Remember Boo.com? It was the British-based online fashion retailer that launched a decade ago amid much hype, burned through £100 million ($166 million) in 18 months and then burned out in a haze of “corporate hubris” and “technical hurdles”, as we put it at the time. Well, the site is still going—it relaunched as a travel site in 2007—and it’s now in new hands after its Dublin-based owner Web Reservations International was bought out by San Francisco PE firm Hellmann & Friedman for an undisclosed amount on Friday.

Yet Boo.com gets scant mention in the release and WRI is more keen to emphasise its “property management solutions” which are used by 23,000 hoteliers and guest house owners in 180 countries through sites including Hostelworld.com. The company sold €350 million worth of accommodation in 2008, giving it net revenues of €38 million (£34 million; $55.6 million).

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Google (NSDQ: GOOG) barely made its court-imposed deadline to submit its amended books settlement proposal, which the company hopes will ease friction over antitrust concerns from the U.S. Department of Justice and competitors such as Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN). The company, along with its filing partners, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, scaled back the countries the agreement would cover and promised new protections for potential rights-holders and authors. (Google’s statement is here; a PDF of the filing is available here).

So far, Google will have to wait to see if it can go ahead with its plan to distribute millions of books online. In terms of the next steps, the WSJ reported that despite the fixes in the amended settlement, the DOJ still wants to talk with Google about other areas not included in this latest filing. The DOJ is expected to submit responses to Google’s settlement plan by early next year.

The settlement was filed late Friday with the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, with scant minutes to go before its midnight deadline. Google and its partners had asked for more time, but it appears the court didn’t budge on the cutoff point for the filing.

Among the items addressed in Google’s amended filing, as listed in a summary of the changes (PDF), are:

—The stipulation that distribution would be confined to books that were either on file with the U.S. Copyright Office or registered in the U.K., Australia, or Canada. In its statement, Google said it was “disappointed that we won’t be able to provide access to as many books from as many countries through the settlement as a result of our modifications.”  However, in the eyes of Google Books’ doubters, the last plan didn’t go far enough to satisfy the regulatory hurdles, as detractors claimed the search giant would be able to wield too much control over the digital distribution of in-copyright, out-of-print books.

—The appointment of an independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry, which would act as a trustee, overseeing revenue derived from so-called “orphan books”—titles whose authors and rights-holders have essentially abandoned—in case those owners are found or step forward to claim their rights. But rather than waiting for individuals and entities to come out of the woodwork, the Book Rights Registry is charged with locating and identifying rightsholders,

—Greater transparency about the way Google’s system sets consumer purchase prices.

Google Books Amended Settlement Agreement

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Dow Jones is the latest media company to call on consultancy McKinsey & Co. for help, Forbes reports. The News Corp (NYSE: NWS). unit appears to be following in the footsteps of other high-profile content companies trying to cope with persistently difficult media environment.

That includes Conde Nast, which tapped McKinsey last summer, and Time Inc., which hired the consultant about two years ago. Both ended up axing hundreds of staffers after being given McKinsey’s analysis. Lately, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) has reportedly once again asked McKinsey for guidance. Time Warner is said to be looking for ways to slash about $100 million across the publishing segment over the next several months. But a DJ rep tells Forbes that cutting is not what it has in mind.

Instead, DJ says it’s looking to McKinsey to help build and grow its products. True, DJ’s Wall Street Journal has been working on expanding general news coverage in New York and in San Francisco, as it seeks to better match the New York Times. But at the same time, DJ has been paring things down, including closing the WSJ’s Boston bureau.

Beyond that, there was this past week’s sale of DJ’s stake in European index provider Stoxx is another what is considered to be several more divestitures. Two months ago, it also sold news syndicator Screaming Media to content management firm YellowBrix as part of an ongoing strategic evaluation of its businesses.

Although it’s clear that DJ, like every other media company, could benefit from some new ideas about business development, it shouldn’t need much help in figuring out where to cut. Compared to its peers, DJ has been fairly light on layoffs. It’s also worth asking what advice DJ got from Booz Allen when it was hired two years ago to help the company “search for additional sources of revenue.”

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The Inside Word is a weekly feature that looks at compelling industry debates and discussions unfolding on the blogs of employees at digital-media companies.

