Verizon Can’t Even Stand Net Neutrality Lite, Goes To Court To Challenge FCC’s Authority

Who saw this coming? (Oh, right: everyone.) Verizon has taken umbrage with certain aspects of Net Neutrality, and has taken the rather predictable tract of challenging the FCC’s authority in order to get out of complying with the rules. It’s nothing more than a simple case of if you can’t win an argument based on its own merit attack the credibility of your adversary. Verizon isn’t too keen on the provision that would force it to treat all data on its network equally, so it’s going to court to make sure it doesn’t have to.

Verizon, while claiming to be “committed to preserving an open Internet” (whatever that means), says that it’s “deeply concerned by the FCC’s assertion of broad authority for sweeping new regulation of broadband networks and the Internet itself.” Note the presence of the word “sweeping,” which is designed to make it seem like the sky is falling. Sweeping new regulations? What kind of evil agenda is at work here?

You know, making it so that ISPs don’t treat you and your data like dirt. Such an evil agenda, I know.

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The Clock Is Set For A Facebook IPO By April, 2012

Today, Facebook announced that it raised a total of $1.5 billion in its latest round, giving the company a valuation of $50 billion. But it also disclosed something else: when it will likely go public.

Buried at the bottom of its press release, it sets a date for when it expects to start filing public financial reports:

Even before the investment from Goldman Sachs, Facebook had expected to pass 500 shareholders at some point in 2011, and therefore expects to start filing public financial reports no later than April 30, 2012.

While Facebook could decide to report financial publicly without actually going public, once it goes through the trouble of financial reporting and the increased scrutiny that brings, there will be little remaining reasons to remain private. So the clock is now ticking. Expect a Facebook IPO by April, 2012.

With increasing SEC concerns about private trading of Facebook stock on places like SecondMarket and pooled funds like Goldman’s which are engineered to skirt SEC disclosure rules, putting a timetable on when financial disclosures will be forthcoming is probably a good idea.

Photo credit: Flickr/ kobiz7

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Great News: Missing Cybersecurity Expert Dancho Danchev Is No Longer Missing

A week ago, ZDNet ran a troubling story about that fact that one of its contributing bloggers, Bulgaria-native malware researcher Dancho Danchev, had gone missing since August 2010. His last blog post on ZDNet appeared on August 18, 2010, and his personal blog had last been updated three weeks later.

ZDNet stated that it had tried to contact them repeatedly, to no avail, and got in touch with Bulgarian CERT authorities to prompt an investigation into his sudden disappearance.

Well, good news: Danchev appears to be back online, safe and sound, judging by the recent activity on his Twitter account. From the looks of it, he’s already getting in touch with Larry Dignan, ZDNet Editor in Chief, as well as David Grober, Managing Editor of ZDNet Blogs.

Danchev tweets that he’ll be summarizing “everything that happened” in a blog post this weekend, although he adds that he won’t be able to disclose all details due to the sensitivity of his work. Either way, good to have you back, Dancho.

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So, What’s this Monkey Statue All About? (TCTV)

The Crunchies Statue. Sure, everyone wants it. But so many people ask us, “Why the hell is it a monkey?” (Hint.)

Still, no one was quite as confused by it as our new intern. Lucky for us a documentary crew was in that day to catch the footage. Watch below.

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Groupon CEO Andrew Mason: I’m Following The Arnold Schwarzenegger Guide To Leadership

This evening at the Crunchies, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason took home the coveted CEO of the Year award. But we couldn’t let him leave the stage without taking the opportunity to ask him a few questions about the red-hot company.

Our own Michael Arrington kicked things off by asking about Groupon’s press release for its recent funding round, when it “Raised, Like, A Billion Dollars“. Groupon and Mason have long had a very amusing and irreverent sense of humor. But how long can they keep that up before it causes a deal to fall through, or something else undesirable to happen?

Mason replied that he’s taking the Arnold Schwarzenegger approach to leadership. That is, he’s taking the first part of his career and doing everything stupid he can think of, so people have no expectations for him down the line (then again, he did just win CEO of the Year, so he’s not setting the bar too low).

Michael followed up by asking if Groupon had selected Morgan Stanley to lead the company’s IPO. Mason responded, “We are talking to bankers about the possibility of going public…. We have not made any decisions about whether to go public or who to do it with”.

Finally, Michael asked about Groupon’s revenue — could it do $4 billion this year?  To which Mason responded, “Which one’s the revenue?”

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George Zachary on Doing 30 Seed Deals a Year, Not Missing Hollywood and Crazy Jim Clark (TCTV)

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

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Electric Vehicle Makers, CODA Holdings, Appoint Phil Murtaugh CEO

Today, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based maker of electric vehicles and batteries, CODA Holdings, appointed auto industry veteran Phil Murtaugh as chief executive officer.

On a conference call, CODA’s interim CEO Steven “Mac” Heller described Murtaugh as someone who believes “the automotive industry can innovate rapidly and be more responsible as a global citizen,” and is deeply experienced in building American auto businesses in Asia. Earlier this month, the company raised a $76 million bringing its equity funding to about $200 million, sparking IPO rumors.

Murtaugh previously worked as chairman and chief executive officer of GM China. Over a decade, he grew GM’s presence there from fifteen employees in its Shanghai operations to 15,000 employees throughout the country, increasing the unit’s revenue from $300 million to more than $7 billion. In brief, Murtaugh discussed CODA’s plans in Asia, and how he will leverage his experience on behalf of the younger car company:

“We have a joint venture with one of the three largest battery manufacturers in China [Lishen Power Battery of Tianjin, China, whose principal shareholder is CNOOC, or China National Offshore Oil Company]. The joint venture is called LIO [Energy Systems]. They will manufacture the battery systems for [our] vehicles. We also have contract assembly agreements to assemble the [battery packs]…

A vast majority of CODA manufacturing will be in China. That fits nicely with experiences I’ve had [there] for the last 15 years. I understand China’s manufacturers and culture. My experience will help us deal with those situations. We’re going to introduce our vehicle into China’s domestic market as well as in the U.S.”

Through its battery system joint venture, currently CODA is a large-scale producer of power battery systems for the transportation and utility industries. Murtaugh touched upon CODA’s retail sales outlook for its vehicles in the U.S., as well.

“We haven’t announced our plans. But what I can tell you is this…We won’t start our retail sales through a traditional dealer network. It will involve setting up company-owned sales outlets. They will be in high visibility areas with lots of [foot] traffic where people will be able to walk in or make an appointment [online] to test drive vehicles. [Customers will be able to] configure their vehicles, and place orders online. This will be a no-haggle buying experience. That’s shown to be very, very successful with other [car] brands.”

With Murtaugh’s appointment, Miles L. Rubin, CODA’s founder and co-chairman becomes a chairman emeritus, remains a company director and the company’s largest shareholder. Heller, CODA Holdings interim CEO and a co-chairman, will move into the role of executive chairman.

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