Levittown was the first mass-produced suburb and built by Levitt & Sons, Inc. Last November, the builder, a victim of the real estate downturn, declared bankruptcy, laid off its employees, and left a line of homebuyers in limbo. Levitt Corp. contracts have been added.
Hollywood Reporter: Digital Domain Enters IPO Ring. The market for initial public offerings is getting interesting, with a special effects company filing for an IPO, while a social networking firm has canceled one. The effects company, Digital Domain, wants to raise about $100 million to pay off debt and maybe produce films, apparently in an attempt to compete with the DreamWorks Animation and Disney’s Pixar Animation, though an executive declined comment Wednesday.
I’ve added Digital Domain contracts, which include a Stockholders Agreement with Dan Marino.
Valleywag: Wear Tinfoil Hats When Using Adobe Products. You’re not the only one watching what you do in Adobe Creative Suite 3, the company’s ubiquitous photo-and-design software package. Adobe is watching you, too.
Yeah, so is AT&T and the CIA. By now, you should have figured out that all your online activities are being monitored. So much for the anonymous web. But, when I run a local application, why does it have to log my activity with a third party? John Nack on Adobe answers, but seriously. Giving Adobe the benefit of the doubt? Hey, most of us don’t even trust our own government, but that’s another story. I’ve posted the Omniture Inc. contracts to the collection.
Silicon Alley Insider: Accoona IPO: RIP. Accoona, the odd New Jersey e-commerce company that thought it was a search company, has finally given up on its quixotic quest to go public.
OK, Baidu surprised me, but is there really room for yet another search engine? Google works pretty well most of the time. However, I’ve seen Google fail before when it does not return any relevant result on some of my long tail searches. I’ve added Accoona Corp. contracts to the site. However, several are as PDFs because they curiously filed many of their material contracts as scanned images instead of as text.
RCR Wireless News: Sidekick Maker Danger to go IPO Route. Danger Inc., the “software-as-service” company that enables data and Internet services to T-Mobile USA Inc.’s Sidekick devices, will pursue an initial public offering to pay down $7.2 million in debt and raise working capital, the company said.
I’ve posted the Danger Inc. contracts to the website. Potentially interesting documents include their contracts with T-Mobile and Motorola.
We received this pleasant e-mail this morning.
I am legal counsel for Ness USA, Inc. f/k/a Apar Infotech corporation and I am writing to warn that you have a contract of ours on your website which constitutes copyright infringement. Please be advised that if the Extended Development Center Agreement is not removed from your site within 24 hours, we will be forced to pursue legal action. If you have any questions, please contact me.
The only interesting thing about this e-mail was that we received the SAME communication from the SAME company about the SAME contract 3 1/2 years ago, which you can read at Chilling Effects.
Each day, the sub-prime lending miscalculation is looking more and more like a repeat of the dot.com meltdown. First, the fringe companies fall. Then a few name brand companies are claimed. Finally, the blue chips take their hit. I’ve updated the Citigroup contracts to include the Charles Prince’s Severance Agreement.
TechCrunch: What Was Skype’s Shortfall? When Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom stepped down earlier this month with only one-third of his payout from eBay, it was clear that Skype fell short of its goals in regards to growing its number of active users, revenues, and gross profits.
I’ve updated the eBay Inc. contracts to include the Earn Out Settlement Agreement. Unfortunately, eBay omitted Schedule 1.1. from theEarn Out Agreement between eBay Inc. and Skype Technologies S.A., which included the “certain metrics.”
SEC: Commission Charges Short Sellers and Corporate Insiders in Massive Scheme to Conceal the Short Sellers’ Control Over Ramp Corporation and Xybernaut Corporation. On October 19, 2007, the Commission filed a civil action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against: two short sellers, Zev Saltsman and Menachem Eitan; two former officers and directors of Xybernaut Corporation, Edward G. Newman and Steven A. Newman; a former director of Xybernaut and outside counsel to Xybernaut and Ramp Corporation, Martin E. Weisberg; and Ramp’s former CEO, Andrew Brown. The Commission’s complaint charges the defendants with engaging in a scheme to conceal Saltsman and Eitan’s control over Ramp and Xybernaut.
I have added Xybernaut Corporation contracts and Ramp Corporation contracts to the website. You can find employment contracts for a few of the insiders charged.
We received this wonderful e-mail today from a Reuters attorney:
It has come to our attention that you are reproducing a Reuters contract on your web site at http://contracts.onecle.com/instinet/reuters.svc.2003.03.14.shtml.
Not only is this contract is marked confidential, it is proprietary to Reuters. Reuters has the exclusive right to this content in any form, including on the Internet. You have no right to display this content and are therefore acting illegally in republishing it in breach of our copyright. We therefore require that you immediately cease all further publication of Reuters content on any Web site owned or controlled by you, including www.onecle.com.
If you do not comply with the above request by close of business on November 1, 2007, we will be forced to consider what further action to take in order to protect our rights. In the meantime, all our rights are reserved.
Reuters takes the violation of its intellectual property rights very seriously and trusts that you will make every effort to comply with the above requirements in order to prevent any further infringement.
Sure, the document is marked “confidential.” But, the Global Solutions Agreement between Reuters Group and Instinet Group has been sitting on the SEC’s web site for 4 1/2 years by now. And, believe me, there are a lot of documents marked “confidential” in those securities filings.
The interesting twist here is that Thomson Corp. has agreed to buy Reuters. If you take a look at the Westlaw® Securities Practitioner, you will notice that they offer EDGAR-SEC Filings. And, if Onecle Inc. is engaging in copyright infringement by publishing selected contracts from public securities filings, then Thomson Corp. is a 27 billion dollar infringer who republishes all securities filings.