Pele Cortizo-Burgess has joined WPP's MEC unit as global director-integrated planning, a new position at the GroupM media shop. Based in New York, he will report to Mel Varley, Chief Strategy Officer, Global and Marla Kaplowitz, CEO of MEC in North America.

LinkedIn on Thursday introduced redesigned company pages, aimed at giving businesses a more visually appealing presence on professional networking site. The updated pages launch to day with a handful of companies including Philips, Citi, Dell and HP. The new look features a large image at the top and a cleaner, more streamlined layout overall. Beneath the image with a stream of company updates below. LinkedIn says it also shows updates tailored to each user, “which means companies are able to share status updates and job …

Social media management platform HooteSuite has acquired social applications developer Seesmic, the companies announced Thursday.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Under their agreement, HooteSuite says it will continue to support Seesmic while switching business users over to its own broader social media toolset. At the same time, Seesmic's consumer users are being encouraged to go directly to Twitter to meet their social media needs. Twitter itself has discouraged the use of independent Twitter apps through a new set of restrictions recently imposed on …

In connection with Nokia's unveiling of new Lumia phones today, AOL launched a new Windows Phone app meant to serve as an entertainment hub for the Lumia smartphone lineup. Called "Entrance by AOL," the app boasts an augmented reality feature that allows users to find information for nearby movie theaters and showtimes by looking at theaters, times, and movie posters overlaid on the smartphone screen when they hold up the phone to their surroundings. Entrance …

Disney-ABC Television big syndication morning franchise got a shot in the arm with the first day of its revamped "Live with Kelly and Michael". The first episode of the show on Tuesday featuring Kelly Ripa and new host Michael Strahan rocketed to a Nielsen preliminary 3.9 household rating/13 share -- some 44% higher than its ratings of a year ago. It also gained in other demographic group -- women 18-34 were up 83%; women 18-49 gained 70% and women 25-54 added 64%.   After a long period of tryouts of other possible permanent …

In its latest key appointment under new CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo today named Jacqueline Reses as executive vice president of people and development. In that role, she will be responsible for leading human resources and talent acquisition as well as corporate and business development globally. Prior to joining Yahoo, Reses led the U.S. media group at Apax Partners, building a team of investment professionals focused on media and technology businesses. She also worked extensively …

Privacy concerns are driving the majority of app users -- 57% -- to remove particular apps, or decide against installing them, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Center.

CNN on Wednesday unveiled an Android app for the Kindle Fire, sponsored initially by Lexus. The new app, rolled out a day before Amazon is expected to introduce a new version of its tablet, will offer domestic and international news as well as live and on-demand video. As exclusive launch sponsor, Lexus will have a branded presence throughout the app, including pre-roll video, and ads on section fronts and article pages. Co-branded media running across CNN Digital and the Turner Network …

Former President of Colombia lvaro Uribe and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and have been nominated to join the board of News Corp. If elected, they would replace departing board members Andrew Knight and John Thornton.

Best August since 2007 (Chrysler); best-ever for Escape and Fusion, with retail up 19% (Ford, obviously); best-ever August (Kia and Hyundai); sales up 24% and 60% (Infiniti and Honda, respectively). Just about everyone had something good to say about this month just past, which is more than you can say about the economy. As the world waits to see what happens to the Drachma, oil prices, and Great White Sharks in Cape Cod, automakers can say they skipped over the choppy waters in August.