Microsoft, Google And Yahoo Fined $31.5 Million Over Gambling Ads

Microsoft, (NSDQ: MSFT) Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will pay a combined $31।5 million to settle claims that they improperly ran ads for illegal gambling operations from 1997-2007. By accepting the ads, the DOJ said the companies ran afoul of the Federal Wire Wager Act. Microsoft will pay the largest chunk, at $21 million, with Yahoo and Google at $7.5 million and $3 million respectively. Additionally, both Microsoft and Yahoo have agreed to run ads for an anti-online gambling campaign.

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Canadian games firm, Beanbag, seeks USD8m to expand

Canadian games developer, Beanbag Studios, is looking to receive between USD6m and USD8m from investors in the New Year, in a bid to expand the company. According to the London Free Press, based in London, Ontario, the firm is working with the London Economic Development Corp to attract new investors from across the local area. The firm plans to use new funds to grow the firm's workforce and develop new titles for the quickly expanding casual games sector. It also seeks to branch into mobile games and games for other handheld platforms.

Beanbag wants to hire more games programmers, artists and testers, expanding its workforce to 100. It aims to buy the rights to develop games for entertainment properties, owned by major media brands such as MGM, CBS and NBC. It is also looking to branch out and sell other software.

Beanbag was started by Steve Bergenholtz, who previously founded Sandbox Studios- a games studio which was acquired by games giants Electronic Arts. It has recently produced a number of games based on the 'For Dummies...' guide books and is due to release a number of games based on old TV series including 'The Three Stooges' and 'The Honeymooners'. According to research released this month by Understanding & Solutions, the mobile games market will generate revenues of USD6bn worldwide by 2011, up from USD3.6bn in 2007.

Match.com looks to Facebook to enhance its dating services

InterActiveCorp-owned dating site, Match.com, is launching a Facebook application in a bid to attract new users amongst the social network's 58m user base. The subscription dating site, which was founded in 1995, is set to release its 'Little Black Book' application, which will allow Facebook users to find potential matches on a 'pay-per-contact' basis. The launch comes at the same time as Match.com unveils a 'Match My Friend' tool, to encourage friends to use the dating service to match-make each other. "Our experience tells us that social networkers have a high propensity to try online dating, which makes this a natural move for us," says Jason Stockwood, head of the UK version of Match, speaking to The Guardian. Under the move Match aim to use the popularity of social networking to expand its own dating template. " Match.com shares many of the same characteristics as a social network - both are about bringing people together," Stockwood adds. The Little Black Book Application will let friends share potential matches with friends to seek their opinions and offers a more social approach to online dating. In Oct research by comScore indicated that social networks are more popular in the UK than in any other European country, with 24.9m Britons, or 78% of the UK online population signed up.

Viacom and Microsoft strike ad and content deal

Viacom has signed a five-year, exclusive ad and content deal with Microsoft, estimated to be worth a total of USD500m. Under the deal, Microsoft's Atlas division will serve ads on Viacom's US websites and be the exclusive seller of its remnant display advertising in the US. The software giant will also license long and short-form TV content and movies from Viacom's cable network and motion picture businesses, on a non-exclusive basis. These will be used on Microsoft web, digital and gaming properties such as MSN and the Xbox. Viacom, which owns Paramount and MTV Networks, says it will work to become a preferred publishing partner across Microsoft's casual gaming platforms.

The deal includes a combination of revenue sharing provisions, guarantees and content licensing agreements. It is unclear how it affects Viacom's existing ad deal with Yahoo!, which it struck in Apr, making Yahoo! the exclusive provider of sponsored search and contextual ads for Viacom's 33 broadband sites.