FreeWheel is a video advertising company that has raised $16.8 million in funding from Steamboat Ventures, Turner Broadcasting Systems (TBS), Battery Ventures, and Foundation Capital. The company has raised a total of $30 million. FreeWheel was founded by former employees at DoubleClick in 2007. The company works with marketers and publishers to manage video ad campaigns. FreeWheel’s platform can produce inventory forecast for live and on-demand content. Some of their clients include TBS, VEVO, MLB.com, and CBS. Two new agreements FreeWheel has made includes partnerships between Discovery Communications and ESPN Internet Ventures. [TechCrunch]

Last week we saw a viral video of William Shatner and Lin Yu Chun doing a duet. This week its all about Jim Carrey and Conan O’Brien. Below is a video of them singing “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” by Five For Fighting. Yup Carrey was dressed like Superman, adding to the viral power contained in this video.

According to several buyout firms Nielsen is planning to have an IPO. Nielsen is a TV and Internet ratings research company. Nielsen has six sponsors: Alpinvest, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), and THL Partners. The six sponsors are hoping that Nielsen will receive a $21 billion enterprise value according to the Financial Times. Nielsen is expected to make about $1.6 billion in EBITDA this year according to an F.T. source. [FT via NYT]

WISeKey is a security firm that has raised $20 million with a $200 million valuation from undisclosed investors. WISeKey is a Geneva, Switzerland based company and they plan to expand their information security services across Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The company plans to go public when the stock market is more stable. WISeKey started in 1999 and was founded by CEO Carlos Moreira. Carlos is a former U.N. security expert and he built the company to fight counterfeiting. [VentureBeat]

Arnold Schwarznegger, the governor of California has joined Foursquare according to a tweet. Schwarznegger has over 1,000 followers on the geolocation service already [Foursquare profile] and it appears that he joined on April 21st. On the office of the Governor homepage, it even says to follow him on Foursquare too. I knew Foursquare went mainstream when we saw how much the service grew during the SXSW conference, but to see a major political figure endorse the service is a whole different story. Below is a screenshot from the Governor’s website.

According to advertising company Chitika.com, about one million iPads have been sold. Their figures are based on tracking the number of individual iPads are out there that surf the Internet and access some part of the Chitika ad networks. [Chitika Labs]

Wildfire is a social media marketing platform company that is known for building viral campaigns. The company has raised $4 million in Series A funding from Summit Partners, Jeff Clavier, Aydin Senkut, and Gary Vaynerchuk. Wildfire’s platform lets marketers created contests, coupons, quizzes, virtual gifts, etc. Marketers can simultaneously publish these on Facebook and Twitter. Wildfire is a fbFund company. The company went profitable within one month of launching. [TechCrunch]

One of the reasons why FutureMidwest 2010 is important for our economy is because it is one of the first events out of several that will spark a social media revolution in Michigan. Detroit, Michigan is a city that is 12 miles away from the conference, which brought a sentimental vibe to the event. Everyone knows that the city of Detroit is down, but not out.