Mobile gaming ad network kiip has launched a $100,000 fund to encourage independent developers to create new games for its platform. Twenty developers will be awarded $5,000 each based on their proposed games. The winners of the “Build” program will be announced on April 30. Kiip on Thursday also announced it will open up it platform to all developers in the latest release of its SDK (software development kit). The updated offering includes and automatic on-boarding feature for developers to integrate games more easily with its network, and analytics and monetization tools. Kiip this month hired Manny Anekal, former …

Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger and provocateur who became a hero of the Tea Party movement and helped found the Huffington Post, died of natural causes in Los Angeles shortly after midnight on March 1. He was 43 years old. The precise cause of death hasn't yet been publicized.

The European financial crisis doesn’t seem to hitting tablet owners too hard. According to new research from Nielsen, tablet and smartphone owners in Germany, Italy and the U.K. are more likely than American device owners to make a purchase online via PC after viewing an ad on their tablet or smartphone. For example, 32% of German and Italian tablet users made a purchase through the desktop Web after seeing a tablet ad compared to only 23% of Americans. Likewise, 34% of German and 28% of U.K.-based smartphone owners made a similar purchase after seeing an ad on their device …

A new Pew study released today estimates 46% of U.S. adults own smartphones, up 11 percentage points since last May. Almost every major demographic group—men and women, younger and middle-aged adults, urban and rural residents, the affluent and the less well-off—has seen a measurable uptick in smartphone penetration in the last year. Adoption levels are highest—60% or more—among college graduates, those making $75,000 or more and 18-35-year-olds. Seniors still aren’t jumping on the bandwagon, with only 13% of people 65 and over having a smartphone. Nielsen recently estimated U.S. smartphone penetration at 48%, while comScore earlier this month reported …

Smartphone owners now outnumber owners of more basic phones within the U.S. adult population, and overall ownership has increased by nearly one-third since last spring, according to the latest findings from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. "More importantly, this isn't just a 'young adults and rich people' phenomenon," says Pew Senior Research Specialist Aaron Smith, "We saw pretty dramatic growth across a wide range of demographic groups (from rural residents to high school graduates to people in their late 40s and early 50s)."

Yammer, which powers social networking services for companies, has raised $85 million in its fifth round of funding, bringing its total financing to $142 million. Draper Fisher Jurvetson led the round with participation from  new investors including Meritech Capital Partners, Capricorn Investment Group and Khosla Ventures. In less than four years, Yammer says it has attracted over 4 million corporate, including employees at more than 85 percent of the Fortune 500. Last year it tripled sales and headcount. The company will use the latest funding for potential strategic acquisitions as well as for building brand awareness. In that vein, …

Mediaocean, the new company being formed by the just approved merger of Donovan Data Systems and MediaBank will be an 'open platform' operating system with an API enabling agency clients and their third-party developers to plug seamlessly into it, according to the company's merger approval announcement.

The U.S. Department of Justice has approved the merger of Donovan Data Systems and MediaBank into a new company that will be called MediaOcean.

A recent campaign on Change.org protesting working conditions at Apple’s China-based factories drew 250,000 signatures. A new effort on the nonprofit site is taking on AT&T over its policy of throttling usage of wireless customers with unlimited data plans. A petition calling on the carrier to stop slowing down data speeds for unlimited subscribers has drawn 8,000 supporters so far. The campaign was started by AT&T customer Jane Foody, who said the company threatened to throttle her data because she falls within the top 5% of data users in here area. Change.org said the effort is one of 50 petitions …

James Murdoch has officially stepped down as executive chairman of News Corp's British newspaper publishing subsidiary, and will focus on the company's international TV operations. He will remain deputy COO of News Corp. The move follows intense scrutiny of News Corp.'s News International division's role in the U.K.'s phone-hacking scandal.