Delivery Agent, which provides e-commerce solutions for entertainment companies, has made its second acquisition in less than two weeks, picking up interactive media agency The Band. The Band was founded four years ago by several top executives at interactive TV ad firm Turner Media Group and now provides a variety of ad services, including design and tech work, across various platforms, including interactive TV and mobile. With the acquisition, Delivery Agent says it will now set up a new “advanced interactive media division” that will let its existing entertainment clients “deploy television-commerce campaigns that allow their audiences to transact and…

Doesn’t look like Twitter’s decision to introduce an ad platform of its own is getting in the way of fundraising efforts by startups building alternate ad models around the site. Ad.ly, an ad network that matches popular Tweeters with advertisers, has raised $5 million in a first round of funding, according to several reports. Along with the funding, the company has also hired Arnie Gullov-Singh, an EVP at the FOX Audience Network, as its CEO. Gullov-Singh is taking over from 23-year-old founder Sean Rad, who will be president.

Lithium Technologies, which sells white label social networking tools to businesses, has bought up social media monitoring startup Scout Labs. Reports last week put the purchase price at between $20 million and $25 million. Lithium’s platform lets businesses set up online communities for their customers, including discussion boards, blogs and chats, and the company now says it will add social media monitoring and analytics to those offerings. Lithium’s rationale for the acquisition, according to the release: “This will give our clients the most detailed picture available of their customers’ social behavior – giving them a competitive advantage as they plan…

Yahoo’s search share was up over the last month, but analysts, who have been badgering Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) executives for months about the company’s falling market share, are calling foul. Turns out that at least some of the increase can be attributed to slideshows that Yahoo has added to the result pages on its properties. TechCrunch shows how a user who makes a standard search in Yahoo News is now invited to click through a series of images related to the query. Those clicks, in turn, count as queries, according to comScore (NSDQ: SCOR)—but don’t convert into additional dollars. In…

Even more deal activity in the question and answer website market. Travel review aggregator NileGuide has bought up Localyte, a site that lets travelers ask locals questions (Sample: “Where is the best place to kite in Casablanca?” Consensus answer: Near the beach). Localyte claims a community of “tens of thousands” of contributors around the world. NileGuide, which is trying to distinguish itself from other travel sites in part by playing up recommendations from “local experts,” says it will now integrate Localyte into its own website, although it will also maintain the Localyte site independently.

A group of creditors has purchased Canada’s largest newspaper publisher for $1.1 billion. The group is buying Canwest Limited Partners, which includes the National Post along with nine other dailies and 26 community newspapers. Canwest had filed for bankruptcy protection last fall; its TV operations were sold last week to Shaw Communications. The deal means that the National Post, which had faced a possible shut down during bankruptcy proceedings, will continue to operate, since the new owners say their bid “maintains all existing newspaper operations and will provide continuing employment to all existing full time employees.” The new company will…

Google’s Nexus One has lost its second major partner in less than a month, with Sprint (NYSE: S) saying it won’t offer the phone to its subscribers. Sprint had said back in March that a version of the Nexus One would “soon” be available for its network. But the company now tells Gizmodo it won’t go ahead because of the forthcoming launch of the Evo 4G, which also runs Android.

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) made about $100 million on the sale of its Zimbra enterprise e-mail and communications platform to VMWare in January; the companies had declined to release financial terms when the sale was initially announced but in its just-filed 10-Q Yahoo says it recorded “net proceeds” of $100 million and a “pre-tax gain” of $66 million on the sale. Those numbers reemphasize just how poor Yahoo’s acquisition track record has been. The company paid $350 million for Zimbra just two-and-a-half years ago. Almost from the day the purchase was announced, questions were raised about why Yahoo was buying the…

WordStream, one of a series of startups pitching easy-to-use search marketing tools, has raised $6 million in a second round of funding. WordStream’s subscription products help customers determine what keywords they should buy for their search campaigns and also what keywords they should play up on their sites. The company says it plans to eventually introduce additional tools as well. WordStream—which says it has more than 500 customers—had previously raised $4 million in a first round of funding a year-and-a-half ago. The new cash comes from new investor Egan-Managed Capital and existing backer Sigma Partners.

With calls growing for the FTC to look into Facebook’s privacy practices, the social network has now enlisted a former FTC chairman to make its case. The FT reports that Facebook has hired Tim Muris, who led the FTC under President Bush from 2001 to 2004 and is best known for overseeing the creation of the national “Do Not Call Registry.” Facebook won’t comment, although it says Muris has not “joined” the company, meaning that in all likelihood he is serving as a consultant or outside attorney.

