The Federal Trade Commission said today it is suing a company that marketed acai berry weight-loss supplements to Web users by promising supposedly free trials. The agency will reveal more details at a press conference on Monday.

General Motors Co. chairman and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. is stepping down, and will be replaced as CEO by board member Dan Akerson on Sept. 1. Both joined the company last summer, as part of the government's efforts to steer the imploding automaker back to profitability. "It was my public duty to help return this company to greatness and I didn't want to stay a day beyond then," Whitacre said, making the announcement on an earnings conference call to investors and media, in which the company posted its second consecutive quarterly profit. "We restored profitability, and things look …

During a conference call with investors this morning, GM CEO Ed Whitacre Jr. announced he is leaving the company on Sept. 1, reports Sarah Mahoney of "Marketing Daily." "The phrase 'smooth, seamless transition' has been used at least 12 times in two minutes," she instant messaged. "All the reporters are, like, 'Huh?'"

Viacom officially filed a notice of appeal of U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton's ruling dismissing the company's copyright infringement lawsuit against Google's YouTube. Stanton ruled that YouTube was protected from copyright infringement liability by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's safe harbor provisions, which say that sites aren't liable for users' infringement as long as the sites take down material upon request.

That's right, the latest report from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project found that the rate of broadband adoption has slowed "dramatically" in the U.S. population ,but the rate among some sub-segments, especially African-Americans, continues to be high. The full report, "Home Broadband 2010," can be found online at http://pewrsr.ch/brdbnd10, and also finds that a slight majority (53% vs. 41%) of Americans do not believe that the spread of affordable broadband should be a major government priority. Contrary to what some might suspect, non-Internet users are less likely than current users to say the …

Call it the year of the Creeping Christmas: Retailers—especially those with a major online presence—are pushing holiday sales messages earlier this year, according to the just-released annual holiday benchmark report from Experian Marketing Services. Marketers are expected to advertise Black Friday sales sooner, and extend them over greater time periods, Bill Tancer, Experian's general manager of global research, tells Marketing Daily. "Timing is going to be much more important, given the economy," he says. "Knowing when consumers begin thinking about holiday purchases can provide marketers with a big advantage over the competition." Target is pushing that concept to …

Of the 37% of U.S. adults who report having eaten breakfast at a fast-food chain in the past month, nearly half (46%) report having patronized McDonald's for that meal, compared to 19% for Dunkin' Donuts, 19% for Starbucks and 12% for Burger King, according to a new Scarborough Research analysis of the QSR breakfast market. The study also sheds light on frequency of fast-food breakfasting in key U.S. markets – and North Carolina appears to be the biggest hot spot. Demographically, fast-food breakfast diners are more likely than average to be Gen Y, and African-American or Hispanic. They …

Paul Ceglia, the New York man who claims to own 84% of Facebook argues that the case belongs in state court, not federal court, on the theory that CEO Mark Zuckerberg still considers New York his home. In court papers filed this week in federal district court in Buffalo, Ceglia alleges that Zuckerberg is still registered to vote in Westchester and has a New York state drivers' license. Ceglia argues that these documents show that even though Zuckerberg resides in California, he still considers New York his "domicile," or home. If Ceglia and Zuckerberg both are domiciled in …

If you're a tween, your mom is probably cooler than anyone else's mom. She's more likely to be on Facebook, listen to Top 40 radio, and read blogs than other adults, according to a new report the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, a division of the National Retail Federation. Tweens—kids aged 8 to 12—have emerged as something of It Market in the last few years, for everything from clothes to décor to laptops. "But we did this study because we didn't know much about their mothers," Mike Gatti, RAMA's executive director, tells Marketing Daily. "She's very busy, but compared …

Spanfeller Media Group (SMG), the startup led by former Forbes.com CEO Jim Spanfeller, has landed an undisclosed amount of initial funding from investors led by SoftBank Capital NY and including Greenhill SAVP, RRE Ventures and Lerer Media Ventures, as well as angel investors. The Wall Street Journal's MediaMemo blog in June reported the round would total about $2 million. In connection with the deal, SoftBank partner Mike Perlis has been named as SMG chairman. The company’s inaugural site, focused on food, will be the first in a series of topic-specific vertical channels SMG plans to roll out.  …