Electronic Arts Inc, the video game publisher, is buying PopCap Games in a deal worth up to $1.3 billion. The acquisition builds up its games portfolio and lets it better compete with Zynga Inc. EA said it will pay about $650 million in cash and $100 million in common stock upfront for the maker of videogames "Bejeweled" and "Plants vs. Zombies." EA could pay up to an additional $550 million if PopCap reaches certain performance targets in about two years. EA is investing more in digital content as customers are buying fewer games on discs to play on consoles. …

Google's social network, Google+ is one of the fastest-growing nets ever -- if Paul Allen's calculations are correct. Allen, of Ancestry.com, has an interesting methodology for calculating the number of Google+ members. He sampled surnames from the U.S. Census Bureau data and compared it to surnames of Google+ users. By comparing surname popularity in the U.S. with the number of users on Google+ with each surname, he guessed the percentage of the U.S. population that signed up for Google+. Then Allen calculated a ratio of U.S. to non-U.S. users to generate an estimate for the number of Google+ …

The sale of video site Hulu LLC is entering its next phase. Initial presentations by potential buyers ended last week; next they will cull through the business' detail. The site, how,ed by News Corpor, Disney and NBCU. While many of the top Net video and TV services have expressed interest, such as Google, Yahoo and Amazon, there is a notable exception. Netflix Inc., one of Hulu's closest rivals, is not in the playing field. Netflix has ambitions to stream a wide variety of video content to subscribers from movies to TV shows, which are Hulu's sweet spots. But …

Signaling struggles for its iAd mobile-ad business, Apple has reportedly cut ad commitments by as much as 70% amid defections by top advertisers.  When Apple rolled out iAd a year ago, companies such as Citigroup and J.C. Penney Co. were being charged $1 million or more to run ad campaigns," Bloomberg reminds us. "Today those brands aren't using iAd, and Apple is offering packages for as little as $300,000," it reports, citing sources."Apple negotiated the first of these deals with WPP's ad buying unit GroupM," reports The Wall Street Journal. Still, "The advertising firm, which works with several major marketers …

Keenly aware of the growing importance of mobile apps, Apple is boasting that more than 15 billion such programs have now been downloaded from the App Store. Even more impressive, MacStories.com points out that the milestone comes just six months after the App Store hit 10 billion downloads in January. "Any way you cut it, that is an impressive figure," it writes."This means an average app download rate of about 415 million per month--huge," Fast Company writes. "That's quite definitely changing the mobile marketplace, and having a ripple effect on the entire software market."The figure "is a reminder of just how …

If only by name, Google reportedly plans to retire several key products, including Blogger and Picasa. "The move is part of a larger effort to unify its brand for the public launch of Google+," writes Mashable, referring to the search giant's new social initiative. As such, Picasa could soon be renamed "Google Photos," while Blogger could become "Google Blogs." While other products are likely to get the "Google" treatment, however, sources assure Mashable that YouTube will never be renamed "Google Videos." "Google is working very hard to unify its brand," writes Marketing Pilgrim, which puts …

While the implications remain unclear, Google and Twitter appear to have let their real-time search agreement expire. "No word yet on whether the two sides have entered negotiations [for another partnership], but when they do, the fate of humanity will certainly be hanging in the balance," jokes Engadget. "I'd say we have a bit of a standoff," writes Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan. "While Twitter may need Google to continue offering archive search, Google also potentially needs Twitter in another way ... Google may have lost some of the data it has recently been using …

As it turns out, Google might not be the only Web giant facing a government investigation. "The Federal Trade Commission is actively investigating Twitter and the way it deals with the companies building applications and services for its platform," reports Business Insider."The precise focus of the review isn't clear, but representatives of the FTC's antitrust arm have requested information from a company called UberMedia Inc., which owns applications that let people read and send ‘tweets,' or messages, broadcast by Twitter users," according to The Wall Street Journal.The review is reportedly "narrow" in scope, and isn't likely to impact Twitter's …

Until now, Amazon and other mostly digital businesses have had clear tax advantages over brick-and-mortar rivals. But with vast implications for the future of ecommerce, cash-strapped states are trying to level the playing field.  On Friday, Los Angeles Times reports, "a new state law will require large out-of-state retailers like Amazon to collect sales taxes on purchases that their California customers make online." In response, Amazon and rival etailer Overstock.com plans to cease paying commissions to California Internet marketing affiliates for referrals of so-called click-through customers. "That's because the new requirement applies only to online sellers based …

Boldly trying to reshape the browser, RockMelt just secured $30 million in funding from Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz. Officially launched this past November, RockMelt incorporates popular social networking services like Facebook and Twitter so users can take their friends with them around the Web. "Facebook is the people-centric Internet, and we are the people-centric browser," Eric Vishria, RockMelt's co-founder and CEO, explained to The Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, a recent Facebook partnership will serve as a model for others, according to Vishria. "Our goal is to build services right into the browser," Vishria said. Those …