Erika Nardini, the VP of brand packaging at Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), announced her resignation today, sources tell us. At Yahoo, Nardini reported directly to North America head Hilary Schneider and was responsible for “advertiser driven content and product innovation” across the company’s properties. We believe she is now headed to Demand Media, where she will be playing a similar role, although that company isn’t commenting. In mid-March, Demand Media also hired away Yahoo sales chief Joanne Bradford to be the company’s chief revenue officer. Nardini, who before joining Yahoo had worked at MSN, had been mentioned as a top internal…

AOL (NYSE: AOL) has hired Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) online executive Alex Gounares as its CTO, we have confirmed with sources. AllThingsD‘s Kara Swisher first reported the news earlier this afternoon; AOL isn’t commenting, while Microsoft confirms he has indeed left. Gounares, who had previously been Microsoft’s CVP of advertising R&D, was promoted to CTO of the company’s online services division in October. When that appointment was made, Microsoft said that Gounares would be first taking “some well-earned parental leave.” It’s not clear if he ever came back and, in fact, Gounares’ official Microsoft biography was never updated to include his…

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) announced the second phase of its $100 million international ad campaign this week—a series of ads that push Yahoo’s services. The slogan: “Your favorite stuff all in one place. Make Yahoo your home page.” The ads follow a campaign opening that was widely panned for not putting enough emphasis on Yahoo’s products and for being ineffective at bringing more traffic to Yahoo properties. In an interview with paidContent, chief marketing officer Elisa Steele responded to some common criticisms of Yahoo’s advertising strategy, and explained why Yahoo had chosen to specifically target Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in a marketing…

RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK), which is in the midst of a major reorganization of its business, posted another down quarter, with revenue off nine percent to $128.6 million. The company did however swing to a profit of $3.2 million, or 5 cents a share, compared to a net loss of $12.1 million, or 10 cents a share, during the same period a year ago. The company attributed the turn-around to a gain on the spinoff of its Rhapsody business, as well as a tax benefit. Sales at its underlying units, however, continue to be weak, with the company saying it expects…

Digg, which saw the departure of longtime CEO Jay Adelson a month ago, is now laying off 10 percent of its staff. In an e-mail sent to employees, founder Kevin Rose says the layoffs are necessary for the “long-term health” of the business. The job cuts—Digg’s second round of layoffs in a year-and-a-half—raise questions about Adelson’s claims that he was leaving because the site was doing well. In fact, Adelson had specifically noted in a blog post announcing his departure that the company’s sales force was “growing” and the company’s hiring “ramping.”

Steve Leber, best known as the former manager of the rockband Aerosmith, along with New York real estate investor Joseph Bernstein, have purchased Grandparents.com, which features city guides, activities, and tips—all designed to improve grandparents’ relationships with their grandkids. Leber, who himself has six grandkids, will be chairman, while Bernstein will be CEO. Not clear what is happening to Jerry Shereshewsky, the former Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) ad executive who had been CEO since the site’s inception three years ago resigned in March; we’ve asked and will update if we hear back. Leber and Bernstein say they hope to more than…

HelloWallet, a new paid site designed to help people manage their personal finances, has raised $3.6 million in a first round of funding. The round was led by Grotech Ventures; AOL (NYSE: AOL) founder Steve Case and his wife, Jean, also participated. Like Mint.com and several other competitors, HelloWallet tracks user’s finances and provides recommendations for saving money. But unlike most of its rivals, which make money by referring users to financial services, HelloWallet charges its members at least $4 a month—a fee it says allows it to stay independent from banks and provide “100 percent unbiased recommendations.”

With the $100 million branding campaign it launched last fall largely considered to be a failure, Yahoo is trying again. The WSJ says Yahoo will now spend between $75 million and $85 million on a new phase of the campaign with the slogan, “Your favorite stuff all in one place. Make Yahoo your home page.” (The company clarifies that the $75 million to $85 million figure is part of the initial $100 million). The phase is designed “to get people to interact with our products,” according to chief marketing officer Elisa Steele. That clarity is a contrast to the first…

ReachLocal, which filed to raise up to $100 million in an IPO in late December, is moving ahead with its plans to go public. The company’s latest filing with the SEC shows that it now expects to raise up to $91 million by selling 4.8 million shares at between $17 and $19 per share. That will give ReachLocal, which helps small businesses advertise online, a market value of up to $515 million, since the company has 27.1 million shares of stock outstanding. ReachLocal’s revenue jumped 40 percent last year to $203 million. We’ll be following as its IPO progresses.