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Video analytics firm TubeMogul is launching a video ad network. The company’s pitch to advertisers: “Our data allows us to know what videos are likeliest to be watched,” says CEO Brett Wilson. The ads will be standalone ads on social networks like Facebook games and apps. It will also work with top ranked comScore sites. Read the rest of this story

Gina Bianchini, the high-profile CEO of social networking platform Ning , is stepping down and will become an executive in residence at the Andreessen Horowitz venture firm. Bianchini (pictured here) founded Ning with well-known Silicon Valley iconic entrepreneur Marc Andreessen. She will be replaced at Ning by COO Jason Rosenthal. Ning has raised about $120 million in funding since it was founded in 2004, and it has been one of the more high-profile start-ups and among the most closely watched. Interestingly, I pinged Bianchini last week about some controversies related to discontent among Ning techies I had heard about in the wake of the fall departure of SVP of Engineering Jay Parikh. She responded quickly, noting that VP of Engineering Sridatta Viswanath was doing a great job. And, she added, inviting me in for an update while betraying no sense of her impending departure, Ning was “gearing up for the launch of the next-generation Ning Network this summer.” Here is the post about Bianchini’s departure as CEO that will be on the start-up’s blog today from Ning Chairman Marc Andreessen: An Update from Ning Chairman & Co-Founder Marc Andreessen I’d like to update everyone on a change happening in our company today.

Tech Today gathers all the biggest technology news of the morning’s Wall Street Journal into one place for your reading pleasure. Sony Gadgets Take Aim at Apple: Threatened by Apple’s growing stable of portable devices, Sony is developing a new lineup of hand-held products, including a smart phone capable of downloading and playing videogames. U.S. to Clear Voting-Machine Deal: The Justice Department is poised to allow the merger of the U.S.’s two largest makers of voting machines, but the combined company will be required to divest a key electronic voting system. Rambus Gets Mixed Patent Ruling: The U.S. Patent Office issued a mixed ruling in Rambus’s patent-infringement case against Nvidia, sending shares of the memory chip designer higher. TiVo Shares Surge on Court Ruling:  A federal appeals court sided with TiVo in a long-running dispute with Dish Network and EchoStar, sparking a rally in shares of the DVR pioneer.

Microsoft last week used a court order in an attempt to block a network of computers controlled by hackers, a move whose effectiveness was questioned by some security experts. Security professionals said Tuesday that they worked together with law enforcement to shut down another such network and that there is no chance that this one will come back. The researchers, speaking to reporters at the RSA conference in San Francisco in advance of a formal announcement, said they noticed last May a string of computers that seemed to be controlled by a single group—a “botnet” in cyber-security parlance. The perpetrators managed to slip malicious computer code onto about 13 million computers and stole information like Web site logins, banking credentials, and credit-card data. Working with law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Spain, researchers traced the botnet to more than 60 Web addresses that the criminals used to control the computer network. In December they shut off these sites, which in essence cut off the network’s head.

As Sprint Nextel Corp. feels the heat to break even, it’s putting CEO Dan Hesse back on TV for an extra push. Bloomberg News Dan Hesse, chief executive officer of Sprint Nextel The struggling telecom’s most public face, Mr. Hesse, returns to a Sprint television ad for the first time since last September, when the company launched its “Any Mobile, Anytime” offer. The competition has become a lot tougher in the meantime. AT&T and Verizon Wireless now offer unlimited voice and text plans for $70. Mr.