Barnes & Noble and Microsoft today announced finalizing the strategic partnership announced in April. The newly created subsidiary—Nook Media—encompasses Barnes & Noble’s Nook and college businesses. Under the agreement, Microsoft is investing $300 million in the entity and will hold a 17.6% stake in Nook Media, with Barnes & Noble owning the balance of equity. The bookseller is launching a Nook app for Windows 8, and Microsoft will roll out its Windows 8 tablets on Oct. 26. “We look forward to working closely with our new partner Microsoft to add value to their innovative new platform by bringing great …

LinkedIn today began rolling out its redesigned companies pages for the 2 million businesses with a profile on the professional networking site. The new-look pages were launched last month with a small group of companies including Philips, Citi, Dell and HP. Along with changes aimed at giving companies a more visually appealing presence on LinkedIn, the company added a new feature today that lets businesses highlight certain items at the top of their update stream. Through the Featured Update tool, brands can give prominent placement for news they want to spotlight for up to 48 hours.

In connection with the announcing surpassing one billion users today, Facebook is rolling out its first brand campaign targeted across 13 countries: Brazil, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Spain, UK, and the US. The centerpiece of the campaign, developed by Wieden and Kennedy, Facebook’s agency of record since Oct. 2011, is a one minute, 30 second video likening Facebook to everyday things that bring people together: chairs, doorbells, bridges, and games. The video was shot in locations around the world including New Orleans, Buenos Aires and L.A. and launched on Facebook today. “For the …

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg used Facebook itself to announce this morning that the 'social network' now had over 1 billion active users.

Snack food giant Mondelez International on Wednesday announced a new program aimed at accelerating mobile development for key brands like Oreo and Trident by teaming with startups to launch innovative marketing concepts. Mondelez, which split off as a separate, publicly-traded entity from Kraft Foods this week, also committed to investing 10% of its global marketing budget to mobile. Under its Mobile Futures program, the company will select startups to pair with brands that also include Ritz and iDGum to brainstorm and launch branded pilots within 90 days. The goal is for up to 10 Mondelez brands to participate, each …

Week two of the new TV season had CBS on top again -- but virtually all primetime shows were down versus the premiere week. CBS, was at a Nielsen preliminary 2.9 rating/ 8 share among 18-49 viewers; NBC, 2.2/6; Fox, 2.0/6; ABC, 1.7/5; Univision, 1.5/4. and CW, a 0.5/1. The best rated show was CBS' "NCIS" with a 3.6/11, down 12% from week one. The second ranked show "NCIS: Los Angeles" was at a 3.1/11, down 9%. NBC's "Go On" and CBS' "Vegas" were the only two new primetime shows to get above …

LinkedIn to date has allowed people to follow updates from companies, groups and by industry and sources. Now the professional social networking firm is allowing users to follow a select group of “influencers.” These 150 people range from billionaire Richard Branson to Barack Obama to Craigslist founder Craig Newmark. Others in the media/tech space include Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Tim O’Reilly and Charlene Li. Those in this exclusive group won’t be limited to the length of ordinary status updates but will be able to post longer-form pieces with videos, photos and Slideshare presentations. That makes it more like the start …

WPP's MEC has been awarded media agency duties for several key markets by global skincare company Beiersdorf after a review, the company has confirmed. The markets in the review included the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. Estimated ad spending across the region is $130 million, according to sources. Aegis Group's Carat was the incumbent for the reviewed territories. Also contending for the business was Omnicom's OMD. The client's brands include Nivea, Eucerin and LaPraire. Last year the company reported sales of nearly $7.2 billion.

Mobile ad network Millennial Media has named Mollie Spilman as is new chief marketing officer. Spilman served briefly as Yahoo’s CMO this spring before ex-Google executive Marissa Mayer was named the Web portal’s new CEO in July. Prior to being named CMO in May, Spilman was SVP of B-to-B marketing, SVP of commerce and Yahoo’s head of marketing for the Americas. She has previously served as chief sales and marketing officer at Advertising.com and has held other senior positions at companies including Time Warner, Meredith Corp. and Discovery Networks. “Mobile monetization and the App Economy are changing the current …

AT&T AdWorks today introduced a new service that allows AT&T customers to auto-fill personal information in responding to ads served on the carrier’s mobile ad network of 120 million monthly users. Here’s how the new opt-in Click-to-Fill feature works: When an AT&T subscriber clicks on a mobile ad, they’re directed an advertisers Request For Information (RFI) page, they hit the Click-to-Fill button to automatically transfer their names, addresses, phone number and email address to receive more information about products and services. Non-AT&T customers can also interact with the RFI by manually entering their information into each field. “We …