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Penguin Computing, a San Francisco-based provider of Linux cluster virtualization, has raised $9 million in Series 2 funding. vSpring Capital led the deal, and was joined by return backers San Francisco Equity Partners, Weber Capital and Convergence Partners. www.penguincomputing.com  

Games2Win India, a Mumbai-based online gaming company, has raised around $5 million in Series A funding. Clearstone Venture Partners led the deal, and was joined by SVB Financial Group. www.games2win.com  

DotMobi, a Dublin, Ireland-based provider of Internet domain addresses for mobile phones, has raised an undisclosed amount of venture funding from Visa International. http://pc.mtld.mobi  

Broadcasting Media Partners has completed its $12.3 billion acquisition of Spanish-language broadcaster Univison Communications Inc. (NYSE: UVN). BMP consists of Haim Saban, Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners. The deal received FCC clearance earlier this week. www.univision.com  

GSI Technology Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of static random access memory products for networking and telecom equipment, priced around 6.13 million common shares at $5.50 per share, for an IPO take of approximately $33.72 million. It had originally filed to price eight million shares at between $6.50 and $8 per share. It will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol GSIT, while Needham & Co. and WR Hambrecht & Co. served 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  

Network Communications Inc., a publisher of printed and online real estate information and advertising in North America , has acquired New England Home magazine. No financial terms were disclosed. Network Communications was acquired in January 2005 by Citigroup Venture Capital. www.nci.com  

Innova Capital and GTECH have agreed to sell PolCard SA, a Polish merchant acquirer and card issuer processor, to a unit of First Data Corp. (NYSE: FDC). The deal is valued at $325 million in cash. www.polcard.pl  

NTelos Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: NTLS), a Waynesboro, Va.-based provider of wireless and wireline communication services in Virginia and West Virginia, has priced a secondary offering of common stock being offered by Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners and Quadrangle Capital Partners. Eleven million shares priced at $18.25 per share, for a total take of $200.75 million. The firms also have granted underwriters Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers an option to purchase up to an additional 1.65 million shares www.ntelos.com

Experiment, But Know What You Want To Get From Virtual Worlds - A recurring theme at this week’s Virtual Worlds Conference in Manhattan was the idea of targeted experimentation–the notion that marketers can only profit from virtual world investments after they have established well-defined goals.

The Anti-Spam Militia - If you are like most US e-mail users, you’re pretty experienced at it. You fight spam with purpose and multiple tactics, according to a new survey by the E-Mail Sender & Provider Coalition conducted by Ipsos. Almost three-fourths of respondents said that they have used e-mail for six or more years. Over 80% read their e-mail daily. E-mail users are also willing to expose spam at the drop of a hat. Over 80% of respondents said that they report spam or unsubscribe from e-mail lists.

Google Prepares DoubleClick Answer - It’s a strange fact of life that Web “frienemy” (yes, we love that word) Google, doesn’t accept third-party ad tags. Given the news that competitor Microsoft is considering a bid for the ad-server DoubleClick, which serves graphical CPMs for a huge portion of the ad world, rumors have surfaced that Google is planning to build its own third-party ad server for graphical ads.

Photobucket Cheap at $400 Million? - Photobucket has hired Lehman Brothers to explore a possible sale, and the firm believes Photobucket to be worth something in the neighborhood of $300-$400 million — cheap, given its growth.Even thought the company’s still in debt, sources say Photobucket is close to breaking — even without having used most of the $15 million it just raised in venture capital. The insiders say the company made $4.35 million in 2005, $9.34 million in ‘06 and is expected to breach $32 million this year. But how is it making this money? Premium accounts and advertising, of course.

Is The Google-Too-Powerful Argument Passé? - Given that the search giant is still a long way away from cornering the new media market, these Google-will-takeover-the-world stories seem either anachronistic or ahead of the their time, depending on your bias. Nevertheless, Business Week offered a story on the potential dominance of the multi-billion dollar company that started it all with a search box.

