We’re closed for the rest of the year, hence running on headlines until Jan 2:
-- Borders and Sony Launch Co-Branded E-Book Store: If they can Kindle, why can;’t we? Borders and Sony (NYSE: SNE) have launched a co-branded online e-book store that will work with Sony’s Reader Digital Book and offer downloads of more than 25,000 e-books. Sony extended its contract with Borders in September and released a new Reader device in October.

-- Can NBC Do for ‘Quarterlife’ What YouTube Could Not?: Numbers for Quarterlife online aren’t all that great. The low traffic numbers are significant because the series has been touted as the first television-quality production for the Web, as well as the first to be introduced online as a warm-up for its network debut.

-- Edgeio Assets Acquired By LookSmart: Edgeio, the online classifieds software firm which closed down earlier this month, has sold off its assets to Looksmart, for about $280,000.

-- Disney Internet Group names new CTO: Walt Disney Internet Group (NYSE: DIS) named A.D. “Bud” Albers its new CTO. He joins Disney from MediaNet Digital, where he served as SVP and CTO.

-- Independent Media Sanoma Magazines acquires Ameno.ru: In Russia, the women’s portal Ameno.ru has been bought by Independent Media Sanoma Magazines Russia, which is part of Sanoma Magazines, the Finnish magazine group.

As was noted before when we reported on the Emap (LSE: EMA) B2B buyout by Apax+Guardian combine, London-based Incisive Media CEO Tim Weller has been invited to take charge of a new outfit formed from the merger of his company and Emap’s B2B unit, Telegraph.co.uk says. Incisive owner Apax and Guardian Media Group announced Friday they were buying the last of Emap’s three divisions - seen as its most lucrative - for around $2 billion. Confirming the anticipated merger of the new acquisition with the Incisive company Apax itself bought for $375 million in September 2006, Telegraph.co.uk says the pair will create a new $4 billion media company when the deal completes in April, with up to $40 million savings and $1.2 billion turnover expected annually; GMG would have a 30 percent stake.

Incisive properties include Search Engine Watch, The ClickZ Network, Blogs and Social Media Forum, Law.com, Gizmodo, The Inquirer and VNUnet, as well as a range of financial and legal publications.

If such a deal at first seems at odds with The Guardian’s ethos, consider that all of Guardian Media Group’s activities, which also include radio stations as well as its own existing B2B division, operate for one reason only - to fund the continuation and freedom of the newspaper’s journalistic endeavours (especially so, given investments needed to go multi-platform). The buy (and the Incisive merger, if it happens) shows that GMG reckons the B2B space is now one of the best from which to pull in the funds necessary to do that. Over the long arc, the group cashed in by getting £675 million from the sale of a 49.9 percent Trader Media Group in March to Apax itself - its ongoing relationship with the private equity house is serving it well, diversifying the portfolio.

• Guardian Media And Apax Buy Emap’s B2B Division For $2 Billion; May Merge Some Mags With Incisive
• American Lawyer Media Being Bought By UK’s Incisive Media For $630 Million
• UK’s Incisive Media To Be Bought By Apax For $375 million; Some Shareholders Unhappy

Another tweak in Microsoft’s (NSDQ: MSFT) digital home efforts: it has quietly folded its IPTV software, Media Center, and HD DVD efforts into a single organization, known as the Connected TV business group, reports News.com. It makes logical sense to combine all digital home/TV centered efforts into one, but these efforts from MSFT have seen lots of changes and re-starts along the way.

The unit, part of Robbie Bach’s Entertainment and Devices division, is headed by Enrique Rodriguez, the VP who has been heading the IPTV effort. Peter Barrett, who was CTO of the IPTV unit, takes on that role for this unit, the story says.

• Microsoft Renames IPTV Platform ‘Mediaroom’; Adds PC-TV Media Sharing; Opens Platform

Wasserman Media Group is in talks with the likes of Comcast, (NSDQ: CMCSA) ESPN (NYSE: DIS) and Fox on investment or the sale of its online sports network Sportnet, reports SBJ. Sportnet was founded in 2005, to aggregate sites and advertisers across Olympic and action sports sites that WMG operates, including motocross.com, ryansheckler.com and three national governing bodies, USA Track & Field, USA Swimming and USA Gymnastics.

According to the story, Montgomery & Co., which the bank repping the company, has valued the venture at $50 million, though that has met resistance from interested parties as it is expected to post an eight-figure loss this year. The talks are about either an investment in the digital venture, or an outright sales.

WMG is invested in Prep Sports Online, an online high-school sports network, and Takkle, a high school online sports social networking site.

• Online High School Sports Network Prep Sports Online Gets Funding From Wasserman
• Hollywood Dealmaking Scion Looks To Build Sports Marketing Business With A Digital Emphasis

We mentioned earlier in the year that Turner was on the verge of tying up with NBA to run the network’s 12 million-subscriber NBA TV, as well NBA.com. Now it looks like the deal is done, according to this BW story. The announcement should be coming soon.

Turner Sports New Media group also handles PGA and Nascar’s digital properties. If the NBA deal mirrors the ones with the PGA and Nascar, Turner would earn a fee for managing the both online and TV properties and split ad revenues with the NBA.

Meanwhile, the news bit: Turner is also in talks with Major League Soccer to run its online operations. MLS’s digital presence is currently managed by Major League Baseball’s digital media division (MLBAM). MLS says no decision has been made yet, but it is under consideration. This would be a blow to MLBAM’s otherwise successful digital operations...its media outsourcing services deals haven’t panned out as expected, according to our sources in the industry.

