million per film.

Viacom Seeks $1 Billion In YouTube Copyright Suit - Citing “unproductive” settlement talks and knowing and persistent copyright infringement from which it generates profit, Viacom Inc. has sued Google and its YouTube unit for more than $1 billion in damages. The media giant, which filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is also seeking an injunction that would prevent Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement.

Game Biz Suffers Big From Piracy - It’s not just movie and music companies that lose money from piracy, the video-game biz misses out on more than $3 billion annually, according to the Entertainment Software Association. That figure that doesn’t even take into account piracy over the Internet. Scott Miller of 3D Realms estimates that as much as 50 percent of PC games sales are lost to piracy. It also affects team morale.

AT&T Takes Upper Hand In Yahoo Partnership - Is AT&T considering a Yahoo acquisition? The now-again world’s largest telecom has considered acquiring the Web portal in the past, particularly because the companies have been selling a joint Internet service in a relationship that goes back six years. However, in recent years, AT&T, through a series of acquisitions and an acquirement by SBC Communications, has reemerged as the telecom industry’s biggest firm, while Yahoo was the tech sector’s wounded animal on Wall Street last year, down about 40 percent.

Nintendo’s Wii Web Portal - Shortly after rival Sony announced its social networking/virtual world concept for its new online PlayStation service, Nintendo Corp. detailed plans to move its “Mii” concept forward for its game console, Wii, with similar features. Analysts are bullish on Nintendo’s new social- networking idea, which would include chat, popularity contests, photo sharing, news and other community events, in addition to player avatars (or Mii’s”) representing them in games.

Inside Hollywood, Rifts Widen Over YouTube - Does showbiz have Web fright? Hollywood, an industry that’s used to shifting gears quickly, is stuck in a rut in the case of YouTube and online video. Once touted as a new medium “handy for branding” YouTube, post-Google that is, has become hands-off.

Does It Take An IVillage To Raise An Online Community? - Does a content-rich portal like iVillage guarantee the formation of sustainable online community? To date, the answer is a resounding no. In order to understand what’s ailing iVillage and every other content producer, search engine or portal attempting to grow a social networking community around their online traffic, one has to understand two rules: 1. Using content to create community and using community to create content are two extremely different beasts. 2. Creating community for the purpose of monetization first doesn’t work in the long run (unless you think you can beat the gods at chess)

Domain Switches Underscore Search Engine Dependence - Why would any Web company that’s amassed a good amount of traffic ever change its Web address? Topix.net, a news aggregator that’s jointly owned by publishing giants Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune, is in the throes of such a transformation after it purchased the rights to the domain Topix.com for $1 million in January. The switch could have “disastrous short-term results” — as in search results.Some companies report their site vanishing from search engines after making such a switch. And it’s not for searches for their brand name.

For 2007, Portals Are Back, Pageviews Are Dead: Report - In 2006, portals experienced a rebirth, with ad spending for that segment leaping to 24 percent from 13 percent, according to figures contained in Avenue A/Razorfish’s 2007 Digital Outlook Report. AA-RF’s 2006 online media billings totaled $542 million, which was spread across 863 sites, an increase of 30 percent compared to 2005 and 74 percent over 2004’s spending. While noting that sites like MSN, Yahoo and AOL experienced harsh criticism at some point during the year, portals as a billings category gained a substantial piece of the online media billings pie.

Ceterus Networks Inc., an Richardson, Texas-based provider of metro Ethernet transport solutions, has raised $20 million in Series E funding. Intel Capital led the deal, and was joined by Aldus Equity and return backers Sevin Rosen Funds and ComVentures. The company has raised over $63 million in total VC funding since its 2001 inception. www.ceterusnetworks.com  

Array Networks Inc., a Milpitas, Calif.-based provider of SSL VPN and server load balancing solutions, has raised $6.95 million in Series C funding, according to a regulatory filing. Listed shareholders include H&Q Asia Pacific and Vision Venture Capital. www.arraynetworks.net  

Confidex, a Nokia, Finland-based designer and manufacturer of RFID tags, has raised €5 million in its first round of institutional funding. Logispring led the deal, and was joined by Aura Capital. www.confidex.fi  

Gaia Power Technologies Inc., a New York-based provider of turnkey distributed electrical storage and power systems, has secured $2.9 million of a $4 million Series B round, according to VentureWire. Participants include GHO Ventures, Empire State Venture Group, NJTC Venture Fund and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. www.gaiapowertech.com  

FraudWall Technologies Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based anti-clickfraud startup, has secured $1.01 million of a $1.5 million Series A round, according to a regulatory filing. Backers include Sherpalo Ventures and Baseline Ventures. The company was founded and seeded by Jim Pitkow and Ron Conway. www.fraudwall.net  

ClearApp Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of application performance management automation for portal, J2EE and SOA applications, has raised $5 million in venture debt funding from TriplePoint Capital. www.clearapp.com  