Blogger: Sean Ryan

Position: Chairman, teen-centric virtual world Meez

Blog name: SharkJumping

Backstory: Two weeks after TechCrunch first reported on what it said was the prevalence of ‘scammy’ offers on social games, the fallout continues. On Thursday, Valleywag reported that a law firm was considering a class-action lawsuit. This follows the resignation of Offerpal CEO Anu Shukla and the decision by Zynga to pull all offers from its games until further notice.

Blog post: Ryan writes: “I believe that CPA/direct response-style ads have a place in everyone’s payment options since there are some people who wish to trade time or other types of subscriptions for the currency offered in your game or world.

“The key issue is that the misleading offers are often the higher eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) ones vs legitimate ones, so some online publishers need to get used to a lower eCPM than they formerly enjoyed, but in the longer run, it will be healthier for everyone. The advertisers will be happier as well since they will be getting more legitimate buyers, making those CPA (cost per action) deals worth more to them than a bunch of lousy ones. And users will be protected from some of the more scam-like issues that we’ve been seeing for the past 18 months.”

Post-script: I asked Ryan whether—and how—‘scammy’ offers would ever go away.

His response: “There is no way to fully get rid of the ‘scammy’ offers. ... No one wants to say this, but a bunch of these offers are triggered by users, and then they call for refunds, but keep the currency—as soon as you see an offer that seemingly offers a good deal, then users just jump on it until the ‘hole’ is plugged in the offer. Same with really bad or ‘scammy’ offers - (it’s) amazing how quickly users e-mail or call Meez with the extremely negative offers, and we pull them down.

“There has to be a uniform code on how to fully reveal what the user is signing up for when they go through an offer (e.g., there are some people who actually want to sign up for mobile-subscription services and see this as a way to get something extra for it, but there are definitely a set of offers that obfuscate what they’re looking for, like taking a simple quiz, but then asking for your personal information in order to deliver the results.

“Do I believe the offer providers should crack down on it from their side? Absolutely, but not by looking at every single offer to make a judgment call on the ‘value’ of the offer since each publisher and user views it differently, but by making their offers follow a set of disclosure rules, including a follow up e-mail clearly stating what they signed up for, and giving them a period to pull it back, similar to certain state’s lemon laws.”

Know of an insightful employee blog? Please e-mail the URL to joe@paidcontent.org, so that I can include it in a future edition of the Inside Word.

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»  Hearst reportedly tried to use some of its billion-dollar aquisition fund to buy Gawker’s Kotaku. [TBI]

»  The BBC is launching its iPlayer for the Wii. [BBC]

»  Could Bing be what Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) needs to lure big publishers away from Google? [TechCrunch]

»  A look at Fox Business Channel’s fight for viewers with CNBC and Bloomberg TV. [Vanity Fair]

»  Google’s is launching the Chrome OS within a week, but is it worth all the effort? [PC Mag]

»  Pingdom tracked Twitter for three weeks and reports back on who tweets—and what, where and when they Tweet. [Pingdom]

»  Modern Warfare 2 may be bringing the video game sales numbers back up now, but in October they fell 19%. [Venture Beat]

»  Bloomberg is taking away CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo’s column in BusinessWeek. [JOMC UNC]

Redfin has raised $10 million in a round of funding led by new investor Greylock Partners; existing investors Madrona Venture Group, Vulcan Capital, DFJ, and the Hillman Company all participated. The service lets users search for available homes and then connect with real estate agents.

On a blog post announcing the funding, CEO Glenn Kelman said the company had been profitable since June and that its revenue “exceeded a $20 million yearly run-rate.”

Kelman says the cash gives the company “a margin for error when making a few big bets: beyond real estate search, we still have to put the whole touring, offer and escrow process online, and we’ve got to build the systems and processes that allow us to deliver the same amazing service to 10,000 or 100,000 customers every month, not just 100 or 1,000.”

With the new funding, the company will have now raised a total of $30.8 million. More in the release.

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Prosper.com, a peer-to-peer lending and loan marketplace, has raised $1 million worth of a $2 million round of funding, per an SEC filing. QED Investors led the funding; managing partner Nigel Morris is a co-founder of Capital One.

