Keep an eye on: Microsoft

A $6 billion deal for online ad company aQuantive seems to have whetted Microsoft Corp’s appetite for big-ticket acquisitions. Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer, continuing to make headlines from his big European tour this week, says he won’t rule out new purchases of a similar size.

Are these the words of an even bolder, maybe bigger Microsoft? The same Microsoft that has been reportedly interested in buying a 5 percent stake in Facebook, before its too late, for $500 million?

All we know is that we keep populating our morning MediaFile notes with Microsoft moves, from a new and improved Zune music player to Ballmer’s expectation the company will dig deeper into the media world and cultivate about 25 percent of its business from advertising. The news hasn’t stopped rival Google from coming within kissing distance of a record $600 share price.

Keep an eye on:

• Distributor Paramount Vantage delays release of the film “The Kite Runner” as it tries to get its three young stars out of Kabul for fear they will be targeted for their roles in the film about ethnic clashes in Afghanistan. (New York Times)
• Verizon Communications is sued for overstating subscriber numbers to its FiOS video service and inflating advertising rates. (Reuters)
• How soon they forget: Radio shock jock Don Imus is in talks with ABC Radio owner Citadel Broadcasting to return to the airwaves (Variety)
• The three women whose complaints of discrimination at news and data provider Bloomberg LP spurred a federal lawsuit last week say Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is involved in running the company despite his public statements to the contrary. (NYT)
• Gary Forsee, chief executive of Sprint Nextel, and other directors of the wireless carrier are coming under fire from activist investor Ralph Whitworth over large investments in the relatively untested WiMax technology and what he calls weak attention to its core cell phone business. (WSJ)
• Yahoo, eBay work together to block e-mails bearing fake credentials to lure information from unwary users known as phishing attacks. (Reuters)

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