PhotoTLC Inc., a Petaluma, Calif.-based provider of photo gifts and digital photo restoration services, has shut down, according to VentureBeat. The company raised a $10 million Series A round in late 2005, with participation by Steamboat Ventures, El Dorado Ventures and the Bay Area Equity Fund. As of this morning, the company’s website was still up and appeared operational. www.phototlc.com  

Royal Philips Electronics has agreed to sell 16.2% position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, according to a joint statement from the two companies. The position is valued at approximately $8.5 billion. Under terms of the agreement, Philips this year will sell $1.75 billion in shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, and another $2.5 billion on the NYSE. TSMC also will buy back another $1.5 billion of shares. As for the remaining shares, TSMC will either buy them back by 2010, or Philips would consider selling them to institutional investors.

Galen Partners and Arena Capital Partners have sold EduNeering Holdings Inc. to Kaplan Inc. for an undisclosed amount. EduNeering is a Princeton , N.J.–based provider of technology-enabled knowledge solutions for improving business performance and assuring regulatory compliance. Robert W. Baird & Co. advised EduNeering on the sale. www.eduneering.com  

Christmas Presents: Past and Future - eMarketer raised its 2006 online holiday sales estimate to $24.8 billion, a 24.6% increase over 2005 sales. “The big news was that the fortunes of retail stores and retail Web sites diverged this past holiday season,” says Jeffery Grau, eMarketer senior analyst and the author of the new US Retail E-Commerce Update. “Consumers shifted their holiday purchases from bricks-and-mortar stores to the Internet at a much higher rate than almost anyone anticipated.”

Yahoo’s Twist On Social Networking - Yahoo has repeatedly been criticized for its failure to leverage its social networking properties into something more comprehensive and, well, useful for consumers. The Web giant hasn’t been sitting on its hands, but it’s not making any lofty promises either: last week the Sunnyvale, Calif. outfit relaunched its Yahoo Answers service as a network–one that already has the kind of international reach (at 90 million worldwide users) to rival the likes of MySpace and Facebook.

Web Radio In Really Dire Straits - Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Fry comments on the probable death of Internet radio as a result of the Internet radio business after the Copyright Royalty Board passed a new ruling to raise royalty rates incrementally from $.08 per song per user in 2006 to $.19 by 2010. Doesn’t sound like much? Well, consider that Webcasters used to pay artists and record labels a flat fee of 12 percent of revenue under a deal brokered in 2002.

Big Business And Its Wikis - Business Week serves up a massive special report on wikis, the online tools for building and editing information collectively. The online encyclopedia Wikipedia is obviously the biggest sensation to grow out of the wiki phenomenon, but big corporations are also embracing the tactic to build reports and share company information more easily.

Google Expands Empire, Quietly - Search giant Google has quietly started selling TV ads, The Wall Street Journal reports. Google last year began testing TV ads to Concord, Calif. customers of cable company Astound Broadband, according to the Journal. Additionally, Venture Beat reports that Google is about to forge a deal with satellite TV company Dish Network. The company has gone on record as saying it can make advertising in traditional media more efficient — though exactly how it plans to do so remains unknown.

Ex Did-It Chief Bill Wise Lands At Remix Media Ad Network - Former Did-It CEO Bill Wise starts today as president of Remix Media, an ad network allowing advertisers to bid on display ad impressions from specific sites. Wise told OnlineMediaDaily a big part of his job will be to attract big-spending advertisers and help these marketers manage entire campaigns on an auction-based level. Wise is also a former general manager of DoubleClick.

AOL’s Shift To Ad-Based Model Paid Off With 454% Billings Growth - Avenue A|Razorfish today releases its 2007 Digital Outlook Report, which shows that AOL’s shift to an advertising-based model lifted its billings by 454% in 2006. Overall portal advertising billings registered a 142% increase for the year. Overall, the digital media billings growth rate slowed to 30% in 2006 from 34% in 2005.

MySpace Reps Say ‘No Comment’ On News Launch - Blogs are abuzz with reports that MySpace is poised to throw its hat into the news business. Representatives from the Fox Interactive Media unit declined comment.

Weather Channel Takes Temperature Of Second Life - The Weather Channel is entering a world where the climate never changes with “Weather Island,” a destination tied to the theme of its new show “Epic Conditions.” It features an extreme sports park, and footage of new shows and other weather conditions will air there.

MTV.com Serves Nearly 170 Million Streams In First Two Months Of ‘07; Overdrive Gets Overridden - With all the emphasis on external video deals that did (Joost) and didn’t (YouTube) happen, it’s a little easy to forget that among the major goals at MTVN are getting traffic to its own sites and delivering media under its own auspices. Some record numbers that you’re seeing here first―the company plans a release Monday―suggest those goals are being accomplished. (Caveat: these are based on internal numbers.) Granted, one or two months of metrics do not a trend make but they start to tell an interesting story. From MTVN’s perspective, it shows more online engagement with its flagship brand.

