Author: Ken Chan

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ipo

Stock Market Stands Up MatchNet

CNET News.com: ‘Faltering’ Market Downs MatchNet. Online dating company MatchNet on Thursday withdrew its plans to sell its shares to the public, joining a growing number of Internet companies that have canceled or postponed a stock market launch.

MatchNet’s CEO and president Todd Tappin also announced his resignation. I’ve posted his employment contract as well as other MatchNet contracts on the web site. If you are vaguely curious about online dating sites, take a look at the exhibits at the end of the Asset Purchase Agreements with Point Match. These include demographic figures for their registered members.

CNET also mentioned that PlanetOut withdrew their IPO. PlanetOut contracts include some employment agreements and leases.

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ipo

iPod IPO

Electronic News: Apple iPod SOC Provider Prepares for IPO. On the success and proliferation of digital media content, increasing Internet-based content distribution, greater storage capacity and increasing functionality of devices, Apple iPod SOC provider PortalPlayer is preparing to file for its initial public offering.

PortalPlayer contracts include plenty of employment agreement, a few leases and some service agreements with LSI Logic and eSilicon. SoC means system-on-chip, for those who are wondering.

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corporate buzz

Being Napster

MacCentral: Roxio to Sell Software Division, Become Napster In posting its quarterly financial results on Monday, Roxio Inc. announced plans to sell its software division to Sonic Solutions in a transaction valued at US$80 million. The deal is subject to the customary regulatory and shareholder approval, but Roxio has already outlined plans to change its name to Napster, focused solely on selling digital music.

That’s an interesting strategy! A $120M company dumps its main product line for $80M just so it can focus on selling digital music? Here’s the Asset Purchase Agreement between Sonic Solutions and Roxio. I’ve also posted other Roxio contracts on the web site.

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ipo

Investors Say Nah to Nanoprofits

San Jose Mercury: Nanosys Pulls IPO. Nanosys, a Palo Alto start-up widely viewed as a leader in the emerging field of nanotechnology, withdrew its plans for an initial public offering Wednesday, citing “adverse market conditions.”

Adverse market conditions? Sure, the market isn’t peaking, but I don’t hear Google pulling its IPO. Maybe the market is adverse to companies that post losses of $8.78 million on $2.5 million of revenue. I’ve posted Nanosys contracts on the web site. I found a lot of licensing agreements and development agreements.

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corporate buzz

Halliburton Fined for Being Overly Secretive During Cheney’s Watch

New York Times: S.E.C. Fines Halliburton $7.5 Million. The Halliburton Company secretly changed its accounting practices when Vice President Dick Cheney was its chief executive, the Securities and Exchange Commission said today as it fined the company $7.5 million and brought actions against two former financial officials.

A Cheney-led organization accused of being secretive? Anyways, these Halliburton contracts are out in the open, including Dick Cheney’s Employment Agreement.

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corporate buzz

Pennies on the Dollar

Reuters: S. Korea’s Daum to Buy Lycos for $95 Mln. South Korea’s top Web site operator Daum Communications Corp., said on Monday it would acquire Lycos Inc., the U.S. business of Spain’s Terra Lycos, owner of popular sites such as Wired News and Tripod, for $95 million.

Back in May of 2000, Terra Networks acquired Lycos for $12.5 billion. Fortunately, it was an all-stock deal. Unfortunately, the $95 million sales price isn’t even pennies on the dollar. More like 7 cents per 10 dollars. Anyways, Lycos and Terra Networks contracts have been added to the site.

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corporate buzz

Shanda Goes Shopping

ChinaTechNews.com: Shanda to Acquire Stake in Haofang. Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited, the operator of online games in China, announced today that it has signed an agreement to purchase for cash a minority stake in Shanghai Haofang Online Information Technology Co., Ltd., or Haofang, a privately-owned company that develops and operates the largest network PC game platform in China.

For China watchers, I’ve posted contracts from Shanda Interactive Entertainment, as well as China Life Insurance, China Mobile, China National Petroleum, China Petroleum & Chemical, China Resources Development, China Unicom, Ivanhoe Energy, NetEase.com, Pan Asia Mining, Sina and Sohu.com.

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ipo

ATX Drops Out of Race

Forbes: Forget ATX Group ATX Group of Irving, Tex., provides what it calls “telematics services” to the auto industry. In plain English, that’s two-way voice and data service, including voice-activated emergency response, between a subscriber’s car and the company’s centers via satellite link.

In plainer English, think OnStar, which is owned by GM. Forbes also noted that “ATX Group is a solid company in a growing sector, but a risky IPO.” Apparently, the company agreed and withdrew its IPO, citing “adverse market conditions.” I’ve posted ATX contracts with BMW and Mercedes-Benz, as well as some employment agreements.

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corporate buzz

Donut King’s Filings Have Holes

Bloomberg: Krispy Kreme Probed by SEC on Accounting, Forecasts Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., the second-biggest U.S. doughnut chain, said the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating how the company accounted for the repurchase of franchises and earnings forecasts.

Krispy Kreme was buying back franchises and it didn’t disclose that the CEO’s ex-wife was one of the sellers. That doesn’t sound good. I’ve posted Krispy Kreme contracts so you can see what the company has disclosed in the past.

Categories
corporate buzz

BroadVision Broadsided

CFO.com: BroadVision Receives Wells Notice The provider of self-service web applications announced that it has received a Wells notice, which indicates that the SEC staff has made a preliminary decision to recommend that the commission bring a civil action.

I’ve added BroadVision contracts to the site, as well as those from its competitors. For BroadVision, the contracts of interest include employment agreements and leases.

For Art Technology Group, I’ve posted some employment agreements and software license agreements. BackWeb Technologies features some marketing agreements, license agreements, and OEM agreements. Plumtree Software features employment agreements, OEM agreements and software license agreements. SeeBeyond Technology features employment agreements and leases. Finally, Vitria Technology includes leases, services agreements, employment agreements and severance agreements.