Loan-seekers, private investors and PE firms sign in to Prosper.com; loan-seekers fill out profiles detailing their needs and backgrounds, and the site securely collects info like loan histories and credit scores. Investors bid on the prospects, then Prosper.com algorithmically selects the best matches. It collects an up-front fee from the borrower on approved loans, and a 1 percent annual fee on lenders. Loans are in the $25 to $25,000 range. Founded in 2005, S.F.-based Prosper.com has raised over $40 million in funding from Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Fidelity Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners and Omidyar Network. Release.

A second bidder has emerged in the battle to take over Playboy (NYSE: PLA). The LA Times and Reuters both report that a group led by former Playboy Entertainment chief James Griffiths and PE firm Golden Gate Capital is in discussions to buy the company for around $300 million. This follows Thursday’s report that Iconix Brand Group, the company behind apparel brands like London Fog and Starter, was looking at Playboy’s books.

While Iconix is likely interested in Playboy’s licensing assets, Griffiths’ interest is probably more media-focused. He spent six years as president of worldwide television distribution at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, before joining Playboy in early 2004. (He left less than two years later, as part of a management reorg). Golden Gate’s holdings, meanwhile, include TV and radio station operator MAX Media.

One interesting aside if Griffiths/Golden Gate and Iconix are in fact the two bidders: Golden Gate beat out Iconix in the auction to buy outdoor clothing chain Eddie Bauer this summer. Playboy is not commenting on any of these reports, although it has said since February that it would be open to offers for a buyout.

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Mark May is a principal and senior internet and digital media research analyst at Needham & Company, LLC, a full-service growth-company investment bank.

Ken Sonenclar’s Leading Voices piece on Thursday titled “Five Media Deals I’d Like To See Happen In 2010” was thoroughly thought-provoking. Here are my own thoughts around M&A targets for next year—I guess you could call it a rebuttal to Ken’s piece.

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) should buy WebMD (NSDQ: WBMD) and/or IAC/InterActiveCorp’s Ask.com, not Research in Motion: Ken, it’s certainly true that Microsoft is in a desperate battle with Google (NSDQ: GOOG). It couldn’t close an all-out acquisition of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) last year, but it’s still trying to complete a definitive agreement to, at least, run its search business. But we don’t think Microsoft is done.

Microsoft still needs to broaden its footprint in the online media space in order to become more relevant with advertisers, thus driving up the value of its audience and leads. We think WebMD fits the bill for four main reasons. First, WebMD brings with it a large, and largely unduplicated, audience of about 60 million monthly unique users and about 6 billion pageviews a year. Second, WebMD has a dominant position and we believe controls more than 25 percent of the spend in its vertical. With the acquisition, Microsoft would be the go-to channel online for not only pharmaceutical advertisers but also for the increasing number of consumer/CPG health, wellness and fitness-related advertisers on the WebMD Health Network.

Thirdly, WebMD would enhance Microsoft’s efforts in the enterprise space (e.g., large employers, and hospitals and physicians’ offices) as WebMD already generates about 20 percent of its sales through the licensing of “private portals” to these groups. Moreover, WebMD is well-positioned to potentially be a central hub for consumers’ electronic medical records. And, fourthly, WebMD’s financial performance has been, and should continue to be, phenomenal. We’re not aware of any media company – online or off – that has managed to grow its advertising revenue about 20 percent in each quarter during the downturn. And, with EBITDA margins of more than 20 percent and free-cash-flow margins of more than 15 percent, WebMD is a highly profitable business model. Ken, don’t you think WebMD is just what the doctor ordered for Microsoft?

Ask.com also makes a ton of sense for Microsoft, which clearly wants to increase its market share in search, and IACI’s Barry Diller has recently openly said he’s a seller. Moreover, Microsoft probably wouldn’t have to pay a big premium because the only other strategic buyer – Google – would probably be out of the bidding due to antitrust concerns.

Google should buy Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) and/or eBay, not Clear Channel: Ken, I appreciate out-of-the-box thinking, but an acquisition of Clear Channel (NYSE: CCMO) by Google would be a step in the wrong direction, in my view. First, the price tag (possibly as much as $25 billion, including debt assumption) would be rich for a company with significantly declining revenue and EBIT, and for one that would require significant capital investment to upgrade its infrastructure to digital. Moreover, I don’t see digital outdoor as a good place for leveraging Google’s ad targeting and optimization chops, as the concepts for bringing that to the outdoor space are futuristic at best, in my opinion.