Barry Diller Sounds Off On Old Media - Media mogul and IAC/InteractiveCorp chief Barry Diller sat down with the Financial Times to discuss the current state of the media business, dropping his two cents on the News Corp.-NBC joint venture, Google, YouTube and Viacom, and other media developments. Regarding News Corp. and NBC, Diller recalls the old saying that media doesn’t want anyone else in control, adding, it’s inevitable for traditional media companies to try and move into video with a degree of control.

Study: Gender Gap For Online Video Will Shrink By 2011 - Around seven in 10 male Web users viewed online video last year, according to a new report by research firm eMarketer. While women also turned to online video, they did so in smaller proportions; just 55% of female Web users watched online video last year, according to the report. The gender gap will shrink considerably by 2011, when an estimated 89% of online men and 85% of online women will view video over the Web, according to the report.

Trad Agencies Must Narrow Their Interactive Credibility Gap - By now you have probably read about the new Forrester report, “Help Wanted: 21st Century Agency,” that sheds light on the widening capabilities gap between traditional ad agencies and the smaller, specialized digital shops when it comes to new media marketing. If you haven’t yet seen it, the report placed the spotlight on the demand from marketers expecting their agencies to deliver expertise in emerging areas, such as search engine marketing and interactive advertising, and marketers’ growing discontent with their agencies. The report identified technology being at the heart of the skill gap that appears to be growing and leading to marketers’ dissatisfaction with their agencies of record.

SonyBMG, Six Apart Launch A&R Social Net, Kill Off Demo Tapes - Once upon a time, aspiring rock stars sent dozens of demo tapes to record label bosses in the hope of getting signed. Now, in the age of MySpace, SonyBMG is scrapping that system - the label has partnered with blog software maker Six Apart to offer artists sites that, from next Monday, will be its primary method of hearing unsigned new acts in the UK. “If you want our A&R team to hear your music, then don’t send a CD, REGISTER A BLOG,” the world’s number two record company says.

Spire Capital has acquired SalvageSale Inc. - SalvageSale is an online marketplace and services provider for commercial insurance salvage and corporate end-of-life assets. The deal was done in partnership with company management, while sellers included Securitas Ventures, American Re and Merrill Lynch Ventures.

About.com Expands Health Content With Purchase Of UCompareHealthCare.com - NYTCO’s About.com has acquired UCompareHealthCare.com (UCHC), a health care ratings (doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, specialty centers), search and info site. Consumers get access to some layers of info free; UCHC charges corporate and healthcare providers for services. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Framingham, Mass. The purchase adds more content to About.com Health, which has some 5 million monthly uniques. The site is already identified as being “from About.”

Webjam, a London-based online content sharing startup, has raised £1 million in first-round funding from I-Source Gestion. www.webjam.com  

NeoSaej Corp., a Concord, Mass.-based provider of e-commerce infrastructure software, has secured $505,000 of a $1 million Series A round led by Stata Venture Partners, according to a regulatory filing. www.neosaej.com  

LitePoint Corp., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of wireless test solutions, has raised an undisclosed amount of venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital. www.litepoint.com  

Aurora Capital Group is nearing an agreement to acquire Mitchell International Inc. from Hellman & Friedman for more than $500 million. GE Pension Trust would participate alongside Aurora, while Goldman Sachs is arranging around $320 million in debt. Mitchell is a San Diego-based provider of insurance claims processing software, and was acquired by H&F in 2000. www.mitchell.com  

Investcorp Technology Partners has acquired UK-based online payment provider Moneybookers Ltd. The deal was valued at €105 million, with existing Moneybookers shareholders retaining a minority ownership position. LongAcre Partners advised Moneybookers on the deal. www.moneybookers.com  

Roark Capital Group has acquired a majority interest in CyberCore Technologies, a Baltimore, Md.-based provider of IT services to federal government like the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Logistics Agency. No financial terms were disclosed. www.roarkcapital.com www.cybercoretech.com  

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) has agreed to acquire SpansLogic Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based fabless semiconductor company backed by Crescendo Ventures and ATA Ventures. No financial terms were disclosed. www.cisco.com www.spanslogic.com

Microsoft/DoubleClick Deal Seems Likely; Analysts Question $2B Purchase Price - A Microsoft purchase of DoubleClick and its Dart technology would give Redmond a badly needed leg up in its battle against Google. While analysts predicted a deal was “very likely,” many questioned the $2 billion price tag reportedly sought by Heller & Friedman.