• NBA In Talks With Turner To Run NBA TV and NBA.com; No Plans For Standalone Online Package
• NBA’s TV Partners ESPN and TNT Expand Their Digital Rights

Updated: So much for this, and as we said below, our sources also denied a deal: Sony (NYSE: SNE) is denying any such sale: “Sony Online Entertainment is not for sale and the report that Zapak is purchasing Sony Online Entertainment is completely erroneous and false,” a company spokesperson for San Diego-based Sony Online told Reuters.

Original post: Sony Online Entertainment, the online gaming company owned by Sony best known for creating online games such as EverQuest, PlanetSide, Star Wars Galaxies and Vanguard, is about to be bought by Indian online gaming company Zapak, owned by the conglomerate Reliance ADA Group, according to a report in Indian business newspaper Economic Times. The price, it says, is around $300 million, and says the deal will be finalized within the next few days.

The story says SOE has revenues of around $150 million. Zapak had planned to spend $100 million over three years, so this is a substantial jump in the outlay, if true. Zapak aims to reduce the content and marketing cost of publishing side by relocating the studios to India, the story says. “This will reduce the cost drastically from $30 million to $10 million, which will give us the advantage to channelise our funds towards marketing and other activities,” an official quoted in the story said.

I’ve been trying to contact execs in Zapak for some confirmation on this for a while now, but haven’t been able to get through. Some of our high level industry sources say that this deal isn’t happening ("No way")...but we’re still trying to find out. More when we have more on this.

A big and eventful year for all of us is coming to an end, and we’re going into hibernation mode for the rest of December, barring breaking news. The newsletters will resume Jan. 2. Time to kick back, recharge, reflect, and plan. Thanks to all of you—our readers, sponsors, partners, and others—for making 2007 a fab year. Expect a lot more from us in 2008: more in-depth coverage, deeper analysis, more events, more multimedia, and well, some interesting transitions (plus the usual scoops, of course).

From the ContentNext Media worldwide team: Happy Holidays. 

The Federal Trade Commission’s new online ad guidelines appear to offer a laissez faire approach, which the Interactive Advertising Bureau and AOL (NYSE: TWX) have treated as an early Christmas present.  As we mentioned, the FTC is entrusting the industry to police itself as opposed to handing down strict rules on behavioral targeting. In meetings set up with the FTC last month, the regulatory agency indicated it might issue tight controls over marketers’ online activity. In a speech at the November Ad:Tech conference in New York, Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau warned that coming regulation could strangle online advertising practices: “Anti-consumer advocates are out to stifle the industry, including the FTC, which wants complete regulation of cookies themselves and could require opt-in stipulations for all online ads.”

The IAB’s response to Thursday’s announcement practically contained an audible sigh of relief: “We support the FTC’s call for industry self-regulation and we are very pleased that the commission endorsed the IAB’s analysis of the value of the ad-supported Internet. At the same time we will continue to work with our members to educate the FTC and Congress about the new interactive tools that improve consumers’ lives, enhance consumer control and build the U.S. economy.”

Meanwhile, AOL, which has been touting its opt-out ad system anticipating FTC action, issued a statement supporting the decision and suggesting the industry follow its lead on “responsible” behavioral targeting: “This type of advertising promises to provide relevant and customized information to consumers, but it will only succeed if advertisers do it in a trustworthy manner and for consumers’ benefit.”

It may be too soon to declare victory. Privacy advocates are expected to focus their efforts on Congress and at the state government level.  The FTC’s guidelines probably won’t end calls for regulatory action—and the comment period could have some landmines. 

• More On FTC’s Proposed Online Advertising Principles
• @ Ad:Tech: Federal, State Regulation Represents Serious Threat To Online Ads, IAB Warns
• AOL Promises More Appealing Behaviorial Targeting With Opt-Out Ad System

The only surprise here is that it took so long to be official: Search/e-commerce firm Accoona has withdrawn its IPO plans, first announced in August. Care to take a stab at the explanation? You guessed it: unfavorable market conditions. Although the site once generated buzz as a search startup, most of its revenue came from e-commerce, a business running deeply in the red as of its August filing. Soon after its S-1, the company’s sole underwriter, The Maxim Group, dropped out of the deal, and from then on it never filed an update. Filing.

• There It Goes: United Online Cancels Classmates IPO
• Online Search/Commerce Services Firm Accoona Files For $80.5 Million IPO

Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) is boosting prices at its Total Access service, which lets customers rent DVDs over the internet and in stores. During last quarter’s conference call, the company said it was taking a bath on the service, while placing the blame on customers that abused the system—technically, it described them as “price sensitive” and “heavy consumption.” Thus in determining the price hikes, a company spokesperson told AP: “We are taking into account the profitability of individual subscribers.” Basically, the company had already tipped that it would do something to staunch the bleeding, and now we know what that is. The money-losing scheme was seen as a potent competitive weapon against Netflix, (NSDQ: NFLX) as it offered the same DVD-by-mail service with the added benefit of in-store pickup and return. Meanwhile, Reuters reports, Blockbuster will cut prices, at least for a limited time, on its Blockbuster By Mail service, which is a pure Netflix clone without the in-store option.

The price hikes are seen as good news for Netflix, whose stock is up sharply over the last two days. On its last conference call, CEO Reed Hastings described Blockbuster’s then strategy as “selling dollars for $0.85.”

• How Blockbuster Blew Up: The Transcript
• Earnings: Blockbuster Q3 Net Loss Widens 41.7 Percent; Revs Fall 5.7 Percent