Unlikely Web publishing powerhouse Cheezburger Network is acquiring Know Your Meme. Neither party would disclose financial details of the deal, which is rumored to be in the low seven figures, reports CNNMoney.com. "There was a vacuum in our publishing portfolio," explains Cheezburger founder Ben Huh, who believes his readers will benefit from the addition of a site that explains viral content and evolution of stories on the Internet. Helping his cause, Cheezburger just recently closed a $30 million funding round. But, what's a meme? Well, "Were you singing Rebecca Black's 'Friday' on repeat, or asking the towel-clad 'Old …

Just about a year into the job, RealNetworks CEO Bob Kimball abruptly resigned on Monday. "Kimball was in the process of restructuring and rebuilding Real, which has zigged, zagged and lurched through several management changes over the last two years," The Seattle Times reports. RealNetworks said Kimball left on his own accord after largely completing the restructuring. Yet, as The Seattle Times notes, the move comes as "the company is entering an intense several years that will test its plan to operate as a smaller company that's more focused on phone companies and other business customers, as well …

Despite previous efforts to clean up its network, Twitter still seems to have a spam problem. As FT.com reports, Fred Wilson, a Twitter investor at Union Square ventures, just tweeted: "Apparently my twitter account was DM'ing people who @mentioned or RT'd me since this morning. No idea how it happened. Sorry for the spam". What's more, FT.com writes, F-Secure, an internet security company, has noticed that spammers appear to have worked out how to game Twitter's very own @TopTweets account, which has more than 1 million followers. About a year ago, Twitter said it had reduced the percentage …

While reshaping the Web in its own social imagine, Facebook has also been busy positioning itself as a friend of Washington, reports The New York Times. Indeed, "Facebook has layered its executive, legal, policy and communications ranks with high-powered politicos from both parties, beefing up its firepower for future battles in Washington and beyond," The Times reports. There's Sheryl Sandberg, the former Clinton administration official who is now Facebook's chief operating officer. Then there's Ted Ullyot, a general counsel former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who is now general counsel for the social network. Most recently, …

What's the big fuss about Amazon launching a suite of music products, which lets users store their tracks online, and then stream them over the Web or to any Android device? "The launch has the tech world abuzz, not only because Amazon beat Apple and Google to the punch ... but because Amazon hasn't even received the record labels' permission to host these tracks on its servers as of yet," reports ReadWriteWeb.  Likewise, "Apple is rumored to be working on a similar service and I've already seen evidence of Google Android devices gaining music storage and synchronization in …

Among other achievements, Publicis recently winning a big chunk of Microsoft's North American ad account proves that the agency's digital strategy is paying off. Publicis CEO Maurice Lévy certainly feels that way, and so does The New York Times. "In the tradition-bound advertising industry, Mr. Lévy has been one of the strongest advocates of new digital forms of marketing, and he has backed up his words by writing big checks," writes NYT. Five years ago, Lévy spent $1.3 billion on digital agency Digitas, and later $530 million on Razorfish. Since then, the company's growth has outpaced the market, …

Gaining some momentum in the content business, Facebook is expanding its relationship with Warner Brother to carry more movies. Now, in addition to "The Dark Knight," Facebook will offer "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," "Inception," "Life as We Know It" and "Yogi Bear." The movies will be streamed on the studio's movie fan pages, reports The Wrap. "The initiative is the first major studio foray into renting full-length movies over a social network, rather than a streaming service such as Netflix," The Wrap writes. "These titles have substantial …

Challenging PayPal and a host of new digital payment platforms, American Express just debuted a new service to consumers make purchases, take cash withdrawals from ATMs and make person-to-person payments from their computer or phone. Serve, so-called, should be accepted anywhere that American Express is accepted, but eventually it could give way to a mobile payments solution on the phone, using such technologies as near-field communication, eMoney reports. "What we are trying to do is put into place a platform--not a card, or an e-wallet--that enables digital payments and commerce that allows consumers and merchants to seamlessly move between …

Why might we not be caught up in a second tech bubble? "For one, the stock market is not glutted with offerings," writes The New York Times' DealBook blog. In 1999, as it points out, there were 308 technology I.P.O.'s, making up about half of that year's offerings, according to data from Morgan Stanley. In 2010, by contrast, there were just 20 technology I.P.O.'s, based on Thomson Reuters data. "More important, the tech start-ups that have attracted so much interest from investors have real businesses -- not just eyeballs and clicks," DealBook writes. "Companies like Facebook have fast-growing …

With the help of MasterCard and Citigroup, Google is reportedly moving into the white-hot mobile payments space. "The Internet giant is aiming to make mobile payments easier in a bid to boost its advertising business," The Wall Street Journal reports. According to sources, "The planned payment system would allow Google to offer retailers more data about their customers and help them target ads and discount offers to mobile-device users near their stores." Under the headline, "Google's Mobile Payments Could Make Its Ad Business Stronger," Business Insider writes: "Google would pitch local businesses on offering discounts and …