New Eisner Internet Video Venture: Web Studio Vuguru - Proof that the well of cute and oddly irritating names for new internet video companies has yet to run dry … the latest is Vuguru from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, already an involved investor in video-sharing site Veoh. The new venture from Eisner’s investment firm Tornante―a studio that will acquire and produce web video―is set to be announced Monday along with its first production: Prom Queen, according to David Lieberman.

EU Setting Sights On Unlocking Apple’s iTunes DRM? - Apple’s iTunes DRM, which does not allow consumers to transfer iTunes Music Store purchases to non-Apple music players, has until now come in for limited European criticism, beyond the legislative efforts in France aimed at all music DRM. Norway’s consumer ombudsman in January told Apple to open up the technology to competitors by October or face court action. 

Gemini Mobile Technologies, a San Mateo, Calif.-based developer of wireless software infrastructure, has raised $20 million in second-round funding from Goldman Sachs. The company had raised first-round funding in 2001 from Japanese backers Mitsubishi-UFJ, Mizuho and Tokyo Marine. www.geminimobile.com  

Adaptive Planning Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of collaborative business performance management software, has raised $7.5 million in Series C funding (deal closed last December). Cardinal Venture Capital the round, and was joined by return backers Monitor Ventures and Onset Ventures. www.adaptiveplanning.com  

Mxp4, a France-based developer of an interactive digital music format, has raised $6.5 million in first-round funding from Sofinnova Partners and Ventech. www.mxp4.com

Vollee (f.k.a. Game Stream), an Israel-based mobile gaming company, has raised $4 million in Series A funding. BlueRun Ventures led the deal, and was joined by seed backer Benchmark Capital. www.vollee.com  

TapaTap Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based operator of a mobile 2.0 application hub, has raised around $2.5 million in Series A funding from Gabriel Venture Partners, according to a regulatory filing. www.tapatap.com  

LiquidTalk Inc., a Chicago-based maker of enterprise business applications for digital media devices, has raised $2.43 million in Series A funding led by Meakem Becker Venture Capital, according to a regulatory filing. www.liquidtalk.net  

Summit Partners has agreed to acquire an 85% stake in Life of the South Corp., a Jacksonville, Fla.-based provider and administrator of payment protection products. Senior company management will retain approximately 15% of the company. No financial terms were disclosed. www.summitpartners.com www.life-south.com

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:CY) has completed its sale of Silicon Valley Technology Center to Oak Hill Capital Partners and Tallwood Venture Capital for approximately $53 million in cash. SVTC gives startups and established companies the opportunity to develop and characterize novel silicon-based technologies cost effectively using a shared R&D environment. www.svtc.com

General Atlantic has completed its acquisition of Network Solutions, a Herndon, Va.-based provider of online solutions for small businesses, from Najafi Cos. (f.k.a. Pivotal Private Equity). No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which did not result in a change of senior management. www.networksolutions.com  

Aecom Technology Corp., a Los Angeles-based provider of technical and management support services, has filed for a $200 million IPO. It plans to trade on the NYSE under ticker symbol ACM, with Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and UBS serving as co-lead underwriters. Shareholders include U.S. Trust (29.86% pre-IPO stake), GSO Capital Partners (10.68%), J.H. Whitney & Co. (10.68%), CalPERS/PCG Corporate Partners (3.74%), JPMorgan Partners and Weston Presidio. www.aecom.com  

Sourcefire Inc., a Columbia, Md.-based provider of network security solutions, priced 5.77 million common shares at $15 per share ($12-$14 range), for an IPO take of approximately $71.8 million. It will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol FIRE, while Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers served as co-lead underwriters. SourceFire had raised around $55 million in total VC funding since its 2001 inception, from firms like Sierra Ventures (28.8% pre-IPO stake), New Enterprise Associates (18.1%), Inflection Point Ventures (8.8%), Core Captal Partners (7.6%), Sequoia Capital (7.5%) and Meritech Capital Partners. www.sourcefire.com  

2nd Wave Software, a Minneapolis-based acquisition platform for B2B software companies, has been formed by CIBC Capital Partners and veteran software executives Chris Heim (former HighJump Software CEO) and Dan Mayleben (former CFO of both HighJump and Adaytum Software). No financial terms were disclosed. www.2ndwavesoftware.com  

Veronis Suhler Stevenson has agreed to sell its majority stake in German newspaper and online media publisher BV Deutsche Zeitungsholding to Mecom Group PLC for approximately €160 million. www.vss.com

Taleo Corp. (Nasdaq: TLEO) has agreed to acquire the assets of JobFlash Inc., a Fremont, Calif.-based provider of telephone-based automated recruiting software and services. The deal is valued at approximately $3 million in cash, and is expected to close later this quarter. JobFlash had raised around $6.1 million in VC funding since 2003, from firms like Band of Angels, Maveron and Mosaic Venture Partners. www.taleo.com  www.jobflash.com