Cloud-based testing performance service Soasta has closed $12 million in a funding round led by The Entrepreneurs' Fund, with participation from prior investors including Canaan Partners, Formative Ventures, and Pelion Venture Partners. The financing brings the company’s total raised to $33 million. Soasta’s platform is used for testing the performance of Web and mobile applications on a large scale. It said it will use proceeds from its latest round to accelerate international expansion and make further investments in its cloud technology.

Barnes & Noble is bringing Netflix and Flixtser along with other new features to the Nook Color through its largest software update to date for the year-old device. In particular, the upgrade also adds Nook Comics, which Barnes & Noble touts as the largest third-party collection of Marvel Comics graphic novels. The bookselling chain promises more than 100 feature enhancements overall including faster, easier access to content with more digital media services on the way. With the Nook Color priced the same as the Kindle Fire, at $199, Barnes & Noble clearly wants to make its tablet reader more …

A Google zinger from David Rodnitzky, CEO of PPC Associates, who notes that many potential clients say Google is already managing their account for them.  To which Rodnitzky responds: "Having Google manage your account is like having the IRS file your taxes."

Home improvement chain Lowe's has pulled its TV commercials from a TLC reality show, "All-American Muslim," according to number of reports. The show profiles five Muslim-American families in Dearborn, Mich. Some hard-line Christian groups are taking credit, groups that believe the show is advancing propaganda. Other major TV advertisers are being targeted as well. Reports, citing one TLC executive, say advertising on the show, which debuted in November, remains "strong." 

GfK, the German research giant that is the parent of MRI and other media and marketing research companies, this afternoon announced it is acquiring 100% ownership of Knowledge Networks Inc., leading marketing and media research company in the U.S.

The iPhone 4S continues to be the most buzzed about smartphone online into the holiday season, according to new findings from NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company. The latest iPhone model has been the most frequently mentioned device in terms of online buzz on blogs, message boards/groups, Twitter and Facebook, and online news posts, capturing 40% of smartphone buzz from July through December 2011. It was introduced in October. More broadly, all iPhone models together accounted for nearly two-thirds of online chatter about smartphones leading up to the holidays. Android was second with 23%, followed by BlackBerry, getting 10%. Android …

That much talked about Verizon streaming movie/TV service looking to compete with Netflix has a supposed partner: None other than Redbox, the kiosk DVD rental company -- this, according to TechCrunch. The Verizon/Redbox service, according to reports, will launch a TV and movie streaming business in the middle of next year selling various subscription packages starting at $6 a month. Some of those packages will include DVD rentals at Redbox locations. If reports are true Redbox would be following in the footsteps of Netflix which started out renting physical DVDs to consumers and then moved to also offering a streaming …

Optimedia has promoted Keith Mackay to the new post of President of Strategy, the Publicis Groupe media shop confirmed late Thursday. Mackay will relocate from Seattle to the agency's New York headquarters where he will report directly to Optimedia President Dave Ehlers. Most recently McKay served as executive vice president and managing director for Optimedia's Seattle and San Francisco offices. Mackay will manage Optimedia's strategy and planning practice. Among other duties MacKay will manage the agency's proprietary OPEN planning process, used by clients including T-Mobile and Nintendo. Additionally, he will oversee the global rollout of several other proprietary strategic planning …

Bayer is poised to award its estimated $400 million U.S. media assignment to WPP's MediaCom after a review, according to sources. Interpublic's Initiative was the incumbent. Bayer kicked off the review in September, just two years after consolidating the account with Interpublic's Initiative, sources confirmed. In 2009, Bayer placed its U.S. HealthCare media duties with Initiative after a review. At the time the media shop was already handling the client's Consumer Care division. The HealthCare account had been split between Initiative, which handled national broadcast duties, and WPP's MEC, which handled the remaining portion of the account. It's been a …

Twitter is emerging as a significant, and very different contributor to the political campaign narrative, according to the latest study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence. The study indicates that campaign discourse on Twitter tended to be "more opinionated and often more negative" about candidates than blogs and in the mainstream news media.