On-Demand Video Data Reveals Online, Cable Users Go To It Differently - A fledgling video-on-demand service showcased this week during a meeting of the Carat Digital Exchange shed new light on the different video consumption patterns between conventional TV platforms and online.

Virtual World Marketers Called To Add To Community - Marketers crammed into a conference on virtual world advertising yesterday and were told that to be really successful, it’s necessary to get involved and add to the community.

Study Finds Hispanics Avid Consumers Of Online Media - Advertisers can use a multiplatform approach and include bilingual content to reach online U.S. Hispanics more effectively, according to a new survey that found online Hispanics consume media and technology at a higher rate than the general U.S. population.

Killing the Page View Is Publishing Suicide - Article discussing how the death of CPM-based advertising being brought upon by AJAX adoption may eventually prove to be deadly for smaller tier publishers.

Publisher Exodus Could Follow DoubleClick Sale - Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal report that an Internet biggie, most likely Microsoft, may soon acquire the ad-serving technology provider DoubleClick sparked a widespread debate across the Web. The general consensus: “It could mean a lot of things,” as Forrester Research analyst Shar VanBoskirk tells ClickZ. If DoubleClick is sold to a Web giant, its competitors may be forced to leave the ad-server for another company, says VanBoskirk. Microsoft might not want its new property working with AOL, for example, which deploys DoubleClick’s ad management program across AOL Media Networks. For AOL and other big publishers, they may not want a competitor having access to their private data.

Google Won’t Dominate Video Like Text - There’s no guarantee Google will continue its domination of the Internet. A search leader’s success comes down to PageRank and AdWords, a pair of technologies built on text. Searchable, advertizable video represents the next Internet land grab, which means Google is in trouble if it can’t translate its text success to moving images. Why? Because with video, Google has to deal with content owners and strike licensing deals and agreements, something that big media firms are reluctant to do with a company clearly so bent on Web-wide domination.

MTV To Move Into Virtual Worlds - MTV Networks several weeks ago announced that it aims to move full-throttle into virtual worlds, believing community-oriented 3-D platforms represent the future of engaging consumers with its popular brands. Essentially, the Viacom company plans to create communities around its popular TV shows, allowing users to interact with TV personalities and create their own content. MTV execs outlined its strategy during a three-part keynote address on Wednesday at a virtual worlds conference.

Do TV Ads Work Better Online? - We have been told that online video ads need to be tailored to fit the medium. Now a new study claims that TV ads get better results when on the Web. Web spots increased the viewer attention rate by 53%, awareness by 52%, consideration by 27% and favorability by 26%. Prompted recall of brand advertising was four times higher for Web viewers.

Online Travel Path May Get Bumpy - By any measure, the online travel market has been a huge success, a bellwether sector of the Internet industry. eMarketer estimates that in the US market, online consumer travel sales were $79 billion last year and will grow at a 17% annual rate to reach $146 billion in 2010. Growth is slowing, however. While 17% is respectable growth, it falls short of the 28% annual growth rate posted from 2002 to 2006.

Westwood One Expands Digital Offerings With Online News Service - After a slow start, the big radio network Westwood One (managed by CBS Radio) is expanding its digital portfolio. Gary Krantz, who was hired as the company’s first chief digital officer back in September, tells THR that Westwood is about to launch Metro Web News, an online news service. Westwood has signed up 150 sites – primarily radio sites – to serve as affiliates, much in the same way it has agreements with terrestrial stations.