Instead, I think Google should buy Netflix and/or eBay (NSDQ: EBAY). With Netflix, I see six main reasons for the deal: 1) Netflix would seriously expand the reach of YouTube into the mainstream media realm; 2) Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has increasingly been talking about playing a bigger role in developing mechanisms for consumer for-pay models for premium content. Netflix is one of the leaders, if not the leader, in the for-pay (subscription) online premium content space; 3) Netflix helps extend Google’s reach into the living room; 4) Netflix could either be a primary platform for, or an excellent addition to, an App Store-like offering from Google (Android Market); 5) the ability to leverage Netflix user purchase patterns and preferences (the queue). Netflix would add rich targeting data to Google’s opt-in profile database; and, 6) Google likes to buy industry leaders, and Netflix fits that bill.

In the same way that YouTube gave Google the leading vertical search site for videos, eBay’s Marketplace would give Google the leading vertical search site for products. Google has certainly tried over the years to develop such an offering, but its initial efforts (e.g., Froogle) failed. Its more recent initiatives, like Google Merchant Center (e.g., Google Commerce Search, Product Search Marketplace, etc.) point to continued interest and innovation in this area, but the ultimate success of these efforts remains uncertain. At the same time that Google continues to try to build a vertical product search offering, eBay Marketplace seems to be struggling to improve its search and graphical user interface experiences, and to streamline and optimize its pricing and monetization strategies.

Google could help eBay in this regard. If the fit between Google and eBay Marketplace isn’t so obvious to you, certainly the fit between Google and PayPal is. Closed loop marketing is the Holy Grail for Google. Since Google Checkout has largely failed to close the last mile gap of the marketing loop for Google, and Google Analytics has thin penetration at the largest sites, owning PayPal might be the best way of optimizing conversion rates by completing the marketing loop. The big question with a Google/eBay marriage, in my view, is not the strategic rationale, but rather how the antitrust regulators would respond.

Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE: SNI) should buy Kayak.com: Ken didn’t talk about either Scripps or Kayak, but I felt compelled to at least come up with one original idea. Following on the heels of Scripps’ acquisition of a controlling stake in Travel Channel, Scripps should buy Kayak.com. First, it’s one of the few sizable independent online travel sites out there that has a rock-solid audience, brand and monetization model. Second, we think the optimal monetization model for content media assets is a combination of advertising and transaction-related revenue. The closer you can get to the transaction, the more value you can extract. The Kayak.com assets would add just that element not only to the Travel Channel but to several other of Scripps’ “lifestyle media” properties.

And, thirdly, as has become clear from the recent moves by Microsoft/Bing and Google, generic search-results lists are being replaced in certain circumstances (e.g., entertainment, travel, etc.) by richer vertical search experiences. That’s because the customer experience is better and conversion rates tend to improve. I’m not current on Kayak’s more recent financials or the thinking of its board/investors, but I’m guessing Kayak’s perceived valuation is at least $500 million. The valuation could be a stumbling block for Scripps, particularly considering it just assumed more debt as part of the Travel Channel deal, but the strategic logic still makes sense to me.

Yahoo! should merge with CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) or Viacom (NYSE: VIA), or buy Brightcove: At some point Yahoo and/or its investors will come to the realization that the status quo, even if done better, is just not going to result in anything interesting. They’ll get restless for results and consider something more transformative. And, considering the brand media direction the company continues to go down, I think a mega “convergence” play is the way this thing will play out. How ironic would it be if Yahoo and Viacom teamed up shortly after Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) finally de-couples itself from AOL! If the convergence play doesn’t work out, then Yahoo should consider buying Brightcove.

(Public investors) should buy LinkedIn: Ken, I’ll fill in the blank to this riddle…Public investors should buy LinkedIn, in my opinion, not McGraw Hill, News Corp., Reed Elsevier (NYSE: RUK) or Monster Worldwide (NSDQ: MNST). There are a few reasons I think an IPO of LinkedIn is the path of least resistance – and of greatest upside. First, I don’t think any of those potential strategic buyers (including News Corp (NYSE: NWS). have either the financial resources or financial stomach to pay the valuation that LinkedIn’s investors expect to see. Second, as you so eloquently state, “LinkedIn has outdistanced every other online business network. All web communities are ephemeral until the switching costs grow too daunting or the network effects render them too useful. LinkedIn has passed both those markers, and it’s hard to imagine any contender knocking the six-year-old company off its perch.”

