Metue.com

How much investment in social networking companies is enough?  If you ask Facebook or new startup weplay.com, the answer may be there’s no such thing.  Both have added to their coffers.  $4.5m for Weplay, $60m for Facebook.

In the case of Weplay, talent agency Creative Artists had hinted they were serious about venture investment when they moved to set up their own funding structure.  In contributing part of the $4.5m raised for the kid’s sports site, they officially stepped up to the plate.  Major League Baseball’s Investment arm and Pequot Capital also contributed. 

Click to Read More

“The offer is inadequate and not in the best interests of the shareholders.”

That was the tagline when Take Two initially responded to EA’s public tender offer to acquire the company.  Wednesday, the sentiment echoed anew from the boardroom and two brokerages when Take Two formerly rejected the offer.

Supporting the decision legally, the company filed a heavy load of documents with the SEC stating their case, along with supporting (albeit disclaimer laden) fairness opinion letters from Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers.

It took some time to digest all the paper and put together this detailed review Click to Read More

With an ongoing hostile takeover, when the news flashed that Electronic Arts was jettisoning existing CFO Warren Jenson, it was clear that even with no successor named, one was ready and a few dotted “I’s” and crossed “T’s” from being announced.  Now it’s official.

Thursday, EA officially filled the void with the appointment of Eric Brown.  Brown was currently employed as the CFO at McAfee but will leave the post to join EA on April 14th.

The position will reunite him with prior colleague and current CEO John Riccitiello.  (Prior to joining McAfee, Brown was president and CFO of Microstrategy.  Before that, between 1998 and 2000 he was COO and CFO of EA’s Redwood Shores Gaming Studio.)

Per securities law, a copy of Brown’s Offer Letter has been attached to an 8K filed with the SEC.  For his service, he will receive a base salary of Click to Read More

Carl Icahn’s not asking Motorola if “they can hear him now.”  Wednesday, the beleaguered company caved to shareholder pressure and announced they would agree to split the business into two separate companies.  One will house the mobile devices (cell phone) business.  The other will become home to their broadband and mobility solutions group.

In a press release, Motorola said the separation is expected to happen in 2009 and that it will be implemented as a tax-free shareholder distribution.  A new CEO will be recruited to run the phone company.

Click to Read More

Responding to the decision to split the company by Motorola’s board, investor Carl Icahn sent the following letter on Wednesday. It is reprinted from a copy attached to filings made with the SEC (they are available on their Edgar Database):

Click to Read More

Last spring, shareholders at Blockbuster took advantage of proxy season to vote their thoughts on issues of executive salaries.   By a slim majority, 57%, they became the first of many companies to pass a “say on pay” shareholder proposal.   (Verizon shareholders passed a similar resolution a few days later).  Tuesday, Blockbuster became the first major media company to accept the non-binding proposal at the board level.

The “say or pay” concept, which was initially suggested to Blockbuster by the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, calls for an annual shareholder vote (pro or con, yay or nay) on executive pay.  It is not binding, and a compensation committee has no obligation to agree, but it does insure the shareholders have a voice in the process.

Click to Read More

In the world of Web 2.0 and social networking “open” is the new black; it’s the “it” trend.  On the same day that Yahoo shook hands with Google and MySpace to join their Open Social programming specification, and the same day Microsoft announced a broad data portability pact with 5 other social networks, digital music network iMeem announced they were launching an open platform of their own.

The iMeem service, dubbed a “Media Platform” aims to go further than other offerings.  Click to Read More