Brash Entertainment LLC, an Atlanta-based video game startup, said that it is nearing a final close on more than $150 million in private equity funding. It also announced that it already has secured $6 million in initial funding, with a regulatory filing indicating that the money came in the form of convertible notes. Brash is run by former Massive Inc. execs Mitch Davis and Nicholas Longano, while initial backers include film producer Thomas Tull and former iXL Enterprises CFO Bert Ellis.

Coghead, a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of a Web-based application creation and delivery platform, has raised $8 million in second-round funding. American Capital Strategies led the deal, and was joined by return backer El Dorado Ventures. www.coghead.com  

FastScale Technology Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of adaptive computing products, has raised $6.5 million in Series A funding. ATA Ventures led the deal, and was joined by Leapfrog Ventures and Hunt Ventures. www.fastscale.com  

Digital Fuel Technologies Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of SLA and service-cost management solutions, has raised $5 million in Series CC funding, according to a regulatory filing. The company had previously raised $35 million since 2000, including a $20 million Series D round in early 2005. Listed shareholders include Apax Partners, Benchmark Capital, Israel Seed Partners and Sigma Partners. www.digitalfuel.com  

Sanovia Corp., a Philadelphia-based provider of technology and services to assist managed care organizations in managing their pharma costs, has raised $3 million in Series B funding from return backers HLM Venture Partners and Claritas Capital. It raised a $5 million Series A round in 2005. www.sanovia.com  

Fliptrack Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based online music video company, has raised around $1.53 million in Series A funding led by Mohr, Davidow Ventures. www.fliptrack.com

eTelecare Global Solutions Inc., a Philippines-based business process outsourcing company, priced 5.5 million American depository shares at $13.50 per share ($12.50-$14.50 range), for an IPO take of approximately $74.3 million. It will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol ETL, whileMorgan Stanley served as lead underwriter. Shareholders include Electra Partners Mauritius, AIG Asian Opportunity Fund and Crimson Velocity Fund. www.etelecare.com  

Travelex, a UK-based currency exchange backed by Apax Partners, has acquired Washington, D.C.-based payment servicing company Ruesch International from Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe. The deal was valued at $440 million. www.travelex.com www.ruesch.com  

Mobilelime Inc., a Watertown, Mass.-based provider of software that lets consumers to make purchases via mobile phones, has acquired Cuesol Inc., a Quincy, Mass.–based provider of interactive shopping, marketing and self-service solutions for grocers. No financial terms were disclosed. Mobilelime has raised around $15 million in VC funding from firms like Ignition Partners, Seapoint Ventures and Oak Investment Partners. www.mobilelime.com www.cuesol.com  

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) has agreed to acquire Speakeasy Inc., a Seattle-based provider of broadband voice, data and IT services. The deal is valued at approximately $97 million, which is around 1.2x Speakeasy’s 2006 revenue of $80 million. Speakeasy has raised around $55 million in VC funding since 2000, from firms like Granite Ventures, 3i Group, BV Capital, Intel Capital and TI Ventures. www.bestbuy.com www.speakeasy.com  

Optium Corp. (Nasdaq: OPTM), a Chalfont, Pa.-based maker of optical subsystems for use in telecom network systems, has agreed to acquire Kailight Photonics Inc., an Israel-based provider of 40Gb/s optical transmission products. The deal includes a $35 million up-front cash payment, plus a stock earnout of up to $5 million. Kailight has raised around $12.1 million in VC funding since 2001, from firms like Lucent Venture Partners, Hyperion Venture Partners, Ofer Brothers High-Tech Group, Peregrine Ventures and Yozma Venture Capital. www.optium.com www.kailight.com

PE-Owned DoubleClick In Talks With Microsoft & Others For Sale: Report - This one will be a biggie, possibly the biggest digital media-related acquisition in the last five years if it happens: WSJ reports that online firm DoubleClick is exploring a sale, and is already in active talks with Microsoft, among other potential suitors. The asking price is about $2 billion.

