It has all the makings of the EMP Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Tomorrow’s science fact meets today’s science (non-) fiction.
Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page and Google Chairman, Eric Schmidt, have teamed up with explorer and film director, James Cameron, to rock their celestial worlds, and their tax returns. By investing in what? Asteroid mining? Not the depths of Internet data, nor the depths of our planet’s oceans where Cameron was recently laying low. Not these, mind you, but the prospective mineral yields from inter-planetary asteroids. Holy write-off, Batman! Either asteroids house diamonds, rubies and petroleum or this could be better than the drilling for dry-well “Oil Depletion” allowances of the IRS in the 1980’s!
The new venture, dubbed “Planetary Resources” will be unveiled at the Museum of Flight in Seattle later this week. The Wright Brothers meet the Wrong Brothers!
The project could even be considered cross-platform, since Microsoft’s former chief software architect, Charles Simonyi, and Google’s K. Ram Shriram are also named “investors.”
“The company will overlay two critical sectors – space exploration and natural resources – to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP,” according to the press release. Global GDP? Where exactly is that valuation monetized? The Star Fleet Federation has yet to energize its warp drive stock exchange. Is there a trading post on Romulus!
Eric Anderson is one of the co-founders of Planetary Resources, a former NASA Mars mission manager. Another is X-Prize space entrepreneur Peter Diamandis.
In Avatar, James Cameron envisioned a world where the militaristic mining of natural resources threatened an ancient civilization. Let’s hope he, and his distinguished colleagues, will adhere to their mission of virtuous exploration and “Do No Evil,” either to the fictitious Navi or the fractious planet Earth. [24×7]
Hunger Games Seattle: Onvia Set for Proxy Fight to the Finish!
It’s been a very tough decade for a company committed to governmental growth and business opportunity. “Starving the Beat,” to coin one political party’s mantra, has not been good for Onvia’s appetite.
No surprise then, that a recent Onvia press release has called on its stockholders to reject the low-ball, buy-out offer of Symphony Technology Group.
In February, Symphony made an offer to buy Onvia for just over $36 million. For a company that made nearly $240 million in 2000 when it launched its initial public offering, the offer just wasn’t enough. The board rejected it. In February, Symphony offered to buy Onvia for just over $36 million. But Onvia earned close to $240 million in 2000 when it launched its initial public offering. The “offer” seemed like a low-ball bluff. The board rejected it.
Then Symphony announced three new board nominees.
“This may be the most important vote you have ever made regarding Onvia and its future,” said Onvia Chairman D. Van Skilling in a letter to stockholders.
Onvia’s annual shareholders meeting occurs May 31. Is that enough time for stockholders to weight the verdict? Stay tuned?! [24×7]
