EA to go hostile on Take Two

Ad Networks and Analytics:

• Troubles at AOL continue. The company is planning to lay off half its sales force.
• Online audio ad targeting and delivery firm TargetSpot, which handles work for over 500 radio stations, got $8.6 million in a new round of funding.
• Click-fraud monitoring company ClickForensics closed a second round of financing, adding $10 million to its coffers.
• In a premier round of financing, Mochi, which provides ads for Flash games, raised $4 million.

Agencies and Marketing Execs:

• Spot Runner has sniped Joanne Bradford out of Microsoft to help manage National Marketing Services. She will serve as Executive VP of the department.
• SPX Corp. has tapped WPP Group's Brouillard to manage corporate identity and global advertising.
• Wenham's Mullen has become the agency of record for National Grid plc, a UK-based energy firm.
• Kraft wants to consolidate its $100 million global agency roster from five firms to as little as two. It has begun reviewing internally.
• Barkley, a Kansas City-based ad agency, has purchased Pennsylvania's Ripple Effects.
• Telegraph Media (UK) has appointed Adam & Eve, a start-up, to manage its £8m-a-year creative advertising and direct marketing account.

Gaming:

• Electronic Arts has pondered the rejection of its unsolicited bid to acquire game publisher Take-Two. It's decided to go hostile with its takeover plans.
• Yair Landau left Sony Pictures Entertainment to launch his own, as-yet-unspecified online gaming and animation production house.

Online Content:

• YouTube released a new set of tools that will turn it into a hub for publishing videos across other sites and media. TiVo will us the API to make YouTube videos available to its subscribers.
• Disney is expected to make $1 billion this year from digital initiatives, primarily from ads in streaming ABC and ESPN programs. Bob Iger called digital a growth area for Disney.
• New York Times' Janet Robinson says the expansion of offerings on NYTimes.com represents the company's emphasis on growing the online audience.
• Google's Rob Torres touted the successes that from Tourism New Zealand, Heinz and Avis have had, following the creation of YouTube channels and other online video initiatives.
• Trinity Mirror (UK) is launching a series of sites to offer hyper-local news coverage, with destinations for each postal code area.
• Carnegie Mellon launched an online video campaign to attract new blood. Viral videos feature a dancing yellow robot named Keepon.

Publications:

• A study by The Harrison Group, which publishes digital versions of magazine titles, shows people are more engaged with ads in digital magazines than with print ads.

Social Networks:

• Out of nowhere, AOL has acquired European social network Bebo for a reported $850 million, adding significant page inventory to its ad base.
• A new Facebook application, MarketLodge, pays members a commission for products sold in its marketplace that result from recommendations.
• The BBC is unhappy with its staff's habit of posting corporate information on social network pages. It has issued a new set of social networking guidelines to lay out what is — and isn't — acceptable.
• Rumors are surfacing that Yahoo may consider joining the Google-led OpenSocial cross-network initiative.
• Social news site SocialMedian, which has yet to launch, has received an investment from Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive. The amount was not disclosed.
• USA Today is launching an ad campaignacross social networks, portals and other destinations. It hopes to encourage people to join its new social network at USAToday.com.

Television:

• Motorola has taken a strategic investment position in INVIDI Technologies, which provides technology for targeting TV ads to viewers demographically and geographically.

Upfronts:

• The Weather Channel will aggressively sell pre- and post-roll video ads on its mobile site. Its audience is comprised of 6.3 million monthly users.
• CBS is scaling back the pomp and circumstance but ramping up the focus on cross-media ad sales as it presents for, well, whatever this year's television upfront sessions will wind up looking like.