How much diligence should we do before signing a term sheet?

Sur le même thème que "How much diligence should we do before signing a term sheet?"

Postcard from Florida: A sign spring training is ending soon.

Mets equipment manager Charlie Samuels received a shipment of new suitcases for the players to use on the road this year. There’s also a sign up sheet for the players to put their cars on the truck heading north. [lien] [EN]

1st Term Report At The Noble Beatified Academy

Good evening parents. My name is Sr. Mary Catherine Abbot, of the good, stern Sisters of David. I am the vice principal at NBA. We here at the Noble Beatified Academy (or as we like to call it, the ‘NBA’) are glad to present to you your third grade class. They’ve been somewhat a challenge thus far, but I’m sure the good, stern Sisters of David will be able to whip them into shape. I’m proud to present to you, your third grade class report! Lawrence Angel - Oldest of the Angel twins, Larry has been performing quite above expectations. We did regard Larry as somewhat selfish, but he is doing very well at this point in time, and looks to get a good result come next summer’s exams. B+ Clifford Angel - Such a pity, young Clifford. Clifford suffers from constant comparisons to his older twin Larry… something he’s never been able to live up to. [lien] [EN]

Tigers Sign Marcus Thames to One Year Deal

The Tigers signed Marcus Thames to a one year, $1.125 million deal today and that gives the Tigers with an inexpensive homerun hitter coming off the bench.  I like the idea of Jacque Jones/Marcus Thames platoon because it plays to both players’ strengths.  There really wasn’t much urgency to sign Thames to longer term deal [...] [lien] [EN]

Another reason GMs are reluctant to sign Bonds

I neglected this in my writeup the other day, but there’s a huge reason that teams are reluctant to sign Bonds, no matter if he’s a bargain and if he’s a perfect fit: they’re human, and the sports press will absolutely tear into them for it. A lot of the weird, small moves we see at the edges of transaction wires are due to things we don’t know about: some guy is such a colossal jerk that the team waives him even though he’s a left-handed hitting backup catcher who can steal 15 bases a year. A minor league organizational soldier is called up for a week and given spot at-bats until he gets a major league hit. Two teams that could make a mutually beneficial trade won’t even talk to each other because one side’s still too angry about being dealt a pitcher with a bum shoulder years ago. [lien] [EN]

Contract signings

The Mets announced contract signings for their players with up to three years experience. John Maine’s contract was renewed, but assistant GM John Ricco said the team is interested in discussing a long-term deal. Also signed were: Adam Bostick, Ambiorix Burgos, Willie Collazo, Gotay, Anderson Hernandez, Ruddy Lugo, Carlos Muniz, Angel Pagan, Steven Register, Joe Smith, [...] [lien] [EN]

Monks Sign Universal Record Deal Thanks to YouTube, Probably God Too [Monk Business]

Holy Easter YouTubes! In what many would see as an Unholy Alliance between God and Satan, a group of monks from the Heiligenkreuz Abbey, in the Wienerwald region of Austria, have signed a worldwide music album contract with Universal Music. The label executives found out about the Cistercian monks' talent—who are the guards of a relic of the True Cross handed by Leopold V of Austria in 1188— thanks to YouTube. And indeed, they rock. If you are into Gregorian chant, that is: According to the BBC, Universal executive Tom Lewis said that "these guys found about the competition through a friend of theirs in London and they sent a link of their monastery and of them singing on YouTube. It was beautiful, beautiful music and they're using the very latest in terms of communication devices available to them to get their music heard. [lien] [EN]

Paper Sheet Protects World from Nuclear Holocaust [Pentagon Report]

A report released this month by the Pentagon has revealed the truth behind the B-52 bomber—loaded with six live nuclear warheads—flying over the US, a mistake that could have had catastrophic consequences. Their explanation: a 8.5 x 11-inch sheet of printed paper used to differentiate between nuclear and conventional missiles. Really, it can't get any more absurd than this: On August 31, 2007 an Air Force crew accidentally loaded six live nuclear warheads into a B-52 Stratofortress—stationed in the Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota—believing they were conventional cruise missiles. The weapons were missing, without anyone noticing it, for 36 hours until the B-52 landed in Louisiana. According to the Pentagon, this happened because the nuclear weapons were stored right next to conventional ones. [lien] [EN]

Silverlight bugs sign of growing user base, or bad code? [Online Video]

Cat-loving software developer Brent Simmons parses a lot of error logs maintaining NetNewsWire, an application for reading RSS feeds, and it's a fine perch on which to spot trends online. Lately he's been seeing more and more browsers borked by Microsoft plugin Silverlight, the software giant's tragically late multimedia competitor to Adobe's Flash. This could be a good sign for Microsoft in terms of a growing user base, but personally I've yet to see an installation of Silverlight in the wild, even on regular trips to Microsoft Country. I'm guessing the problems are more likely due to bloated code, a monopolist's tendency to ignore industry standards, or both. Simmons, for what it's worth, wishes a pox upon both houses because users blame his product when the big-shots' bugs cause problems with his product. [lien] [EN]

