Sugar Inc., operator of PopSugar and 14 other sites aimed at women, has nixed its ad sales relationship with NBC Universal and brought those functions in-house. The move comes just a year after Sugar agreed to let NBCU package and sell its inventory alongside that of iVillage. A blog post about the decision gives little indication as to Sugar's precise motives, though it's common for maturing publishers to create a sales team as soon as doing so becomes feasible.

At ClickZ's Online Video Ad Forum yesterday, a fantastic line up of two dozen speakers offered up examples of their latest creative work and some shared info on tips and tools they think are worth watching. During the day-long program at the Millennium Broadway Hotel, participants picked up intelligence on these things: *Deep Focus' Ian Schafer credited a subtle change in an ad-serving format with improving results for one video ad campaign he worked on.

The most interesting thing about the IAB's mobile forum this week? It's not just about the kids any more. In case study after case study, advertiser and marketers spent the day demonstrating how, well.... old mobile advertising demos are becoming. Mike Anderson of Live Nation's ConcertVision Program probably put it best when he said that response to SMS promotions at "dinosaur" acts )such as Cheap Trick and Voyager( was all but nil a year ago, and through the roof this season.

... a t-shirt for sale at a boardwalk shop in Wildwood, NJ.

In anticipation of its upcoming annual meeting of stockholders, Yahoo settled with activist investor Carl Icahn after weeks of wrangling over a potential proxy battle. According to Yahoo, eight members of its current Board of Directors will stand for re-election, and Icahn agreed to withdraw his nominees for consideration at the meeting. He also said he will vote his Yahoo shares in support of the Board's nominees. "Following the 2008 annual meeting,

Ever wonder how the Federal Trade Commission arrives at its decisions regarding whether to approve acquisitions such as Google's earth-shattering DoubleClick buy? No worries: The commish has put together a resource with 25 fact sheets on stuff like antitrust and price discrimination. With some huge Yahoo deal still looming, this could come in handy.

The U.K. government's digital media spending increased 57 percent year-on-year in the twelve month period ending March '08, according to the Central Office of Information's )COI( annual review released this week. According to the office, the increased digital outlay "demonstrates that government - like the private sector - is following audiences online." The growth was attributed to a number of campaigns surrounding issues such as climate change, army recruitment,

EBay has informed users it will begin rolling out behaviorally targeted ads in the U.K. this month, presumably using technology from AOL's Tacoda, as it did in the U.S. in October. The AdChoice system will serve ads based on previous on-site searches and items purchased, as well as "information from other companies," according to an e-mail sent to U.K. members on Tuesday. eBay did not respond to queries as to which companies this may include.

On this, a heat-index alert day, IAB head Randall Rothenberg's blog )or "clog," as he insists on calling it(, is a breath of fresh air. Today's entry, once you get past the "join the IAB" call-to-action, elegantly and articulately enumerates the scary regulatory and legislative threats )both on the state and Federal levels( facing online publishers. Consumers and legislators don't understand what online advertising is, or how it works.

U.S. Congressmen have called out another Internet service provider for working with behavior tracking and ad serving firm NebuAd. House Representatives Edward Markey, John Dingell, and Joe Barton this week penned a letter to Embarq, one of behavioral targeting vendor's early ISP partners. The missive requests detailed information on early tests the company conducted with NebuAd. Depending on how you count,

Give us three good reasons why you'd like to attend ClickZ's Online Video Forum, which takes place next Tuesday, July 22 in Manhattan, and we'll let you in for free. This show is a must-attend. Our speaker line-up is a who's who of the nation's leading interactive video experts - representing Carat, Starcom USA, Enlighten, Ogilvy, MediaVest/Publicis Media Groupe, Denuo, Saatchi & Saatchi New York, Campfire, EVB San Francisco, IQ Interactive and more.

Google's YouTube won't be required, after all, to hand over user IDs to Viacom. The measure is part of an agreement reached yesterday in U.S. District Court in New York City in connection with a Viacom copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube. In that lawsuit, Viacom claims Google failed to stop the distribution of Viacom content on YouTube. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered Google to hand over to Viacom the following information: YouTube user IDs, visitor IDs,

AOL has begun implementing AdTech's ad platform across some of its properties, as reported by AdAge today. I confirmed this with a company spokesperson, who told me in an e-mail that AOL's properties will be fully transitioned from DoubleClick's Dart for Publishers to AdTech's platform by early to mid 2009. AOL bought the German ad management firm last year. "DoubleClick is fully aware of the transition, and we're working with them so that everything runs smoothly,

Connecticut and Florida are among "about a dozen states" reviewing the recent Google/Yahoo search ad deal, according to a recent Washington Post story . They're concerned that the partnership is anti-competitive. "If their agreement is a substantial one in its impact on services or costs, it could have a huge impact on competition. It could be hugely anti-competitive," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal told the paper.

Now that Sony has its in-game advertising strategy up-and-running, it's wasting no time signing on with ad network partners. In June Sony signed a deal with IGA Worldwide . This week it tapped Double Fusion to support its in-game ad sales both in the U.S. and Europe. Much remains unknown. No publishers were named in the deal, and it will be months before we start to see ads on the PlayStation 3. Also, Phil Rosenberg, Senior VP of Sony Computer Entertainment America,

When Google launched its mobile image ads in April there was some disagreement over their compliance with the Mobile Marketing Association guidelines , which were issued around the same time. It's nearly three months later, and Google has posted on its mobile blog that it's now compliant with the six sizes outlined within the MMA guidelines for banner ads.

German market research group GfK is putting together a cash offer for rival firm TNS )Taylor Nelson Sofres(, in response to a hostile bid from Martin Sorrell's WPP launched yesterday. WPP has offered £1.1 billion )$2.1 billion(, after previous offers were snubbed by the company's board. In response, GfK has issued a release stating it is terminating its own proposed merger with TNS, which has been in discussion since April,

U.K. publisher Telegraph Media Group )TMG( is following its competitors' lead, and seeking to monetize the non-U.K. readership of its main online property, Telegraph.co.uk. According to MAD.co.uk, the group has signed a deal with global ad sales house AdGent 007 to sell its non-U.K. inventory to international advertisers. Measurement firm ABCe says around two thirds of Telegraph.co.uk's 18.4 million unique visitors in May came from outside of the U.K. Brian Harrison,

Caroline Waxler, managing editor of TheStreet.com-offshoot, MainStreet.com, is leaving that position, according to Portfolio by way of PaidContent . ClickZ News profiled MainStreet in a feature a few months ago that, I have to say, was super fun to report and write, in part because of Caroline. If you haven't checked out the site, I described it as "a pop culture-inspired personal finance site." That's pretty much what it is.

BBC Worldwide, the British broadcaster's commercial arm, has reported a 57 percent year-on-year increase in digital media revenues, generating £21.9 million )$43 million( in sales in 2007/2008 compared with £13.9 million )$27.4 million( the previous year, according to its annual review. However, net losses for the digital side of the business rose from £3.9 million )$7.7 million(, to £10.9 million )$21.5 million( over the same period. David Moody,