Conde Nast, publisher of "Vogue," "Vanity Fair" and "GQ," has revealed that it opted out of joining the Guardian-led Pangaea alliance, believing that its unique content is best suited to selling inventory programmatically in a "bespoke, controlled" manner. Speaking at The Drum's Media Slap event in London today, Malcolm Attwells, programmatic sales director at Conde Nast Digital, urged caution to the rising number of publisher alliances.

Google's revenue in the first quarter missed analysts' predictions, weighed down by the slower-than-expected growth of its maturing search business. The quarter's revenue was $17.26bn, an increase from last year's $15.42bn in the same time period. However, this was short of the $17.5bn analysts had predicted. It was a similar story for its advertising business. Paid clicks were down 13 percent in the period, a 1 percent drop from a quarter ago and a slump on the projected 14.8 percent rise.

Smartphone retailer Carphone Warehouse has today revealed it will launch a mobile network later this year called iD. The service will be what's known as a "virtual" network and will piggyback off Three's service in a similar method to GiffGaff. Carphone Warehouse hopes to lure customers with a couple of enticing offers -- notably the option of 12-month contracts and free international roaming. The latter is a service already offered by Three. But iD's pitch is 22 countries (as opposed to Three's 18) including the USA and Australia.

WPP has launched Xaxis Audio, the UK's first programmatic product for digital audio ads with leading radio broadcaster Global. Xaxis Audio uses Global's new Dax platform to enable advertisers to buy digital audio ads at scale from more than 130 publishers including Audioboom, Blinkbox, Jango and Rdio. The new product will run through Turbine, Xaxis' next-generation data management platform (DMP) that allows advertisers to reach highly targeted audiences in real-time.

Procter & Gamble (P&G) is slashing the number of agencies it works with in a bid to save as much as $500m in fees and improve the effectiveness of its marketing. The cull is the latest in what has been two years of wholesale marketing changes at the company following AG Lafley's return for a second stint as its chief executive. Lafley expects that a leaner agency roster will bolster ongoing efforts to simplify the business, which has struggled for consistent growth in recent years.

Facebook shares crashed in after-hours trading on Wednesday as the social media company narrowly missed Wall Street's expectations. Releasing its first-quarter results, Facebook said the company had taken in $3.54bn in revenue for the first three months of the year. Analysts had been expecting $3.56bn. The company's ambitious expansion plans and the cost of integrating acquisitions contributed to a big rise in expenses. Expenses in the first quarter of 2015 were $2.61bn, an increase of 83% from the first quarter of 2014.

McDonald's aims to arrest its sales slide by becoming a "modern and progressive" company with a test-and-learn culture, new chief executive Steve Easterbrook has said. On a call with investors, Easterbrook argued that McDonald's "can't afford to carry legacy attitudes" as it looks to implement a major business turnaround. He was speaking as the restaurant chain announced an 11% fall in revenues in the first quarter of 2015 to $5.95bn (GBP3.96bn). Initiatives include the trials of high-end sirloin burgers and an all-day breakfast offer in the US.

British Airways has appointed Sapient Nitro as its digital agency of record. The appointment is understood to have followed a final two-way pitch that saw it win out against incumbent OgilvyOne. As a result, Sapient will take over running the airline's digital platforms including the main Web site BA.com and its digital communications including social media.

AdBlock Plus, a Web extension that blocks online adverts, has been judged a lawful tool for consumers use despite its capability to the earning power of websites reliant upon Web advertising revenue. German newspapers Die Zeit and Handelsblatt filed an action against Eyeo GmbH, the company which owns the app, accusing it of being anti-competitive and threatening their ability to make money, according to the BBC. A Hamburg court, however, ruled in favour of the app and its users on the conclusion of the four-month trial.

Tesco CEO Dave Lewis has admitted he is concerned by the aggressive marketing investment of discounters Aldi and Lidl. Speaking to Marketing, he said the accelerated pace of the discounters' investment concerned him. "It concerns me at one level," he said, "but where we are at the moment is taking a step back and [looking at] what is driving the brand experience -- it's in store. I'm not interested in share of voice type conversations. I'm interested in what the [customer] experience is first and foremost."