ClipBlast Aims To Simplify Video Search Process - Web video-search platform ClipBlast is letting viewers browse video in ways that make the process easier and more fine-tuned. For instance, die-hard hoops fans can now choose basketball as a category and ESPN as a provider to return real-time clips of the day’s games as well as all previously released video.

Agency Uses Unusual Means To Negotiate Online Ad Buys: Online - In the span of less than an hour late Tuesday afternoon two of the biggest online portals - AOL and MSN - participated in an unusual sales process that netted them hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising budgets that would have otherwise taken them weeks to negotiate. The process was unusual, because it was conducted entirely online, doing away with much of the meeting time, paper-pushing, and back-and-forth haggling that can drag such deals out for days, or even weeks.

American Airlines Uses Social Networking To Reach Alumni - Looking to expand its college marketing program beyond students’ graduation dates, American Airlines has partnered with social networking company Affinity Circles to offer students and alumni discounted tickets and the chance to win free travel.

Gubb Puts A List Twist On Contextual Advertising - Online marketers seeking effective targeted advertising opportunities might consider gubb, a Web-based list-making and sharing application comprised of lists of what people want to do and want to have.

Meredith Puts Child To Bed, Folds Magazine Into Online Portal - Print may not be dead, but print editions are suddenly dying at an unprecedented rate. Meredith Corp. Tuesday said it would fold Child magazine, effective with its June-July issue, but would keep the Child brand alive as part of an online parenting-and-family portal that will also include content from American Baby, Family Circle and Parents. It is the second big magazine publisher to announce the closure of a major print property in as many days, following Time Inc.’s announcement to fold the print edition of Life.

Video Ads on Web Get Twice the Interaction as Standard Image Formats - The results of recent research by DoubleClick Inc, of 300 online video ad campaigns, shows that audiences click the “Play” button more than they click on image ads, video ads are typically played two-thirds of the way through, and video ad click rates are far higher than those of image format ads. Rick Bruner, research director at DoubleClick, said “Online video ads are quickly becoming the medium of choice to drive both brand awareness and sales…”

Yahoo Email First To Reach Unlimited Club - It was bound to happen sooner or later. First it was Google that announced a market-busting 1 gigabyte email storage capacity in 2004, then Microsoft and Yahoo followed suit. Google and Microsoft then upped their storage to beyond 2 gigs, and now Yahoo has become the first to take it to the extreme: unlimited email storage.

Google Translation Well Under Way - Google envisions a world of statistical machine translation, whereby computers instantly translate everything from documents to the things people say to each other in chat rooms across the Web. As ever, the search king believes automated programs are the way to go, not (in this instance) human linguists.

British Web Spending Overtakes Newspapers, Up 41% - Thanks to a huge surge in 2006, online ad spending in Britain has overtaken that of the print newspaper business, Britain´s Interactive Advertising Bureau was proud to report. Web spending, which grew an astonishing 41 percent, was nearly $3.97 billion, while the press industry last year recorded a “barely discernible” 0.2 percent rise, hitting 3.72 billion. In other media, TV revenues fell 4.7 percent, while radio os forecasted to be down 3 percent.

Will Net Neutrality Expand? - Much has been made about a lack of federal regulations possibly leading to an ISP-controlled Internet, where tariffs would be imposed on Web companies for greater broadband consumption–especially as increased demand puts a greater strain on their networks. ISP providers have vehemently lobbied against neutrality regulations, saying that the establishment of rules would only benefit Web giants like Google. They add that tariffs would actually help smaller companies that take up less bandwidth catch up with the Googles of the world.

IDG To Restrict New Magazine Launches To Internet-Only; Readers Can Vote On Whether To Go Print - With all the talk of consumer and entertainment publications becoming strictly internet endeavors, it would seem like a foregone conclusion for tech trades. And for IDG, publisher of InfoWorld, PC World and some 300 other tech pubs, it is.

