CNN sells Zite to Flipboard in all-stock transaction worth more than the $20M CNN paid in 2011  —  Flipboard buys Zite news app from CNN  —  The standalone iPad news app will eventually be shut down and integrated into Flipboard.  Also: Zite's CEO tells Fortune why he left.

Getty Images makes 35 million images free in fight against copyright infringement  —  Getty Images has single-handedly redefined the entire stock photography market with the launch of a new embedding feature that will make more than 35 million images freely available to anyone for non-commercial usage.

Bill Gates, Satya Nadella, Tony Bates and Microsoft's board all initially opposed Ballmer's plan for Nokia acquisition  —  Microsoft's Nadella Manages Legacy of Ballmer-Board Split  —  New Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella is seeking to reshape a company whose main businesses are losing steam …

Short-term Profit Taking vs. Long-term Value Creation: The Future of PayPal  —  In January, activist investor Carl Icahn acquired around 2 percent of eBay's stock.  A month or so later, eager for a return on his investment, he published an open letter to eBay's shareholders.

Apple Bringing Full-Screen Video iAds to Mobile  —  iPhone Maker May Sell the Ads Thru Company's New Ad Exchange  —  How Advertising Performs in a Social Media World  —  Coming to an iPad near you: iAds that look a lot like TV ads.  —  Apple will roll out new video iAds this year …

Yielding to Pressure, Facebook Restricts Gun Promotion on Social Network … Facebook announced Wednesday new restrictions on promoting guns on the social network, amid pressure from groups favoring gun control.  —  In a blog post, Facebook said it will remove offers to sell guns without background checks …

Founders Fund Raises $1 Billion for New Venture-Capital Fund  —  Founders Fund, a backer of Facebook and Space Exploration Technologies, has closed $1 billion in new financing for a fifth fund, the firm announced on Wednesday.  —  The new vehicle is quite a step up from the $50 million …

Car repossession companies profit from scanned license plates showing when and where vehicles were located  —  A vast hidden surveillance network runs across America, powered by the repo industry  —  Few notice the “spotter car” from Manny Sousa's repo company as it scours Massachusetts parking lots …

Yahoo acquires social media visualization startup Vizify  —  Vizify, a Portland-based startup that turns your social media chatter into visualizations, today was acquired by Yahoo.  —  Founded by Todd Silverstein, Jeff Cutler-Stamm, and Eli Tucker in 2011, Vizify is all about helping individuals make great first impressions.

Exclusive: DirecTV in talks with Disney on deal for Internet rights  —  (Reuters) - DirecTV is in talks with Walt Disney Co to license the rights to offer Disney's broadcast and cable channels as part of an Internet-based product, DirecTV said on Wednesday.  —  The deal would mirror …

94% of T-Mobile Blackberry promo participants switched to other smartphones  —  94% of BlackBerry trade-ins switched to other platforms during promo … Tomorrow, March 5th, the $200 trade-in for an old BlackBerry device offer is ending.  We've already heard from T-Mobile's CMO …

Corning exec: sapphire crystal displays are expensive, heavy, and environmentally unfriendly  —  Corning exec slams sapphire —rumored for Apple device  —  A Corning executive launched a blistering critique of sapphire crystal, used as a protective material for displays, on Tuesday.

Target tech chief resigns as it overhauls security  —  Target says tech chief resigns as part of security overhaul following data breach  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Target Corp. Chief Information Officer Beth Jacob is resigning effective Wednesday as the retailer overhauls its information security …

OnLive is reborn with IGN founder as chief and two new cloud-based gaming services  —  Above: OnLive leaders Rick Sanchez, Mark Jung, and Gary Lauder.  —  Image Credit: Dean Takahashi  —  OnLive has announced that former IGN chief Mark Jung is its new executive chairman …

Apple Working On More Third-Party Integrations For Siri With iWatch In Mind, Report Claims  —  Apple is working to make Siri play nice with more third-party apps and services, according to a new report from The Information.  Within a larger piece on the mobile search battleground and app integration …

Sally Beauty Hit By Credit Card Breach  —  Nationwide beauty products chain Sally Beauty appears to be the latest victim of a breach targeting their payment systems in stores, according to both sources in the banking industry and new raw data from underground cybercrime shops that traffic in stolen credit and debit cards.

CrossCoin Ventures launches first Ripple startup accelerator  —  With Bitcoin's woes, could it be time for Ripple to shine?  CrossCoin Ventures plans to announce Wednesday that it is launching the first Ripple digital currency accelerator, which will be based in San Francisco.

NASDAQ Finally Launches Its Market For Privately-Held Companies  —  Just as the JOBS Act kickstarts bigger markets for shares of privately-held companies, NASDAQ is launching its own entrant in the field.  —  The U.S. stock exchange, which hosts tech companies like Apple, Google and Facebook …