SiliconBeat

Funds run by Austin Marxe and David Greenhouse will be excluded from the definition of an “Acquiring Person” under PlanetOut’s shareholder rights agreement, commonly referred to as a “poison pill”, despite the fact that the two investors have acquired more than Read the rest of this entry »

PlanetOut, the online media company serving the lesbian and gay community through its Web sites Gay.com and PlanetOut.com, has a new majority shareholders, based on a filing made today by New York investors Austin Marxe and David Greenhouse. They are the controlling principals of AWM Investment, two of whose funds now control 1.03 million shares, or 25.2 percent of PlanetOut’s stock.

They bought more than half of their stake on March 12, paying just Read the rest of this entry »

PlanetOut, the San Francisco-based online media company that operates the Gay.com and PlanetOut.com Web sites, reported to the SEC last week that its chief executive, Karen Magee, approved plans on Jan. 9 to lay off 33 percent of the company’s work, including Chief Technology Officer William Bain.

Bain, who joined the company in February 2007, is entitled to severance equal to nine months of pay, which works out to about $187,500 based on the company’s most recent report on compensation and Bain’s employment agreement. That totals nearly a quarter of the $775,000 the company said it would take in charges for severance payments related to the planned layoffs. The other 78 or so employees being let go will split the remaining amount, which works out to an average payment for each of about $7,533 .

This time last year PlanetOut adopted a retention and severance plan for some of its management staff that the company estimated would cost it from $700,000 to $1.6 million to implement.