Pinterest has hired Tim Kendall, longtime director of monetization at Facebook, and the man widely credited with helping to turn the social network into a business. While Fortune buries the news in a 2,000-plus-word profile of the popular social network, it knows how significant the news is. “At this point, businesses can't spend money marketing on Pinterest even if they want to,” it writes. “Targeted ads seem like a no-brainer, and new hire Kendall is sure to have some ideas for how to help companies better reach consumers on the site.” Similar to eBay, Pinterest could also become a platform …

  Parlaying its existing stake in Facebook, Digital Sky Technologies is preparing to invest in the next Facebook by seeking $1 billion for a new late-stage technology fund. The Russian firm has committed Facebook stock valued at $50 million to the fund, meaning limited partners will get a chance to own the shares through their investment, reports Bloomberg, citing an investor presentation. Early investors were reportedly offered the Facebook holding at a 12% discount to an internal valuation of about $74 billion, as well as a 25% reduction in the fund’s management fee. “DST, founded by Russian technology investor Yuri …

Game-maker Rovio probably doesn’t need much help marketing its next big title, Angry Birds Space -- but it’s still getting some. Marking Walmart’s first in-store promotion for a mobile app, the mega retailer plans to hide game clues in select limited-edition Angry Birds Space merchandise -- including apparel, mobile phones, plush toys, and snacks -- in more than 3,000 stores nationwide. Walmart is also hosting an Angry Birds Facebook page, will is set to become active on March 22. Fans who “like” the page will get access to one of four “Golden Eggsteroid” clues, which can unlock secret levels …

Hipstamatic -- a camera app that lets users snap professional-looking pictures with stylized films and vintage-era lenses -- is about to announce a partnership with Instagram. Per the tie-up, Hipstamatic pictures can be ported directly into Instagram's network with just one click. “It represents the first time Instagram has opened up [its] platform API to third parties, and marks a move toward letting photos freely flow into Instagram's network from outside sources,” Fast Company reports. Hipstamatic cofounder and CEO Lucas Buick says the deal further opens the door to social sharing, where Instagram has had so much success. (Last week, …

So much for ad verification. AdWeek blows the whistle on DoubleVerify -- which it calls “one of the leaders in the ad verification space” -- for its inability to keep Verizon banner ads away from unseemly Web content. The ads -- delivered by ValueClick and tracked by DoubleVerify, according to AdWeek – were found on Dumage.com, alongside racy photos with cap tions like “Gigantic Tits, God’s Apology toFat Girls” and “Lesbians. All Girls Have It in Them. For Some It Comes Naturally. Others NeedAlcohol.”  Writes Adweek: “Want to know why many big brand advertisers are still seriously wary of the Internet? Just check out Dumage.com.” Contacted for comment, DoubleVerify CEO Oren Netzer told Adweek that some advertisers only use DoubleVerify’s technology for reporting, not actually …

Until now known for its lists -- from lists of gadgets people want to lists of gadgets people already have -- Gdgt.com is repositioning itself as a gadget ranking aggregator. It’s doing so with a "gdgt score," which is an aggregate score compiled by weighting scores from different magazines and Web sites, and then ranking a product from 1 to 100. Certain products -- less than 0.1 percent of all the products in its database, it tell PCMag.com -- will receive a "gdgt recommended" rating, or what the founders of the site hope will become the gold standard among gadget-crazy …

Hungry for its next social-gaming hit, Zynga is reportedly pursuing OMGPOP for somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million. If you’re not familiar (neither were we), OMGPOP is the company behind Draw Something, a white-hot mobile and Internet game inspired by Pictionary. “It’s my understanding that the talks have not yet entered the more advanced, exclusivity stage because there are still other Japanese buyers like GREE that are interested in the company,” TechCrunch’s Kim-Mai Cutler reports. If the deal does go through, it would be Zynga’s biggest publicly disclosed acquisition to date. “Zynga’s track record is mostly in acquiring small teams for a …

If a little late to the party, Dell is ready to get into the tablet business with the help of Microsoft and its new Windows 8 operating platform. "We have a road map for tablets that we haven't announced yet,” Dell's chief commercial officer Steve Felice tells Reuters. Along with market leader Apple, the news should be a tough pill for Google to swallow considering that Dell previously ditched a tablet, which was based on the Android operating system software. "We're very encouraged by the touch capability we are seeing in the beta versions of Windows 8," Felice said. (Felice …

PeerIndex, a UK-based social influence marketing platform, has scored $3 million in funding from Antrak Capital, along with one-time Reuters head, Tom Glocer, Restoration Partners chairman Ken Olisa, and angel investor Sherry Coutu. Despite some consumer resistance against the business of quantifying social influence, sector leaders like Klout and PeerIndex remain hot commodities. Yes, “Whether you subscribe to the idea of social influence or not, services that mark -- or try to mark -- it are continuing to pick up momentum,” TechCrunch writes. PeerIndex is than just a consumer-facing social ranking system. The startup also develops algorithms to detect influencers …

Despite -- or, perhaps, due to -- the Web’s rapid evolution, Facebook devoted a mere 10% of sales revenue to R&D in 2011. That is a fraction of the level of other Web companies, including Zynga and LinkedIn Facebook, but, as Bloomberg points out, akin to the most successful tech company in history. “Facebook spends a smaller percentage of revenue on engineering than other Internet companies, mimicking Apple’s strategy of keeping costs low by relying on outside developers for research and development,” Bloomberg writes. As a result, Facebook has been able to retain bigger profit margins than the typical prospective IPO, …