LinkedIn is a great business with a lot of future upside from a variety of revenue streams, low customer acquisition costs, and high entry barriers. I think public investors will better value the future upside here than any logical strategic would. In an economy where growth has evaporated for so many companies and sectors, investors are hungry for new growth “products.” They’re willing to pay premiums for high growth stories with a long runway ahead. I think LinkedIn, along with a handful of others companies in this sector (e.g., Facebook, Gilt Groupe, etc.), are poised to reap valuations in the public markets just not possible from the logical strategics you’ve indentified.

Ted Turner should run for governor of Montana, not buy back CNN and fold in The New York Times: Ken, I don’t disagree that Ted Turner is probably bored. But surely he’s not also stupid. What billionaire in his/her right mind, other than Sam Zell, would intentionally put themselves through such grief by trying to turn around a newspaper company (even one as great as the NY Times) in this day and age? Mr. Turner would be far wiser running for governor of one of the most beautiful and isolated states in the union (Montana) during the upcoming 2012 election (note: liberal Democrats seem to currently rule this state).

Disclosure: Needham & Company, LLC makes a market in the following companies mentioned in this article: WebMD, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Research in Motion (NSDQ: RIMM), Netflix and Yahoo. Needham & Company has not nor does it expect to receive investment banking fees for any of the companies mentioned herein. The author does not have a financial interest in the securities of any of the companies mentioned above.

Interesting how Miller’s remarks about supposedly blocking off Google is reverberating in other news sources, when he really didn’t say much beyond the fact that they are ready to take some steps in the next few months or quarters. But then, who cares about facts, when the interpretation is much more interesting, right?

(Note: We’re aware of a syncing problem with the audio and video here, and are trying to get it fixed. In the meantime, here’s an mp3)

IM and content-sharing platform Meebo has signed an ad-sharing deal with Nielsen Business Media, that will place its Meebo Bar on sites like THR.com. The bar lets users comment on content, and share links and photos with friends without leaving a publisher’s site; ads show up on the bottom left corner of the bar, and Meebo splits the revenue with the publisher. The partnership goes live tonight on THR.com; it will roll out on BackStage, MediaWeek, BrandWeek and AdWeek “in the coming months.”

Meebo’s ad and content-sharing platform is currently running on over 200 sites, including TechCrunch, Mashable, and CrispyGamer, but partnering with a business trade brand like Nielsen boosts the company’s credibility. Meebo spent this year upgrading its platform, embedding features like real-time status updates to Facebook and Twitter. CEO Seth Sternberg said the pitch to publishers is that it increases the amount of time spent on their sites, in addition to offering a cut of its ad revenues.

For advertisers, the pitch is that Meebo can deliver them a targeted audience. The company says it serves demographic and behaviorally-targeted ads (reaching males aged 18-24 that have shown intent to purchase an auto in the past 60 days, for example); it can also target site visitors that are signed into their Meebo accounts more precisely. It’s a unique take on engagement—which sites like CBS and members of the OPA have tried to increase by making their ads bigger, flashier and more intrusive.

Meebo was founded in 2005, but the company first launched its ad platform last September. Sternberg said average RFPs coming in then were around $50,000; they jumped to $100,000 per campaign by December. He wouldn’t disclose whether the company was profitable, but did say that revenue grew 40 percent in Q3. Mountain View-based Meebo is backed by $37.5 million in funding from Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), JAFCO, KTB Ventures, Sequoia Capital and DFJ.

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After starting his day by making the rounds at the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media & Money conference, Chase Carey, deputy chairman, president & COO of News Corp (NYSE: NWS). took time later on to drop in for a Q&A on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox Business. After playing a clip from last week’s interview with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt stressing the company’s desire not to get involved in the content production side of the business, Cavuto asked Carey for some react about the search giant’s intentions. A sly grin crossed Carey’s face as he offered faint praise for Google’s “great strengths” and its ability to make money on others’ content. Not that Carey wants the government to step in and level the playing field, however.

As for net neutrality and piracy issues, there is a place for government action, but we’ll just have to wait and see how the regulatory landscape takes shape, Carey said. The clip starts off with Carey’s being fairly circumspect when asked what sort of cable properties NBCU might have to unload if Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) buys it—and whether News Corp. would be interested in picking some of those properties up, like CNBC, for instance.

