Googlers who want to revalue their underwater stock options will have to wait until Tuesday for the voluntary employee option exchange program to launch, Google said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that did not explain why. The program--which allows allow employees to exchange all or some of their existing stock options for the same number of new options--was scheduled to launch Thursday and end on March 3. Employees were notified of the change in an e-mail sent Wednesday by Laszlo Bock, vice president of People Operations at Google, and which was included in the filing. "We will send you an e-mail no later than next Tuesday to confirm the new program time line," the e-mail said. "We will be sharing a comprehensive FAQ with you on the date of launch. We understand this delay will raise questions. For regulatory reasons, it is simply not possible to answer all of your questions before the launch, but please know we remain committed to offering this program." Google announced the one-for-one stock option exchange program last week when it posted its fourth quarter results, which included a decline in earnings from a year ago that were impacted by stock option expenses. The program is intended to create more incentives for employees to remain at the company. Given that Google stock rose to greater than $700 a share in late 2007 and now trades around $340 a share, many employees would otherwise find themselves holding worthless options. Google said last week that the new options were expected to have an exercise price equal to the closing per-share price on March 2 and that stock options with exercise prices above that would be eligible for exchange. The company also said it expected to take a stock-based compensation charge of $460 million in the first quarter as a result of the program.
[Via: cnet.com ]
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Google delays stock option exchange program
Who needs instant on? Moblin boots in about 15 seconds
I've read about moblin before, but when it resurfaced in my newsreader this morning I decided it was time to take a look at the project a bit more closely. The moblin OS is built on Linux and optimized for Intel-based notebooks, netbooks, and MIDs. It is currently in alpha testing, but already looks very promising.
Most of the other Linux distributions I've tested on my MSI Wind were "customized" for netbooks, but they ultimately ended up feeling like a standard desktop distribution with an interface tweaked for small displays.
One thing immediately sets moblin apart from the others.
After installing it to the hard drive and rebooting my system, it took a mere 16 seconds to get from the Grub menu to the XFCE desktop. Holy boot times, Batman! That's impressive.
I'm aware that users have gotten times like this before with distros like Arch, but Moblin will be easier to deal with for most netbook users.
The pre-installed applications are kept to a minimum - Firefox is included and you'll be able to enjoy your music and videos with Movie Player. There are also lightweight GTD apps for managing contacts, tasks, and a calendar. You can, of course, add whatever other packages you like through yum or add/remove software.
If you want to take moblin for a test drive you can download an iso file, or a virtual machine for VMware or KVM. Keep in mind this is an alpha release. Moblin's finished form may look nothing like this, but it's an intriguing project even at this stage of the game.
[Via: Download Squad ]
[Tag: linux, mid, moblin, netbook ]
Digg hires new sales chief from Yahoo
Social media site Digg.com announced Tuesday that it has hired one of Yahoo's top salesmen to be its new head of sales. Tom Shin, who had been at the Web search pioneer for seven years, will be responsible for developing Digg's advertising sales strategy and managing strategic relationships, including Microsoft, the company said. At Yahoo, Shin oversaw product marketing for My Yahoo and Messenger, and was credited with helping Yahoo Mail's annual revenue grow from $20 million to more than $300 million. Digg CEO Jay Adelson announced Thursday that the company would be hiring a new direct sales force and head of sales to drive the company to profitability this year. He also said the partnership Digg has with Microsoft to sell standard advertising units will continue. But Digg will be rolling out higher-profile advertising programs, and features on the site to support them, that his internal sales force will be pitching. The company, which raised new capital and doubled in size in 2008, also announced layoffs last week, but Adelson said Digg's engineering and core development group wouldn't be affected by the layoffs. The cuts will come in areas "not core to our function. We'll be shifting some of that cost to a sales force," he said. Shin is expected to join Digg in mid-February.
[Via: cnet.com ]
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