Start-ups whose business plans are based on selling advertising are having a very hard time raising money. But start-ups that want to make money by helping other people sell advertising? That’s another story.

Today’s example: Rubicon Project, a Los Angeles-based advertising-optimization start-up, has raised a $9 million C round led by Peacock Equity, the joint venture co-owned by GE Capital and GE’s NBC Universal.

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A proposed deal to buy The Pirate Bay and turn it legit, which never made sense in the first place, now looks all but dead. The Swedish software/Internet cafe company that’s supposed to buy the file-sharing haven for $8 million now says investors that were supposed to finance the deal have disappeared. And it says this is the fault of the U.S. media, which supposedly spooked said investors. Sorry!

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Here’s a funding story you don’t see often, recession or no: A start-up buying back its shares from its venture capitalist, at a premium.

But that’s the transaction that video-chat firm Paltalk and Softbank have completed. Paltalk, which sold off 20 percent of its equity to Softbank for $6 million in 2004, has bought the shares back. No one has spelled out a purchase price, but I’m told the deal will be considered a “single” for Softbank–it gets its capital back, plus a return–which in this economy ought to be a home run.

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Just a few weeks after a very public breakup, Warner Music Group and Imeem are getting back together again. Warner, which told investors last month that it had written off the $16 million it had invested in the Web music start-up, plus another $4 million in debt, has made a new deal with the company and will get another slug of equity. The big difference–this time, Warner isn’t cutting Imeem a check.

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