The Google-owned video content site YouTube is primed for a 50% surge in advertising revenue by the end of 2013, according to eMarketer. Acquired by search and tech giant Google in 2006 for $1.65bn, YouTube has more than one billion viewers every month and attracts about 20% of all advertising spending on US online video, with 80% of traffic coming from outside the U.S.

UK advertising agency Walker Media is subject to a £35 million bid for a 75% stake from French giant Publicis after the Parisian media group admitted it was "in discussions with M&C Saatchi in relation to Walker Media, which may involve the purchase of a significant part of that business."

Publicis digital agencies Razorfish and DigitasLBi have agreed a deal that sees unprecedented access to create and implement creative campaigns across Google's banner and mobile ad networks, YouTube, and brand pages on Google Plus and Hangouts.

Facebook has announced a unique partnership with Google to allow its popular ad-buying platform DoubleClick act as third-party software on the previously exclusive Facebook Exchange service.

GroupM's MediaCom has defeated ZenithOptimedia to retain the global media account for banking and financial services company UniCredit.

A report from the Office of National Statistics has shown that unemployment in the UK has dropped to 7.7%, down 0.4% from the same period in 2012.

Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband has pledged the abolition of zero-hour contracts for temporary workers ahead of tomorrow's Trade Union Congress conference.

In what might be the most delicious marketing and branding strategy since Manchester United's official tomato juice sponsor, American tech giant Google have announced the latest version of their Android operating system will be called KitKat.

Steve Ballmer hasn't quite ridden off into the sunset yet. The Microsoft CEO has agreed a $7bn acquisition of Nokia's mobile division, transferring hardware licenses, patents and 32,000 employees.

French media group Havas have announced a rise of 8% in pre-tax profits to £74.6 million (€88 million) in the first half of 2013.

WPP, the advertising giant encompassing GroupM, has announced a 19% rise in pre-tax profits for the first half of 2013 - representing an increase of £427m.

The battle of the search giants is at last heating up, with Yahoo! surpassing Google's traffic in the month of July for the first time since May 2011.

The 425 million users of Google's popular email service Gmail should have no "reasonable expectation" that their messages remain private, the Californian search giant has told a United States court.

GroupM, digital holding company and part of the WPP network, have official revised their predictions for their global advertising expenditure for the remainder of 2013, citing the turbulent European economy as cause for concern.

In a press release, GroupM, parent to digital agencies Mindshare, MEC, Maxus and Mediacom, revealed their global outlook.

In the United States, advertising investment is estimated to grow just 1.8 % in 2013 to $156 billion, up from $3 billion in 2012.  A 2.9 % increase is anticipated in 2014, bringing ad spending to $161 billion.

"We estimate marginal growth in advertising spending in 2014 on a comparable component basis," said Rino Scanzoni, GroupM’s Chief Investment Officer for North America.In Western Europe, a 2.4 % decline in spending - compared to 2012  - to $97 billion. Spending in 2014 is expected to rise only 1.8 % to $99 billion.

GroupM Futures Director Adam Smith, who prepared the report, pointed to Europe's financial discord as the reason for revised budgets.

"The Eurozone periphery, specifically Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland, is once again the main reason for the decline," Smith said.  

"Stabilisation is elusive. We now expect this group to record an 11% fall in measured advertising in 2013."

You can read the full press release here.

Advertising giant WPP are targeting as much as 45% of total revenues being generated by digital media, CEO Sir Martin Sorrell has claimed via LinkedIn's Influencer feature.

Controversial file-sharing site The Pirate Bay has released its own web browser which claims to avoid ISP blockers and provide links to sites restricted in the UK.

Marissa Mayer's upheaval of ageing search giant Yahoo! continues - this time with a glossy new logo design.

Advertisers rejoice - Google's new Display Planner has arrived!

GroupM agency MediaCom has announced the retention of its second-largest UK account after winning a three-way pitch for media planning and buying.

Whilst media outlets were clamouring for WPP's take on relinquishing the title of world's largest media agency, the next band of media groups were quietly going about their business, with executives rallying their agencies and shares prices on the up.