Aruba Networks Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of wireless LAN technology, priced 8 million common shares at $11 per share (above $8-$10 range), for an IPO take of approximately $88 million. It will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol ARUN, while Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers served as co-lead underwriters. Aruba had raised around $86 million in total VC funding from firms like Matrix Partners (20% post-IPO position), Sequoia Capital (18.2%), Trinity Ventures (13.6%), WK Technology Funds (6.8%) and Artis Capital Management. www.arubanetworks.com 

Beyond.com, a King of Prussia , Pa.-based provider of online technology and career services, has raised $13.5 million in Series A funding from Safeguard Scientifics. It is the nine-year-old company’s first round of institutional funding. www.beyond.com  

GoTV Networks Inc., a Sherman Oaks, Calif.–based made-for-mobile television provider, has raised $12 million in Series B funding from Motorola Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures, according to VentureWire. The company previously had raised over $17 million from Bessemer Venture Partners and Charles River Ventures. www.4gotv.com  

ZenZui, a Microsoft spinout that will provide marketer-funded software on mobile devices, has raised around $12 million in Series A funding from Oak Investment Partners and Hunt Ventures. www.zenzui.com  

Compliance 360 Inc., an Alpharetta, Ga.-based provider of enterprise compliance software, has secured $1.1 million of a $2.2 million Series B round led by Fulcrum Ventures, according to a regulatory filing. VentureWire reports that the complete round will close later this week. www.compliance360.com  

Experteer, a Munich, Germany-based online job search site, has raised an undisclosed amount of new VC funding co-led by BV Capital and Wellington Partners. Return backer Holtzbrinck Ventures also participated. www.experteer.de  

Verticals onDemand, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based provider of industry-specific CRM solutions delivered on the Salesforce platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from individual angels. www.verticalsondemand.com  

TeraGo Networks Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based provider of fixed wireless broadband solutions, is considering an IPO that would raise between Cdn$30 million and Cdn$40 million, according to Dow Jones. VC backers include Dolphin Equity Partners, Dynamic Ventures Opportunities Fund, Growth Works and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. www.terago.ca  

Finisar Corp. (Nasdaq: FNSR) has agreed to acquire Kodeos Communications Inc., a South Plainfield, N.J.-based provider of optical transponders and subsystems. The deal is valued at $7 million in cash, plus the possibility of up to $3.5 million in earnouts for Kodeos shareholders and employees. Kodeos had raised around $24 million in VC funding from firms like Highland Capital Partners and JVP through 2005, and last year added new shareholders based on its acquisition of Intersymbol Communications. Those firms include Champaign-Urbana Fund, CID Equity Partners, Intel Capital, Intersymbol Investment Fund, Open Prairie Ventures, Telecommunications Development Fund and Venture Investors LLC. www.finistar.com www.kodeos.com  

Francisco Partners and Citicorp Venture Capital are selling a combined 17 million shares in mixed-signal semiconductor company AMIS Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: AMIS). The secondary sale will decrease Francisco’s ownership position from 23.2% to 13.6%, and Citicorp’s position from 23.1% to 13.4 percent. www.amis.com

Video Gets Star Billing As Time Inc. Shows Off Digital Assets - Video will play a starring role in Time Inc.’s digital future, and the company sees itself in an ideal position to compete directly with networks by creating compelling original stories that arise from the voices of its strong publishing brands, Executive Vice President John Squires told a media briefing at Time Inc. headquarters yesterday.  

TV Guide Wants To Be The Brand For Online Video Search - On April 16, Gemstar-TV Guide International plans to launch the beta version of a video search tool allowing consumers to find clips and full episodes of premium TV shows online. It speaks to the ongoing evolution of online video from information to entertainment.

KickApps Kicks Its Social Media Platform Up A Notch - In the increasingly popular realm of social media and distributed content, KickApps Corp. today announced the launch of an upgraded platform that makes it easy for Web sites to mix and match building blocks to create customized content that can be monetized.

