Jeeves gets company

Agencies:

• Digital agency Studiocom launched an in-house division to handle mobile marketing planning for clients.
• Mobile ad network operator Ad Infuse has opened a New York office to be closer to the ad industry. Its home office is in San Francisco.

Days of Our MicroHoo:

• Microsoft is ramping up in pursuit of Yahoo with a series of behind-the-scenes moves that may include its offer going up to $31 million, all cash.
• But Yahoo is still in talks with Time Warner to get that company to step in as a bidder.
• The sturm and drang surrounding the Microsoft pursuit of Yahoo could signal the beginning of a period where online operators try to package and sell some of their most valuable assets to stay afloat and remain profitable.

Mobile:

• Ad-supported phone service operator Jangl launched its Mobile Media Initiative to brings the service to VOIP users.

Online Video and Content:

• Federated Media is said to be looking for a second round of financing of $20 million to $30 million.
• Finance site Mint got $12.1 million in new investor money.
• Rutube, a Russian online video community, was purchased by Gazprom-Media, a major Russian media holding firm, at a rate that values the site at $15 million.
• Mochila has partnered with Broadcast Interactive Media (BIM) to distribute local news content across radio and TV stations nationwide.

Publishing:

• Ziff Davis says declining ad revenue and subscriber numbers led to its decision to file for bankruptcy. The company hopes to exit Chapter 11 this summer.
• The Financial Times will give away free subscriptions to FT.com to college students through a Facebook application.
• Hitwise shows traffic to craigslist continues to grow, as do visits to newspaper websites.
• But that's not helping Scipps, which reported a substantial drop in revenue, including from advertising.

Search:

• What's going on at Ask.com in terms of search technology is anyone's guess, but the company has let go of 40 staffers and repositioned itself as a network for women. IAC chief Barry Diller seems to have accepted he may not survive a legal battle over his break-up of the company's operations.
• European regulators are expected to give the go-ahead to Google's acquisition of DoubleClick sometime next week.

Social Networks:

• A group of high powered business women have launched Wowowow.com, a site geared to older women looking to connect and converse with others.
• A fair amount of offerings Microsoft showed off at TechFest revolve around social networking, signaling a strong focus in that area at the company.