Mail.com just acquired respected mobile new bogs Boy Genius Report, which was founded by one Jonathan Geller. Geller's three-and-a-half year-old site reportedly averages around a million visitors per month. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Geller tells Media Memo it was worth "multiple millions." To date, Mail.com owner Jay Penske has demonstrated a proclivity for media mavericks, having already brought Hollywood power blogger Nikki Finke and celebrity editrix Bonnie Fuller into his company's fold. "I assume the terms include an upfront payment, equity in Penske's company and payouts triggered by traffic and/or revenue goals, so there's …

On the heels of The Wall Street Journal's partnership with Foursquare, GigaOm asks if the location-based social network can give The Journal the local boost it's looking for. "It seems like an interesting extension of the Journal's core mandate to deliver news and information, but the important question is whether it will help the paper in any tangible way," the blog writes. This isn't the first partnership Foursquare has formed with a news outlet. Earlier this year, it signed a deal with Metro News International to provide news items related to local venues in Toronto, and more …

Google will refrain from debating how the Federal Communications Commission should ensure its ability to regulate broadband services, reports The Washington Post. In a blog post Monday, media counsel Rick Whitt explained that Google is more concerned about net-neutrality policies at the FCC than questions over the agency's legal maneuvering to ensure its authority over broadband. "That authority was cast into doubt after a federal appeals court sided with Comcast, saying the FCC overreached when it sanctioned the cable giant for net-neutrality violations," writes WaPo. "To us, this has never been about regulatory rigidity but about …

Another day, another -- you guessed it -- Google acquisition. Google has picked up widget maker LabPixies for $25 million, according to Israeli financial news website TheMarker. LabPixies, which develops gadgets ranging from calendars, news feeds and to-do lists to entertainment and games, was one of the first developers of personalized Web gadgets for Google's iGoogle and Android software applications, as well as for the iPhone. "The deal is Google's first acquisition of an Israeli start-up," according to Reuters. "Google loves to build platforms on which programs run …

Yahoo just announced that it has secured "on deck" placement on new Samsung phones. In other words, its applications will now come pre-loaded onto the phones' home screens, and/or top-level menus. Yahoo and Samsung -- the world's second-largest handset maker -- have had a partnership since 2007, but the new deal expands Yahoo's presence onto millions and millions more Samsung phones, reports Venture Beat. According to a Yahoo spokesperson, the new partnership extends to a slew of services and content areas, including Yahoo Mail, Messenger, Front Page, Search, Flickr, News, Finance, Contacts, Calendar, and Weather. "A Yahoo-Samsung deal makes a …

Last week, it was revealed that social buying site Blippy was disclosing members' credit card numbers on Google. Reaching out to users, the company outlined what happened and posted its plan on its blog Monday: "This is a very serious issue and simply apologizing is not enough ... We've spent the last 48 hours working around the clock to dissect the issues, reach out to affected users, and put together a plan to ensure this never happens again." As such, the startup is rolling out a five-pronged effort that includes hiring a chief security officer, performing regular audits, investing in …

The Wall Street Journal is the latest publisher to partner with hot location-based social network FourSquare. Initially, WSJ.com will provide tips from "Lunch Box" -- its daily column of restaurant reviews -- and users can follow the Journal on Foursquare for "more on the best New York has to offer." The partnership also introduces three new badges, each with their own separate New York challenge. "The Urban Adventurer tasks users to check-in to each of the five New York boroughs," Mashable explains. "The Banker Badge requires three check-ins in the financial district, and the Lunch Box badge can be unlocked …

FreeWheel, whose Monetization Rights Management platform helps content owners and distributors sell ad inventory, on Monday announced the closing of another round of financing worth $16.8 million. New investor Steamboat Ventures -- a firm affiliated with The Walt Disney Company -- joined existing investors Turner Broadcasting System, Battery Ventures and Foundation Capital. The investment will be used to support the company's infrastructure and continued efforts to scale globally, and develop new products. San Mateo, Calif.-based FreeWheel was founded in early 2008 by three DoubleClick alums and digital media veterans. The company offers content owners, carriers, and distributors end-to-end video ad …

We suppose it was only a matter of time. The New York Times reports that spammers are paying people in developing countries to breach Web site security by solving captchas, which ask visitors to type in a string of semi-obscured characters to prove they are not robots. (The term is apparently a loose acronym for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart.") Luis von Ahn, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon who pioneered the security method, estimates that thousands of people in developing countries, primarily in Asia, are solving these puzzles for pay. "There are …

Haven't quite digested the implications of Facebook's Open Graph initiative for you, your community, your company, and the industry at large? Join the club. According to ReadWriteWeb, the initiative -- which represents an "aggressive move to weave the social net on top of the existing Web" -- cannot be ignored. Indeed, Facebook's "ambition is to kill off its competition and use 500 million users to take over entire Web." Blogger Jeff Jarvis says the move offers few benefits to users, while it gives Facebook too much control. Facebook, he said, "figured out what would benefit it most and …