Time Moves On: Life Ends, Web Presence Begins - Another magazine joined the litany of Time Inc. closures Monday, with the announcement that Life–reincarnated a third time as a weekly newspaper supplement in October 2004–has died. However, it’s getting new life online: Time will maintain a Web presence for the brand and create a new photo portal that makes millions of its photos available to the public.

How Women Look at Video Online… Is Different - A new eMarketer report analyzes the impact that new Internet video content and advertising are having (or not having) on female Internet users, who make up over half the US online population. This year there will be an estimated 97 million females online in the US, compared with 91 million males. A clear majority. When it comes to viewing video online, however, their positions are reversed.

Yahoo’s To Launch Mobile Ad Network - Light years behind rival Google’s massive Web ad network, Yahoo has smartly decided to bring the same idea to the emerging cellular phone market. Early Tuesday, the Sunnyvale, Calif. giant announced plans to create a mobile ad network. It would allow marketers to place ads not only on its mobile services, but also those of its publisher partners.

News Corp., NBC Venture Moves Slowly - “It’s difficult enough for an incumbent to take on a scrappy pioneer,” Fortune writer Adam Lashinsky says of the new News Corp.-NBC Universal online video venture, which highlighted AOL, MSN, Yahoo and News Corp.’s own MySpace as partners in its press release. “But six? I don’t think so.” If you ask top execs from NBC, MySpace, et al they’ll tell you that the unnamed company, a video site for licensed media content that supplies a video player to its Web partners, isn’t trying to compete with YouTube. Sure it isn’t.

One-Third Of U.S. Population Still Offline - Nearly one-third of U.S. households do not have Internet access, nor do they plan to get it, according to a new report from Parks Associates. At this point, these people, representing 29 percent of U.S. households or 31 million homes, see little or no use for it in their lives. They will only be converted once the Web becomes more essential for entertainment services, like TV.

For Marketers Social Media Soars, Mobile and Gaming Lag - Despite the hype around tactics such as mobile and gaming, marketer adoption of those areas is still low, according to a Forrester survey of interactive marketers. Less sexy staples such as e-mail and search remain strong — more marketers will use them in 2007 than in previous years — because they’re the most measurable and the most indispensable. Social media has grown quickly over the past 12 months to the point where 40% of marketers are using or piloting RSS, up from 10% last year, and 34% are use or piloting blogs, up from 13% in the 2006 study. Social networks have the slowest adoption of all social media tactics but still notched 20% penetration in terms of marketer use.

Broadband Use Expected To Top 90% By 2008 - Broadband penetration continues to surge, according to a new report by Magna Global. As of the end of last year, an estimated 55.6 million U.S. households, or 74% of all Internet households, connected to the Web via high-speed lines. That’s up significantly from 2005’s 43.9 million households and more than double 2003’s 26 million.

AdMob, a San Mateo, Calif.-based mobile advertising marketplace, has raised $15 million in Series B funding. Accel Partners led the deal, and was joined by return backer Sequoia Capital. www.admob.com  

Tobii Technology, a Stockholm, Sweden-based provider of hardware and software solutions for eye tracking and eye control, has raised $14 million from Investor Growth Capital. www.tobii.com  

Marathon Technologies Corp., a Littleton, Mass.-based provider of virtualization software, has raised $12 million in Series B funding. Sierra Ventures led the deal, and was joined by return backers Atlas Venture and Longworth Venture Partners. www.marathontechnologies.com  

Xobni Corp., a San Francisco-based provider of email analytics software, has secured $1.5 million of a $4.26 million Series A round led by Khosla Ventures, according to a regulatory filing. The company was originally seeded by Paul Graham and Y Combinator. www.xobni.com  

Payoneer Inc., a New York-based provider of Web-based debit-card payment solutions, has raised $4 million in Series A funding. Greylock Partners led the deal, and was joined by seed backer Crossbar Capital and several individual angels. www.payoneer.com  

Apax Partners has agreed to acquire a 49.9% stake in UK car listings publisher Trader Media from Guardian Media Group for an enterprise value of £1.35 billion. Other bidders reportedly included The Blackstone Group and Cinven.

