MTV and Major League Baseball has signed a multi-year, cross-platform programming partnership that puts athletes and celebrities across MTV's platforms. Boston Red Sox designated hitter and 2013 World Series MVP David Ortiz and Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star Centerfielder Andrew McCutchen will executive produce a new weekly, 30-episode series on MTV2, MTV's male-focused sibling network set to debut in April 2014.

Yahoo has cherry-picked talent from The New York Times again to bolster its editorial product. Matt Bai, former chief political correspondent for the Times Magazine has joined Yahoo News as national political columnist. His hiring follows on the heels of ex-Times tech columnist David Pogue signing on to lead consumer tech coverage at the Web portal. Megan Liberman, another Times veteran, was named Yahoo News editor-in-chief in September.

Android-based devices accounted for more than eight in 10 (81%) smartphones shipped in the third quarter, up from 75% a year ago, according to the latest data from research firm IDC. Apple’s iOS operating system, meanwhile, saw its market share shrink to 12.9% from 14.4% in the year-earlier period, despite a 26% increase in units shipped. The number of Windows Phone handsets shipped in the quarter nearly tripled to 9.5 million, helping the Microsoft platform to increase its market share to 3.6% from 2%. BlackBerry’s share, by contrast, fell to 1.7% from 4.1% on a 42% drop-off in shipments …

Underscoring its mobile ambitions, Facebook has joined the GSMA mobile trade group. The association of mobile operators and other industry companies oversees the GSM standard and operates the annual Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona. In a statement to FierceWireless, Dan Rose, VP of partnerships at Facebook, that joining GSMA “reflects our focus on mobile and our continued desire to work closely and collaboratively with partners in the industry, and we look forward to playing an active role as a member.” Besides Facebook increasing business focus on mobile, the move also stems from its participation in Internet.org, the coalition …

Mentos may not seem like a natural sponsor for the “Hunger Games” sequel opening in theaters November 22. After all, Is Katniss Everdeen supposed to pop a breath mint and smile after knocking off her latest arena adversary? Maybe not. But in order to connect with the hit franchise’s young-skewing audience, Mentos is sponsoring a 10-part Web video series co-produced by Fandango and celebrity video site Young Hollywood that offers cast interviews, background on characters and plots, and fan contests in connection with the upcoming premiere of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” The series will feature Mentos product placement throughout …

Italian pasta maker Barilla is taking steps to limit damage to its brand, after its chairman's remarks in September triggered an international furor and boycott efforts by gay rights organizations and supporters.

Twitter set its IPO price at $26 a share, but when the trading began, demand was higher than expected. At presstime, the shares were trading at around $46, or 75% higher than the original price.

Facebook in April introduced a targeting feature called “partner categories” that uses members’ online purchasing histories and location to tailor ads. It allows marketers to target ads across some 500 specific audience segments using third-party data from providers including Acxiom, Epsilon and Datalogix. Today, Facebook announced doubling the number of partner categories available through the Power Editor tool to more than 1,000. These include ones in the retail and auto verticals including active buyers of women’s accessories, active buyers of sports and outdoor products, and auto intenders in the market for a Subaru Outback. “The goal of partner …

Food and condiments marketer H.J. Heinz is conducting a global media agency review, according to sources. Spending on the account is said to be approximately $320 million. The review, per sources, is procurement driven and comes just months after the company was sold for $23 billion to an investment consortium comprised of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and an investment fund affiliated with 3G Capital. Previously the company was publicly traded. Cramer-Krasselt handles creative and strategy duties in the U.S. Sources said C-K's assignment is not in review. Heinz positions itself as the company that offers "Good Food Every Day." In …

App marketing and analytics firm Appboy on Wednesday announced raising $7.6 million in a  first-round funding led by Icon Venture Partners, and including IDG Ventures and Buddy Media founder and CEO Mike Lazerow. The New York-based startup, which had previously raised $2.5 million in seed funding, plans to use the new capital to expand its sales and marketing staff and ramp up product development. Through its Mobile Relationship Management (MRM) platform, Appboy provides developers tools including an SDK that allows them to cross-promote their apps while tracking in-app purchases, social sharing, and other user activity. Appboy says it now …