Video game giant Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) is spending $750 million to acquire PopCap Games, the maker of Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies, in a move to bolster its position amid increasingly fierce competition from Zynga and other online game companies. The deal includes a performance payout for PopCap, which…

Even though no comprehensive online privacy law has yet been passed by Congress, the Federal Trade Commission has gotten busy in the last year enforcing privacy rules in a few areas in which it’s already empowered to act, like protecting children. Playdom will pay $3 million to settle FTC charges…

The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) brought in more than $9 billion in revenues last quarter but that number—and earnings—were lower than most analysts expected. The Disney Interactive Media Group, which has been going through an overhaul that includes strenuous cost cutting and layoffs, more than doubled its losses to…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q110	Net Inc. vs Q110
Disney	Release		6%	1%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

TheDaily and MySpace (NSDQ: NWS) may get all the attention in News Corp.‘s digital division, but keep an eye on the company’s growing interest in social gaming. To wit: The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that the company acquired Making Fun, though the actual purchase occurred last November.

The new chiefs at struggling Disney (NYSE: DIS) Interactive Media Group pledged to put the division in the black by 2013 at an investors conference for the conglomerate Thursday in Anaheim, Calif. Making their first public appearance since joining Disney last year, co-president John Pleasants and James Pitaro offered a…

All in all, The Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company’s fiscal Q1 was solid, buttressed by strong performance at its cable networks, theme parks and consumer products divisions. Even broadcasting, which isn’t the strongest part of the company these days, gained a bit. But the Interactive segment, in spite of impressive…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q409	Net Inc. vs Q409
The Walt Disney Co.	Release		10%	54%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

It’s over for Paul Yanover at Disney (NYSE: DIS) Online. The chief architect behind the rebuilding of Disney.com is leaving to “pursue new opportunities outside the company,” as he told staffers Friday morning in an internal e-mail (full memo below).

The legal drama between social gaming rivals Zynga and Playdom is now over. The two companies say they have reached a “confidential resolution” of their ongoing litigation. Zynga had sued Playdom last fall, accusing its rival of stealing trade secrets—including documents that detailed the company’s business strategy—by recruiting Zynga employees;…

eMusic launched its new website today, which includes 250,000 new songs from Universal, new hits from Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music and Warner Music—and higher prices for its newer tracks.

Naysayers continue expressing suspicion Spotify will launch in the U.S.. But Spotify’s not alone in discovering the challenge of an overseas launch. Here’s a newsflash for the sceptics: the list of U.S. services which haven’t found their way out of America is also long…

Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) has confirmed it has purchased Chillingo, a U.K. publisher of Angry Birds and other iPhone and iPad games, reports the LA Times.

Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX) has hired mobile gaming veteran Greg Ballard to lead its digital games business, as the company continues to double-down on the effort. Ballard is joining Warner Bros. only four months after he was hired by mobile video ad network Transpera as CEO; he had previously spent…

M&A activity in the marketing, information and digital media/commerce areas rose 27 percent Q3, but fell compared to the second quarter of this year, says media investment bank Petsky Prunier, which tracked 200 deals for this survey. The sequential drop-off in M&A was not too surprising, as deals have a…

Another late-night departure announcement from a top Disney (NYSE: DIS) exec. The last one was the Labor Day memo from David Westin about leaving ABC News. This time it’s Steve Wadsworth, longtime head of Disney’s internet operations, sending word that “for many reasons now is the right time for me…

Spotify’s partnerships SVP Paul Brown is leaving after 18 months with the music startup, saying his exit’s on good terms. “I wasn’t looking to leave. But this was an opportunity that came along and which I had to take,” Brown tells MusicWeek.

Despite trying for over a year, Spotify has been beaten to U.S. launch by Rdio, the comparable online music start-up backed by Atomico Ventures’ Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who earlier in their careers founded Skype and Kazaa.

So, why did Disney (NYSE: DIS) decide to buy Playdom? Disney Interactive Media Group President Steve Wadsworth told paidContent in a joint interview with Playdom CEO (and now Disney EVP) John Pleasants that Disney is on a “fairly aggressive mission to build a high-growth interactive media business.” He said the…

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) is making a big move into social games, with the purchase of fast-growing social game developer Playdom for up to $763.2 million. The deal includes a “total consideration” of $563.2 million, in addition to a performance-linked earn-out of up to $200 million. In a release, which…

Metaplace, a social games startup which switched strategies earlier this year after its first business failed, has been purchased by Playdom. Initially intended to be a place where people could build their own virtual worlds, Metaplace shut down that service six months ago saying it wasn’t gaining enough traction and…