Spire Capital has acquired SalvageSale Inc., a Houston, Texas-based online marketplace and services provider for commercial insurance salvage and corporate end-of-life assets.The deal was done in partnership with company management, while sellers included Securitas Ventures, American Re and Merrill Lynch Ventures. Stifel Nicolaus served as financial advisor to SalvageSale. www.spirecapital.com www.salvagesale.com  

Comverge Inc., an East Hanover, N.J.-based provider of hardware and software to utilities, has set its IPO terms to around 4.89 million common shares being offered at between $15 and $17 per share. It plans to trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol COMV, with Citigroup serving as lead underwriter. The company has raised nearly $40 million in VC funding from firms like Nth Power, EnerTech Capital Partners, Rockport Capital Partners, Norsk Hydro Ventures, Ridgewood Capital, Easton Hunt, Data Systems & Software Inc., Air Products & Chemicals Inc. and Partners for Growth. www.comverge.com  

What Of Joost, BitTorrent If NBC/News Corp. JV Succeeds - YouTube isn’t the only video site likely to be affected by the coming NBC Universal/News Corp. joint venture. For when the big players agree to play together, there’s automatically less need for the smaller guys, says one investment banker.

Alloy Announces Deals With Social Startups - Betting on the marketability of virtual communities, Alloy Media and Marketing has signed exclusive integrated ad deals with three social startups.

Microsoft Unifies Search, Ad Platforms Under Nadella - Microsoft unified the development of its search and ad platforms under one executive. Satya Nadella will oversee the growth of both Windows Live Search and adCenter.

Ten Questions for Kate Everett Thorp - Kate Everett Thorp is an interactive agency veteran whose résumé includes a stint as president, digital worldwide at AKQA and another as chairman and CMO of Carat Interactive. Her Real Girls Media network launched in February 2007.

Traditional Media On Thin Ice - Traditional media is under assault from its consumers. They don’t want to pay for content, they’re going to different sources (including blogs) to find information, they’re leaving television for online video, and their behavior is throwing the future economics of media into question. Here are some examples: Time Warner’s 2006 ad revenue fell 23.8% from 2000 according to the Publishers Information Bureau. The New York Times Company’s stock trades at $25–half its 2002 share price. And the music industry’s business model is completely caving in: CD sales fell 20% in the first three quarters of the year, while illegal file sharing is estimated at 1 billion, according to the research group BigChampagne.

Google Considers NBC-News Corp. Distribution Deal - NBC Universal and News Corp. have joined forces to crush YouTube, and how does Google respond? By suggesting that it wants to sign on as a distribution partner for the venture. It seems the world weird Web is always made a little weirder by Google. Indeed, News Corp. President Peter Chernin confirmed Google’s request.

Who Wants to Pay for Editorials? - A recent column by the newspapers,which urged newspaper companies to start charging for content in order to stave off declining revenues, was met with a barrage of criticism from readers. “Content is no longer worth paying for,” said one. “Going forward, it will not be possible to charge for [it]…” Added another: “Why would I ever pay to read a column like yours when I could just as easily read someone’s blog?”

Video Blog Pioneer Struggles To Make It - Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron says ad revenue just isn’t doing it for the popular tech news video blog. The site, which averages 200,000 downloads per day, seven days a week, simply doesn’t attract a large enough audience for advertisers that want to blast their commercials to millions. So Baron says Rocketboom is again toying with the idea of charging for its content, an idea many Web publishers seem to be revisiting.

Catching Up With Latinos Online - Yep, you guessed it. Latinos are one of the fastest-growing demographics online. According to the PEW Hispanic Center/PEW Internet and American Life Study, 56% of Latinos in the U.S. (about 43 million) use the Internet. he study revealed that 75% of U.S.-born Hispanics were online, as opposed to 43% that were born outside the U.S. One key to predicting online usage seems to be language: Those who speak English fluently tend to go online, while only a third of Latinos who just speak Spanish go online.