When News Corp. delivers its second quarter earnings on Tuesday, investors will keep a keen eye on the performance of Fox Interactive Media and MySpace in particular. The social network, which generates an enormous amount of traffic, has underwhelmed in the advertising department. The Wall Street Journal says that MySpace's "hypertargeting" system, which analyzes the profiles of MySpace users and categorizes their interests into more than 1,000 "buckets", will receive the most scrutiny. The behavioral targeting system debuted last fall, and the Journal says that feedback from advertisers has been positive. "The closer you get to the audience you want, …

The Yahoo board on Friday easily won the support of most of its shareholders, as officials served up "a spirited defense" of the Web giant's strategy, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Chairman Roy Bostock pointed out that Yahoo had met its financial targets (such as they were) in the first two quarters of the year. He also reaffirmed the company's guidance for the rest of '08, and deflected concerns over the botched deal with Microsoft. "I think that is one hell of a performance for this management team considering what they been through the last six months," Bostock said. …

A federal judge recently ruled against a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the execs that sold MySpace parent Intermix to News Corp. for $580 million in 2005. Apparently, shareholders felt shortchanged by the deal, particularly following the social network's rapid rise. Nevertheless, the July 14 decision by U.S. District Court Judge George King of the Central District of California means the matter will now go to trial. The suit accuses ex-senior executives and directors of Intermix and its venture capital backer, VantagePoint Venture Partners, of defrauding shareholders of billions of dollars. In a statement, Brad Greenspan, former chairman of …

Soon-to-be-named Yahoo board member Carl Icahn on Thursday excoriated the news media -- and The Wall Street Journal in particular -- in a series of blog posts, while declaring that he would not attend the Web media giant's annual shareholder meeting in order to avoid a media circus. "The proxy fight is over and it will not do shareholders or Yahoo any good to have the annual meeting turn into a media event for no purpose," Icahn said in one of the postings. He also referred to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock as "gentleman" (after publicly calling …

TechCrunch provides an in-depth analysis of a landmark decision by the SEC to allow the disclosure of financial information through corporate blogs, instead of using the long-established one-way communication mechanism known as the press release. In a speech on Wednesday, SEC special counsel Kim McManus outlined new guidance the government regulatory body is about to give companies on when they can use Web sites like blogs to disclose such information. "What this means is that we can now finally kill the press release, at least in its current form," said Brian Solis, adding that the unanimous decision finally legitimizes the …

How come the iPhone costs less than half the price of the original? Thank AT&T's Randall Stephenson, says USA Today, who when he assumed the post of CEO a year ago, championed the idea of paying Apple $300 per iPhone to keep down the cost. Will AT&T's gamble pay off? "AT&T's role in the iPhone's success could cement its place as the premier cell phone carrier in the USA," says Leslie Cauley. "It's already helped raise AT&T's cool factor, a big deal among tweens, teens and other Web-centric customers." Indeed, Stephenson says the iPhone is central to the ongoing transformation …

Digital agency Avenue A/Razorfish on Thursday unveiled plans to launch a media and entertainment consulting practice that will help traditional media companies broaden their image on the Web, Reuters reports. The Microsoft company is one of the Web's largest digital ad shops, with a client list that includes Molson Coors Brewing Co, Kraft Foods Inc., McDonald's and Starwood Hotels. Domenic Venuto will lead the new unit. He tells Reuters that an economic downturn may actually work in his firm's favor. "As the pressure increases on traditional media companies, it's a great opportunity for us," he said. "We definitely have a …