Vivek Shah, who left Time Inc. (NYSE: TWX) as digital head at news division of Time Inc. last November, has been named as an independent board member of TheStreet.com. Like a lot of content companies, TheStreet (NSDQ: TSCM) has struggled to stanch the online ad declines, while trying to build…

Financial news site TheStreet.com may have finished the year with a loss of $45.5 million—compared with 2008’s $2.4 million profit—the company finally got a glimmer of hope of on the ad front. After six consecutive quarterly ad rev declines, Q4 sales were essentially flat with a meager 0.7 percent gain.…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q408	Net Inc. vs Q408
TheStreet	Release	N/A	5%	94%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

Zynga, the current social gaming behemoth, is using some of its money to do acquisitions: it has bought Serious Business, creators of social games on Facebook.  SB, based in San Francisco, and backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners ($4 million in funding), was founded in early 2008 by two former Powerset…

Zynga‘s social games—which are already played by upwards of 230 million people each month—are about to get even more reach. The company is bringing some of its titles to Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) properties, including MSN Games and, intriguingly, Windows Live Messenger. To start off, Zynga says that people will now…

At the start of TheStreet.com’s Q3 earnings call, CEO Daryl Otte finally acknowledged that the company bought mobile and interactive agency Kikucall, which we first reported last month. The company’s earnings report was delayed because TheStreet (NSDQ: TSCM) needed to restate some of its previously reported results due to the…

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q308	Net Inc. vs Q308
TheStreet.com	Release	N/A	11%	28.5%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed

We had been getting tips on this for a while, especially as TheStreet.com’s own financial results were getting delayed due to discrepancies in recording revenues from its Promotions.com business. Turns out, the financial news company has sold off the online marketing business it bought two years ago for almost $21…

TheStreet.com (NSDQ: TSCM) has amended founder Jim Cramer’s contract, according to an SEC document just filed, which includes a delay in his 2010 salary increase and a decrease of the bonus for this year. But in lieu, it gave Cramer about 22k restricted stock units. No specific reason was given…

Financial news site TheStreet.com has acquired interactive marketing and mobile agency Kikucall, paidContent has learned from multiple sources. An SEC filing signifies that TheStreet (NSDQ: TSCM) paid out $1.75 million for a business combination transaction, but does not specify Kikucall. Also not clear: if that’s the full amount of the…

Playdom has a former EA star as its CEO, a fresh round of $43 million in funding, and now a well-known financial analyst as its CFO. Christa Quarles, formerly managing director of internet services at Thomas Weisel Partners (she’s still actually listed in the job on the website), has joined…

Seemingly unfazed by a looming class-action lawsuit triggered by allegations of misleading ads, social gamer Zynga has launched FarmVille.com, its first standalone game site. Previously, players had to be fully logged in to Facebook or MySpace to play a Zynga game; the new FarmVille.com site uses Facebook Connect to get…

Offer-based ads seemed to be the secret to monetizing social games—and social network users, in general—that standard banner ads couldn’t provide. But amid ongoing accusations that the ads actually “scammed” users into paying for things they didn’t want and giving up their personal info, comes the inevitable: a class-action lawsuit.…

What ... me worry about “scammy” ad accusations? Social gamer Zynga may be struggling with an image problem stemming from its offer-based in-game ads, but an SEC filing shows that the company just got a fresh influx of cash—$15.1 million in a third round of funding—so clearly, its investors don’t…

More fallout from the media backlash surrounding the performance-based ads that social gaming companies like Zynga have been using to monetize their games. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said that the company will be removing “all CPA [cost-per-action] offers” from its games until further notice. This comes after Facebook banned Fishville—one…

Social gamer Zynga has acquired GoPets, a gaming company that lets people create and train virtual pets, according to Virtual Goods News. We’ve reached out to Zynga for confirmation. The deal adds a desktop-based game that’s not tethered to any specific social network to Zynga’s roster, as users can download…

Reports have been flying around about Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) potentially buying hot social-gaming company Playfish—with sources telling Inside Social Games that the deal may have closed “a few weeks ago”, and GamesIndustry.biz reporting that it was worth $250 million. EA’s response to us: “We don’t comment on rumors about…

The legal drama between social gaming rivals Zynga and Playdom moved from claims of misleading ads to accusations of trade secret theft and a temporary restraining order. Zynga sued Playdom in June over supposedly misleading ads. The new suit, reported first by first by TechCrunch, accuses Playdom of stealing trade…

TheStreet.com (NSDQ: TSCM) missed filing its Q209 earnings report—and has been cited by Nasdaq for the deficiency.  What’s holding up the numbers? The financial services media company says there’s an “issue” related to the way it has been recording revenues from its Promotions.com business (which TheStreet.com acquired as part of…

Social gaming company Zynga has acquired MyMiniLife, a Palo Alto-based social entertainment firm that lets users create and decorate virtual environments. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Zynga said it plans to integrate MyMiniLife’s technology and staff. The two companies first worked together on Zynga’s popular FarmVille…

The social gaming boom has resulted in a legal spat between two of its biggest players: Zynga is suing rival Playdom over the way Playdom is advertising one of its games. Zynga claims that Playdom is misleading players with ads that compare its Mobsters to Zynga’s Mafia Wars game; it…