5 O’Clock Roundup: Shipping is up, FTC is down on bloggers, Windows Phone may get you sideways

Brocade looking for a buyer — HP and possibly Oracle are considering buying the IT infrastructure company, which has a market cap of $3.2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports. But the Journal’s sources also said that “no deal is imminent.”

FTC requires bloggers to disclose free review units — A 4-0 vote by the Federal Trade Commissions commissioners made the group’s guidelines for bloggers officially part of the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

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There are no hard and fast rules about disclosure in the document. Rather, there are general guidelines. Most relevant to the blogosphere: When products are given to bloggers like Leo Laporte (pictured) in exchange for posting about them, it must be disclosed “clearly,” whatever that means.

Ad spending falls for second quarter in a row — The Internet Advertising Bureau’s quarterly report says Q2 spending totaled $5.4 billion, down from $5.7 billion a year ago. There haven’t been two successive down quarters since the dot-com bust of 2002. Since then, online advertising had grown every quarter until the start of this year.

California economy is rebounding, sort of — Comerica Bank’s monthly California Economic Activity Index jumped one point in August. The biggest jump among the Index’s many factors was an increase in the tonnage passing through the port at Long Beach. The worst factor: A continued lack of new jobs.

FTC-mandated disclosure: I have a Windows Phone, and you don’t — Tomorrow is launch day for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, wisely rebranded as Windows Phone. Dean has a review loaner, and mine arrives Tuesday. Microsoft haters be warned: These things are going to sell. They’re pretty.