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Just two weeks after overhauling CNN.com, the news website is reorganizing its live webcast unit and doing away with its anchor-driven newscasts, according to a memo obtained by Mediabistro’s Webnewser. The memo, attributed to CNN.com SVP/GM KC Estenson (pictured, left), the four CNN Live anchors, and several production staffers, will be laid off.

In place of the anchors on CNN Live, the site will devote resources to setting up a new unit which will concentrate on streaming live events and producing video packages for the main CNN.com site.

The move is designed to play up the site’s on-demand features. CNN.com also plans to hire about seven new staffers to handle video production duties.

The changes are in keeping with those Estenson mapped out at last month’s redesign preview, a gala affair held at the Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Center. At the time, Estenson said that the citizen journalism project iReport would be folded into CNN.com proper, and would cease to be a standalone website.

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The New York Times News Service is getting rid of nearly all of its editorial staffers and will hand off the operation to the NYTCo’s Gainsville Sun, the NYT reported. The NYTNS edits and syndicates articles from the NYT and more than 100 other sources. It acts like the NYTCo’s version of the AP. It also provides videos and photos to members of its syndicate, as well as features for weekly newspaper supplements.

There’s some dispute about how many of the NYTNS editors and writers will lose their jobs. The NYTCo (NYSE: NYT) says that the 25 of total 30 staffers will be let go, while the Newspaper Guild, which represents the employees, claims that 28 are being dismissed. Either way, the numbers of laid of news service staffers will not count toward the 100 cuts the main NYT newsroom is looking to make by the end of the year.

The layoffs that the NYTNS effectively leave the operation shuttered in New York. By moving it to The Sun in Florida, the NYTCo will have the paper’s less-costly non-union staff handling the duties of running the service. There was no indication as to how much the company would save on the changes or how much the layoffs would initially cost.

Speaking if the non-union workforce at the NYTCo, the company said it would stop cease contributions to their pensions when the year draws to a close. Instead, the NYTCo would take 3 percent of their wages each year and put that in non-union staffers’ 401(k) plans. No word on how much that move would save either.

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Fresh off a $43 million first round of funding, comes news that social gamer Playdom has made its first two acquisitions: Facebook game developer Green Patch and iPhone game developer Trippert Labs. Financial terms were not disclosed. The news was first reported by ISG; Playdom has since issued a release.

Updated: Green Patch founders David King and Ashish Dixit are joining Playdom as a VP and an executive producer, respectively; their team of 15 developers and designers is coming on board as well. Trippert Labs CEO Omar Siddiqui will serve as Playdom’s new VP of production; the company said adding Trippert Labs will increase its development capacity by “more than 25 percent.”

King and Dixit launched Green Patch in 2008. Its first game was (lil) Green Patch, which let users help save a rainforest by sending virtual plants to each other; sponsors donate money for every 10 patches given, so more money gets raised as the game spreads. Its most popular game currently has more than six million active monthly users. Meanwhile, Siddiqui founded Trippert Labs in 2007; past games include MobRacer and Fighter Jets.

The acquisitions make Playdom a more complete company in the social gaming space. Playdom has seen most of its success with MySpace games, and launched Mobsters: Big Apple, its first iPhone game, in July; the addition of Green Patch bolsters its presence on Facebook, while Trippert Labs expands its iPhone development capabilities.

And even though Green Patch is much smaller than Playdom, the two companies have a common “enemy”—Zynga—which is suing them both, per ISG. Zynga’s suing Green Patch for copyright infringment; its lawsuits against Playdom allege that Playdom stole trade secrets and mislead players with sketchy ads.

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Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has confirmed its purchase of VOIP startup Gizmo5. The deal had been rumored earlier this week. In a short post on the Google Voice blog, Google said no new features would immediately come to its products, but it did say that Gizmo5’s engineers would join the Google Voice team to “continue improving the Google Voice and Gizmo5 experience.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although TechCrunch—which first reported that Google had purchased the startup—put the purchase price at $30 million. Gizmo5 had raised $6 million in a round of funding three years ago.

In September, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company was once again on the acquisition trail. He obviously was not kidding. After a streak of eleven months without a single purchase, Google has now bought up four companies in the last four months: video compression firm On2, “captcha” startup reCaptcha, mobile ad network adMob, and Gizmo5.

