My current favorite 24 gossip site has an awesome description of Jack Bauer’s terrorist destroying Treo 650.  This is no ordinary Treo – not only does it blow up terrorists, it also takes really awesome photos (much better than any Treo I’ve ever seen.)  I’m guessing this is the new model, the Treo 650KA (“kick ass”).

Tim Wolters has written a post on anti-dilution clauses from an entrepreneurs point of view.  Tim promises to write more on other terms like liquidation preferences, reverse vesting, dividends, class voting rights, “and any other terms that have bitten [him] on the ass before.”  Tim is co-founder and CTO of Collective Intellect, a new company that just recently closed a Series A funding.  He was previously the co-founder and CTO of Dante Group, a company I funded that was acquired by webMethods.  Expect straight talk and some good insights from Tim.

USA Today has a great profile up of Ben Casnocha.  Having known Ben for a couple of years, it’s an accurate (and inspiring) profile of him rather than an overreaching ego puff piece.  If you don’t know Ben, he’s a remarkable young man who writes prolifically on his blog about his thoughts, life, ideas and experiences and a teenager, entrepreneur, and thinker.

I was first introduced to Ben by Greg Prow.  Greg pulled me aside one day and said “hey Brad – you’ve got to meet this kid – he makes me think of what I bet you were like as a teenager.”  I responded that I hoped this wasn’t true for Ben’s parents’ sake, but that I’d be happy to get together with him.  We had our first meeting a month or so later – which was a presentation on Comcate (Ben’s company). 

While I wasn’t motivated to pull out my checkbook and fund Comcate, I started a dialogue with Ben that has evolved into a really nice friendship.  I look forward to knowing him for a long time.

Apparently, yes.

David Jackson is now putting up conference call transcripts on his Seeking Alpha blog.  He’s got a feed up that you can subscribe to for your daily dose of earnings call entertainment (and some of them are very funny.)  Plus you can quickly get an extra dose of Overstock.  Paul Kedrosky re-enforces the potential humor value with an old Mary Meeker question on a Microsoft Q2 2003 call.

I just received a memo from a name-brand Silicon Valley law firm in response to a board discussion that I was part of about 409A (the company granted some options today, obligatory 409A discussion ensued.)  While I’m sure the law firm in question was trying to be helpful, the first paragraph of the memo says “But section 409A does not apply to Incentive stock options, or “ISOs”.  Grrr.

While this may be factually correct, it’s a logically false statement.  The memo goes on to correct this notion on the bottom of the second page, ending with “Therefore, it will be advisable in the future to use care when valuing Common Stock, regardless of whether the options being granted are ISOs or NSOs.”  Ok – thanks – but most entrepreneurs aren’t going to read past the first page!

I sent my lawyer friend the following note:

I’d like to suggest that the statement that 409A does not apply to ISO’s is misleading. While you clarify the dynamic later in the memo, a number of people (including lawyers, VCs, and entrepreneurs) have insisted that 409A doesn’t apply to ISO’s, so you don’t have to do anything to comply with 409A except grant ISOs. Obviously the conclusion being drawn by some is completely false and the concept is self-referential – if an ISO is granted below FMV, it no longer qualifies to be an ISO, becomes a NSO granted below market, and is subject to 409A. I don’t know if you have any influence on the way this memo is written / presented, but I’m personally tired of explaining to people that – in fact – ISOs are part of the discussion given that to be an ISO, they have to be granted at FMV, the determination of which is linked directly to 409A. Of course – I’m not a lawyer – so while I can’t include IRS Circular 230 in my emails about this, this is just my opinion and shouldn’t be relied on for anything by anyone.

Thomas Frey from the Davinci Institute sent me a link to a public toilet in Houston that is guaranteed to create at least a little bit of performance anxiety.  In my quest for experiencing the magnificent bathrooms of the world, I’ll definitely be checking it out the next time I’m in Houston, which hopefully will be never.

Jeff Jarvis has a superb post up called New News: Deconstructing the newspaper. 

A week ago I spoke at a the Metzger Associates First Annual New Media Summit – a great example of a “local” event (local = Boulder).  It was moderated by Matt Branaugh – the Business Editor of the Daily Camera (our local paper.)  Fortunately, Matt is a good humored soul so when I asked the audience the question “how many of you read the stock tables in the newspaper” and not a single hand went up, Matt didn’t throw me out of the room when I looked at him and asked “why the fuck do you guys still print those things?”

Jeff – who knows newspapers and the newspaper business infinitely better than I do, goes through the question of “why stock tables” and much, much more in his post.

Finally, someone in the AGILEAMY crowd has done a meaningful strategic deal.  Google announced that they acquired dMarc Broadcasting today for $102 million cash and up to $1.1 billion of contingent cash payments over the next three years.  Thank god someone finally did something more than acquire a few engineers, some technology, or a minor add-on to something they already did, but not so well.  I was getting tired of hearing about all the sub $30 million “flip” deals that were “about to happen” and the new, exciting, and trendy prediction that “a crash of Web 2.0 companies is coming.”

Google’s acquisition is bold, smart, and completely logical if you step back and look at their business.  As we all know, Google sells advertising.  They are now expanding into audio and video.  Hmmm.  How about if we sell advertising on audio (that would be the radio – yeah – I know – there’s this thing called podcasting.)  Google states clearly why they bought dMarc:

“Google is committed to exploring new ways to extend targeted, measurable advertising to other forms of media,” said Tim Armstrong, vice president of Advertising Sales, Google. “We anticipate that this acquisition will bring new ad dollars and accountability to radio by combining Google’s expansive network of advertisers with dMarc’s talented team and innovative radio advertising technology. We look forward to working together to continue to grow and improve the ecosystem of the radio industry.”

Got it – simple and strategic.  I have no idea if this was a smart economic deal for Google – I’ll leave that for the financial analysts to prognosticate about. 

Now – how about video advertising?  Nick Grouf just launched SpotRunner and it appears his timing of this trend is right on the money.  While Google, et. al. could “build this”, why not just wade in and keep making aggressive moves now?  Oops – SpotRunner says “Beta” on it – eek – Nick – launch already!

Oh – did anyone notice that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought Business Wire today?  Ponder that one.