A YouTube meets AutoTrader sort of project has won big backers, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Red McCombs, co-founder of Clear Channel Communications.
The billionaire moguls are backing a tiny venture-backed company which has ambitious plans to feed a growing demand for high-definition-like Internet video for everyday e-commerce uses, such as consumer car sales, its founders said.
“I like what they’re doing. It’s definitely a step forward,” said Wozniak, the Silicon Valley wunderkind who formed Apple with entrepreneur Steve Jobs in 1976. “Woz,” said he signed on as an adviser to the company to “give them ideas that come into my mind.”
Hotswap.com emerged from graduate computer science research into digital “compression” technology that its founders say can make common digital camera movie clips mimic high-definition television on Web sites.
Luke Thomas, a 21-year-old former UC Berkeley grad student and Hotswap chairman, said the often-fuzzy videos uploaded by amateurs onto YouTube.com and similar Web sites can be transformed by Hotswap’s technology. Hotswap has applied for patents for the technology, he added.
“All the technology we see on the Internet is 1994 technology,” said Thomas. “You will see e-commerce take off with the advent of high-quality video.”
Formed just three months ago with the backing from the venture finance firm Kinsey Hills Group, Hotswap.com has already won contracts with AutoNation Inc.
[Via PCMagazine]
On Monday a federal judge extended his order barring a former CEO of UnitedHealth Group Inc. from cashing in unexercised stock options while shareholders pursue lawsuits over the company’s options award practices.
The court order had been set to expire on Monday, but U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum in Minneapolis extended it to Oct. 15 while a special litigation committee created by the UnitedHealth board finishes its review of options-related lawsuits filed against the company.
The order applies to William McGuire, who stepped down as UnitedHealth chairman and chief executive last year following an internal report by the insurer that concluded many of his option awards were likely backdated.
McGuire, one of the highest-profile executives caught up in the U.S. scandal over options award practices, had accumulated more than $1.6 billion in stock options by the end of 2005.
Following the internal report, he agreed to reprice some of those options, reducing their value.
Judge Rosenbaum’s order also temporarily froze McGuire’s retirement pay, reportedly $5.1 million a year.
The judge, however, said in his new order on Monday that the company could pay McGuire up to $3 million out of the ex-CEO’s executive savings plan while the freeze remains in effect.
The first criminal trial involving stock-option backdating is about to come to a close. A jury will soon determine the fate of former Brocade Communications Systems Chief Executive Greg Reyes.The 44-year-old former CEO is accused of misleading investors by backdating hundreds of grants and altering documents to hide the practice from regulators and auditors. The case is the first test of whether a jury will consider backdating illegal. Deliberations began on Monday after U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer instructed the jury about the 10 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud and other charges against Reyes.
The judge instructed the jurors to consider the impact of Reyes’s conduct on investors and whether “a reasonable investor would consider it significant” in deciding “whether to buy, sell or hold” Brocade’s shares.
Judge Breyer refused to rule on a request by Reyes’ attorneys to dismiss the case, calling it “premature.” Richard Marmaro, Reyes’ lawyer, said U.S. prosecutors lied when they told the jury that Brocade’s finance chief was deceived by Reyes because the finance chief knew about the backdating.
Breyer said he may consider the dismissal request if the jury convicts Reyes. He instructed jurors that some comments by attorneys for both sides “may have been in error” and they should review the evidence to decide how much weight to give the comments.
Reyes faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.
Bloomberg reports that MySpace.com co-founder Brad Greenspan made a new proposal to invest $600 million in cash and stock in three joint ventures with Dow Jones & Co. and said he has received interest from five “credible” investor groups.Greenspan sent a letter to the board of New York-based Dow Jones seeking materials for due diligence, and his investors can meet this week “to firm investment commitments,” he said in a statement distributed today by PR Newswire.
Greenspan has made several proposals to Dow Jones since Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. made its $5 billion acquisition offer public in late April.
He led an investment group that offered $60 a share for a 25 percent stake in Dow Jones, according to a press release he issued June 20. Earlier this month, Greenspan said the investment group would lend $400 to $600 million to the controlling Bancroft family to buy out members who wish to sell.
Greenspan has not disclosed who would provide funding for his proposals.
Murdoch’s News Corp. acquired MySpace parent Intermix for $580 million in 2005. Last year, Greenspan filed a lawsuit against MySpace and demanded a federal probe of the buyout, which he said defrauded shareholders. A judge dismissed the suit.
Rough financial waters have caused United Capital Markets founder John Devaney to put his luxury yacht up for sale. Devaney is seeking $23.5 million for his 142-foot yacht, “Positive Carry,” according to the New York Post. Earlier this month, the $620 million hedge fund portfolios he runs were forced to suspend investor withdrawals.
Devaney is also trying to sell a 16-bedroom Aspen, Colorado, property he bought in November for $16.5 million, the paper said.
He also owns a Rolls-Royce, a Gulfstream Jet, a 12,000-square-foot waterfront mansion in Key Biscayne, Florida and helicopter, as well as a few Renoirs and a valuable 1823 reproduction of the Declaration of Independence.
Devaney reportedly had $100 million in the troubled funds prior to the turmoil in the asset-backed securities markets his Horizon funds specialize in.
The 36-year-old CEO of United Capital Markets has definitely been living the good life. Looks like the party’s over…at least for now.
Devaney may finally have to start living like a millionaire instead of a billionaire…I’m sure it will be tough. He might want to contact Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone to take a few items off his hands…I think he’s got some extra cash lying around.
Internet Service Providers such as EarthLink plus tech giants Cisco, Nortel and Google have followed the herd toward the gold mine seemingly offered by WiFi networks.
Now, the new chief executive officer at EarthLink is moving away from the stampede before his company goes over what could potentially be a financial cliff.
Rolla Huff, who took over the Atlanta-based ISP in June, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that he is chilled, not hot, about building metro area networks based on wireless fidelity technology.
“The WiFi business, as currently constituted, will not provide an acceptable return,” Huff said.
EarthLink, with projects from Philadelphia to Texas to California, has been among the leaders in the WiFi buildout. Working with cities as partners, EarthLink has struck deals whereby it invests in infrastructure to deliver wireless broadband while cities offer support through buying accounts and providing vital support such as rights to put WiFi antennas on city property.
In agreeing to build the networks, EarthLink also said it would offer discounted access to lower income residents and allow competitors to use the network. However most of these deals were struck before Garry Betty, Huff’s predecessor, died of cancer in January.
EarthLink also has run into a great deal of resistance from some people within city government in building a network in San Francisco. Plus, as the metro WiFi boom has grown, privacy rights groups have been raising concerns.
Huff said Thursday that new WiFi projects are on hold. He also told investors he would review EarthLink’s other businesses and make recommendations in the near future.
It is clear that Huff is questioning whether WiFi is truly a winning proposition. He’s just not convinced that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
