Perhaps the title of the Cannes International Advertising Festival panel—“From Metrics to Brand: Online’s Next Challenge"-- was deliberately bland. But the chance to see the outspoken WPP Group’s CEO Sir…

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Joining the Viacom (NYSE: VIA) and TF1 lawsuits, Spain’s Telecinco channel is the latest to sue YouTube, claiming intellectual property infringement. Mario Rodriguez, general secretary of the country’s number-one network,…

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That’s it. France will officially endorsed its three-strikes-and-your-out music piracy proposal and will introduce the measure in January. The measure, by which ISPs will agree to send three notices to…

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Another day in French media, another strike. TV and radio workers walked out yesterday in protest as president Sarkozy’s plan to scrap public TV advertising and replace funds with a…

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In the permutations being worked out for the sale of BMG part of music label SonyBMG, Bertelsmann is looking to retain a stake in the European part of the business,…

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Netherlands-headquarted Spill Group, an online game destination of dozens of localized portals, announced today that it has acquired Onrpg.com, a multiplayer gaming portal and community website. Financial terms of the…

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Forticom, an Estonian company that runs major Lithuanian social net One.lT, has acquired a 70 percent stake in Russian Nasca-Klasa, for $90 million (PLN 200 million), reports Warsaw Business Journal,…

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Finally, some meat on the bone of the “Bertelsmann wants to quit music” story. An unnamed source tells FT Deutschland the German media group wants to sell its 50 percent…

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Skyrock.com, one of the world’s largest social networks, is talking with several suitors about a sale, as it nears divestment from its partner radio station’s holding company, paidContent:UK has learned.…

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Audience measurement firm Taylor Nelson Sofres is pressing ahead with its merger with its German counterpart GfK, but it has nevertheless agreed to open its books to spurned suitor WPP…

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Bigpoint, a German online games site, has sold to NBCU’s Peacock Equity Fund and UK PE Firm GMT Communications Partners for Euro 70 million (about $110 million), according to FT...both…

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Irish Times, which went subscription for its online site Ireland.com in 2003, is now ready to scrap the charges. It is also moving its news-related content to a new website…

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Having recently completed its purchase of UK social net Bebo, AOL (NYSE: TWX) is finally ready to bring Platform-A, its collection of ad units, to Europe. Time Warner vet Brendan…

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Looking to women’s fashion lifestyle network Glam Media in the U.S., German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 has acquired Munich-based Feeem Media, which is working on forming a women’s portal at Fem.com. The…

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French price comparison site LeGuide.com is buying roduct reviews destination DooYoo. The Berlin-based site also has price comparison (and includes Google (NSDQ: GOOG) ads), but it’s the reviews content that…

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German internet company OnVista has sold off its online ad sales subsidiary Ad2Net to local venture capital firm Media Ventures GmbH, for about Euro 1.6 million, plus a “media volume…

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-- ForMyBand: With Sellaband and Slicethepie pitching at the fun-funded unsigned music game in English, a German startup, Berlin-based ForMyBand, is trying the same thing over there. The new site…

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Kylie Minogue’s ex just keeps on setting legal precedents. A French court has ordered two UK newspapers to pay fines for breaking privacy law in France - because they publish…

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Zmags, which makes software for publishing interactive content, has raised a $4.2 million second round from OpenView Venture Partners. The Denmark-based company has now raised a total of $7 million.…

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-- iTunes: Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) will launch its iTunes Movie Rentals service in the UK some time soon but nobody knows when. That’s the gist of this Times Online report,…

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Paris-based Netvibes, the much-hyped personalized homepage and widget company, has a new CEO: the charismatic founder Tariq Krim has stepped down, and COO Freddy Mini has been appointed as the…

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Helsinki’s appeals court has overturned a 2007 copyright ruling that allowed users to break “ineffective” DVD copy protection. Last May, a judge acquitted a pair of hacktivists who cracked the…

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French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans for media reform have met with opposition lately - so now he’s called for someone else to stage a national conference on the topic, to…

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Put it that way, it does sound absurd, though of course a very small amount for Google: the Belgian newspapers’ association Copiepresse is asking Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to pay up…

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On-the-block Lycos Europe, touting itself for sale after failing to modernise the once-mighty portal, has approached AOL (NYSE: TWX), German web group United Internet and German online publishers Tomorrow Focus…

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