So, why might Google want Gizmo5? TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington suggested earlier this week that Google made the buy because Gizmo5’s VoIP service allows voice call connections between computers and real phones, something Google Talk doesn’t. The acquisition and Gizmo5 integration could also serve as a tidy way to transform Google Voice and Google Talk into a unified VoIP communications service—and true Skype rival.

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Despite its current financial troubles and continued layoffs, Forbes Media has bought FlipGloss, a photo publishing and online distribution platform. Terms were not disclosed. The site has been funded by Forbes since its founding in March 2008. Forbes COO Tim Forbes has advised the company. Other advisers have included Forbes minority shareholder Elevation Partners and Launch.com founders/former Yahoo Music GMs Dave Goldberg and Bob Roback.

In announcing its purchase, Forbes touted Santa Monica, CA-based FlipGloss’ Digital Glossy Insert photo publishing platform, which is used on Forbes.com’s latest ranking of The World’s Most Powerful People. Considering that Forbes has used FlipGloss’ technology for these slideshows in the past, the company certainly didn’t need to buy FlipGloss to do interactive image sets. Still, given the closeness of the two firms, and the previous investments, the acquisition surely didn’t cost the company much.

Apart from more fully integrating FlipGloss’ technology into its own system, Forbes will likely try to see if it can use FlipGloss’ image platform for incremental revenue from outside sources, or for creating custom ad features for its sponsors. In addition to Forbes, FlipGloss has worked with Variety, Scripps Networks (NYSE: SNI) and women’s site WowOwow, as well as marketers like BMW. Release

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Sirius XM (NSDQ: SIRI) Chairman Gary Parsons is resigning from the company’s board; Parsons co-founded XM Satellite Radio, which merged with Sirius last summer. He led the company after the merger, along with Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin. Eddy Hardenstein, a Sirius XM director who is also the publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times, will become the company’s non-executive chairman.

The company’s results improved markedly last quarter, and in a statement, Parsons refers to that performance, saying that “it’s the right time to step aside” noting that despite “the challenging economic environment, we have begun to generate positive cash flow and have substantially improved our financial condition.” Parsons’ departure follows the exit of former XM CEO and co-founder Hugh Panero, who left the company in July 2007, several months after the Sirius—XM merger was announced.

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Higher subscription revenue from virtual kids world Club Penguin and lower marketing costs for Disney Online weren’t enough to offset increased costs and lower revenue at Disney Interactive Studios for Disney’s fiscal year or for the quarter. The underlying reason is fairly simple as outgoing CFO Tom Staggs explained during the company’s earnings call: “We’re making an investment (in self-published video games). We’re currently in a loss situation and would like to see that reverse itself as we build out to scale.” Disney Online with relaunched Disney.com and the multi-player games like Club Penguin is doing better.

But digital isn’t limited to that group at Disney (NYSE: DIS). The company doesn’t break out the digital results in the Media Networks group with ABC and ESPN, for instance, but CEO Bob Iger offered an example during the earnings call—citing ESPN’s “really encouraging growth on the digital front” including ESPN.com, ESPN360 and mobile. The Score Center app has been downloaded four million times; Iger says 2 million are using it regularly, making the ad-supported app into a small but visible revenue stream.

The details: For the year, the Interactive Media Group—which should be a growth engine at some point—lost $295 million on slightly decreased revenue of $712 million. Results were looking up by Q4 but no huge strides. The group lost $114 million—5 percent better than the same quarter last year but still red ink. Revenues rose 8 percent for the quarter to $157 million. 

Earnings release | Webcast | Transcript (via Seeking Alpha)

BtoB internet company WebMediaBrands (NSDQ: WEBM) (fka Jupitermedia) was able to narrow its losses considerably, but despite an improving ad environment, the comparison to last year was painful. The Q3 net loss was $4.6 million, a definite improvement over the $21.8 million the year before. The owner of Mediabistro network of sites said revenues from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2009 were $4.5 million, down from $7.6 million a year ago.

Earnings release | Webcast (5:00 PM ET)

With the $18 million sale of its Internet.com unit to QuinStreet is expected to be completed this month, Alan Meckler, the CEO and chairman of WebMediaBrands, said in a statement that the company expects to realize significant cost savings over the next few months. Since Q109 was pretty devastating to publishers in general, the next few months should also show some improvement on the revenue side.