VentureBeat

Here’s the latest action:

Google and Yahoo delay ad deal — The delay gives the Justice Department more time for its antitrust investigation. This news, as well as calls by Sen. Herb Kohl (chair of the Senate Antitrust Committee) for more scrutiny, probably doesn’t bode well for the deal, though it may buy the tech companies more time to negotiate.

Wells Fargo plans merger with Wachovia — Friday’s announcement came only four days after Citigroup agreed to buy Wachovia’s banking operations for about $1 per share. Citigroup, however, isn’t ready to give up yet. The announcement was followed by a weekend of legal wrangling, with no clear winner yet. (Wachovia chief executive Robert Steele is pictured, left.)

Facebook cashout scheduled for Nov. 1? — We’ve already reported that Facebook will allow employees to sell a small portion of their stock this fall. Now a source tells Valleywag’s Owen Thomas that Facebook employees can start selling their shares on Nov. 1 and that the company will purchase the shares, then sell them to an outside buyer.

Economy sheds 159,000 jobs in September — This was the steepest decline in nonfarm employment in five years.

Sony announces new ebook reader — Trying to stay competitive with Amazon’s Kindle, Sony will add a touch panel and reading light in the new version of its device.

BankRate purchases financial blog Bankaholic for up to $15M — The price is particularly impressive when you realize that Bankaholic is a one-man site.

Flurry launches free mobile analytics service — The San Francisco startup also named Simon Khalaf, formerly chief executive of Vernier Networks, as its new CEO and president.

Flurry, a San Francisco company that offers an easy download for your mobile phone to let you email and read news for free, has raised $3.5 million in a first round of financing.

Flurry is useful because it helps you get email without having to buy an expensive smartphone. It lets you read news via RSS.

Now it hits crunch time. After signing up 140,000 users over the past year (we don’t know how many of them are active), it is about to start rolling out advertising to pay for the free service.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson led the round, and was joined by Draper Richards and previous investor Borealis Ventures. Here’s the announcement.

More on how Flurry works here. It is a Java client download. You can sync your contacts on your phone. You manage your account on your PC or with your phone’s Web browser.