Waitress Fired For Hillary Sign At McCain Event? [Employment Mysteries]

A woman who works in a restaurant at the Little Rock airport said she was fired after she held up a Hillary Clinton sign in view of John McCain's landing plane. Micah Qualls says former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee saw her holding up the sign in the parking lot and complained to her boss, who promptly canned her. But Mike Huckabee and her boss say no such thing happened, and this is all a terrible misunderstanding! So who's lying — the sassy lassie who starred in a local theater production of "Anything Goes," or the devout governor whose covenant wedding Qualls protested three years ago? Ah, who cares! The point is, this tangled web has ensnared one diligent reporter for the Arkansas Times, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and various airport restaurant authorities. Every single literate resident of Arkansas has commented on this very important incident at the bottom of this blog post. [lien] [EN]

"I just invited everyone in my Outlook Contact sheet. And you were in there!!" [Reply All]

Boa-sporting Mediabistro.com proprietress Laurel Touby continues unabated in her menacing campaign to misuse email—an invention originally designed to simplify communications. Her latest infraction: in order to promote an upcoming "Mediabistro Circus," she decided to save a little time by sending a mass email to her entire contact list—all 2,000 people. The message starts off with an apology to those who "hate my guts," which is a good sign that perhaps it would be better to pursue a different outreach strategy. The entire ill-conceived email, after the jump. Okay, This is a little embarrassing. Please bear with me if you: a) are a former lover b) haven't heard from me in years or c) hate my guts My conference director asked me to "invite friends" to get a special discount on the Mediabistro Circus we're doing May 20. [lien] [EN]

Sony Signs on With tru2way: Kiss Your Cable Box Goodbye [Sony]

Joining Panny, Sammy and LG, Sony has signed on with the cable industry to support tru2way (aka OpenCable). Basically, sets with tru2way can do everything you'd usually need a set-top box from your cable company for, like VOD, programming guides and other interactive stuff, without the box (sounds like a future Giz Explains!). With Sony now, all of the major TV players are now on board, along with all the big cable companies like Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, etc., so it looks tru2way really might be a national cable standard, and not just a marketing thing with a cheesy brand name out of the mid-90s. Hopefully the cable boxes are now well on their way to extinction. Sony Electronics and Major U.S. Cable Operators Negotiate National "Two-Way" Plug and Play Solution Agreement Establishes Platform for Retail Devices to Receive Interactive Cable Services WASHINGTON. [lien] [EN]

Rate-Hike Speculation and Retail Sales Prime Dollar for Near-Term Rally

Grace Cheng submits: The near to medium-term outlook of the US dollar in the currency markets is one of relative strength, particularly against the Euro, Swiss franc, British pound and Japanese yen. Ever since Bernanke indicated he has his eyes fixated on the weakening dollar last week, together with US Treasury Secretary Paulson and president Bush reiterating this week their commitment to a stronger dollar, the change in dollar sentiment has been quite dramatic, although it went a little shaky after ECB’s Trichet said a small rate increase is possible in July. US retail sales report released today is USD-supportive as it showed that retail sales increased twice as much as forecast in May, climbing 1%, following a 0.4% gain in April that was previously reported as a decrease. This overall 1% gain is the most since November 2007 as American consumers spent their tax rebates at electronics and department stores. [lien] [EN]

Knicks Sign Duhon

According to the Associated Press, the New York Knicks have signed Chris Duhon. It’s thought that Duhon received a 2 year deal worth the full mid level exemption (about $5.8M per year.) The Knicks started out with an offer of about half that much, until the Magic offered Duhon an $11M deal for 3 years. New York then increased its offer in order to sign the former Bulls guard. Duhon has a good defensive reputation, but on offense he has a limited game. He averaged 6.4 assists per 36 minutes, which combined with his 1.7 turnovers/36 shows him to be good in terms of holding onto the ball and setting his teammates up. However Duhon is a limited scorer (9.3pts/36) who doesn’t get to the free throw line often (1.9fta/36). His shooting percentages aren’t impressive either (.508 ts%, . [lien] [EN]

Activision Lock Blizzard, Infinity Ward Bosses To Long-Term Deals [Activision Blizzard]

Newly-merged Activision Blizzard are the world's #1 publisher for a reason. Well, four reasons: World of Warcraft, Tony Hawk's, Call of Duty and Guitar Hero. So with the ink only just drying on the Activision/Blizzard merger, it makes sense for the new company to move to secure the talent behind those games. Variety reports that all the "top execs" at Blizzard have been signed to new, five-year deals, company boss Robert Kotick saying "We realized it would be impossible to compete [with 'World of Warcraft'] and so ultimately my only issue was making sure they were committed for at least five years". Smart move. The heads of Infinity Ward and Neversoft have also been signed to new deals, locking in most of the new mega-publishers top talent. Here's to five more uninterrupted years of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty! Blizzard. [lien] [EN]