Avon Products says it is buying Silpada Designs, a direct seller of sterling-silver jewelry, for $650 million. The jewelry company, based in Lenexa, Kansas, and with operations in the U.S., Canada and U.K., sells about 450 different items, all priced higher than Avon's core line. And while Avon reps sell one-on-one, Silpada is sold through a party model; all 32,000 Avon reps will now also be exclusive Silpada sellers. Silpada, which has annual revenues of $230 million , will continue to operate as a stand-alone company. "Over the past decade, we have watched Silpada build an enviable reputation as a …

Google's woes in China have not dampened its lead in Asia-Pacific, according to the comScore Media Metrix report for May 2010 released Monday. Google Sites led as the most-visited property in Asia-Pacific reaching 270 million unique visitors during the month, more than half the online population in the region. Tencent led engagement with visitors averaging 6.5 hours, consuming 716 pages of content and visiting the property an average of 39 times during May. Facebook also had strong engagement, with visitors spending 3.5 hours on the social networking site and visiting more than 21 times throughout the month. …

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner just invalidated a jury's verdict ordering grad student to pay the record industry damages of $675,000 for file-sharing, according to a Twitter post by his legal team.

Yahoo will farm out local home ad listing to Zillow.com, according to The Associated Press. As the search engine transition to a content-driven network of Web sites, it will continue to sell ads, but the deal announced Friday appoints Zillow.com, Seattle, to support the network of home listings and advertisements.

Would you run a hacked version of Google Froyo, also known as Android 2.2, on your mobile phone if given the chance? So far up to 40,000 people have downloaded a hacked version to get the latest and the greatest operating system from Google, reports TG Daily. Apparently, Peter Alfonso created a download for the Droid that seems to install a perfect working build of Froyo. It spread through Twitter and Bit.ly.

Little-known (at least outside the liquor industry) fact: Due to the margarita craze, women are the major decision-makers when it comes to buying tequila. With that insight in hand, Sauza tequila, a Beam Global Spirits & Wine brand, has developed a partnership with Hearst's Redbook to employ platforms including print advertorials, a brand ambassador deal with celebrity party planner  Cathy Riva, "intimate" parties for Redbook readers, special drink recipes, online and social media exposure and a satellite media tour – all under a "Chiconomical Celebrations" theme.

A survey of technology industry experts and other key stakeholders predicts that the so-called "Millennial" generation – kids born around the turning of the new Millennium – will continue to be "ambient broadcasters," openly sharing information about themselves as they age into maturity. The study, conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, found that two-thirds (67%) of the respondents believe that Millennials, who are growing up "digital native," will continue to behave openly on the Web through 2020. Less than a third (29%) of the tech experts believe Millennials will "grow out" of those behaviors as they age. …

Media industry consultant Clark Pettit has been named president-CEO of American Business Media, succeeding Gordon Hughes. Pettit who has a long history as a management consultant in the media and technology industry, is former general manager for North American and executive vice president-product strategy at Accenture Digital Media Services.

John Duban has joined media agency Starcom USA as executive vice president-managing director, overseeing the agency's Mars Wrigley business as it transitions from sister agency MediaVest to Starcom over the next few months. In his new role, Duban will be based in Starcom's office in New York City. He will be responsible for overseeing Mars Wrigley's "holistic communications planning," will also assume responsibility for Starcom's shopper marketing practice. He will report to CEO Lisa Donohue.

In this year's first quarter, beverage/spirits ads generated the highest average interaction among all online ads, across 24 vertical industries, powered by advertising technology/services provider Unicast. Results of this first of regular, quarterly analytics benchmark reports from Unicast show beverage/spirits ads generating an average interaction rate of 8.62%. Other vertical ad categories with the high interaction rates included retail (8.24%), TV entertainment (5.06%), advertising/marketing (3.9%), DVD/video entertainment (3.87%), film entertainment (3.08%).