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Burst.com Adds New Board Member
CEO and VP of Operations Sign 3-year
Employment Contracts
-New U.S. Patent Grant Announced-
Santa Rosa, Calif., May 26th, 2005– Burst.com, Inc. (OTC: BRST), a
provider of patented media delivery software and intellectual property,
today announced that at the request of the Company’s Board of Directors,
long-time Burst.com investor and cable industry pioneer Gordon Rock has
joined the Company’s Board of Directors. Rock joins current outside Board
members Barry Ritholtz and Brian Murphy, as well as Chairman & CEO Richard
Lang, increasing the Board’s size to 4 individuals.
Rock has been an investor in each of the Company’s financings since
making his original investment in 1992. He was also the Company’s only
secured creditor until his debt was retired in April of this year,
following the successful licensing of Burst’s patent portfolio to
Microsoft Corporation in March for $60 million. Rock has an
entrepreneurial communications background in cable television, cellular
and satellite distribution. He has also advised and invested in several
early stage and turnaround companies
According to Lang, “Gordon Rock has been in the Company’s corner since
1992, and has provided invaluable and unwavering assistance at multiple
junctures over the years. We are extremely pleased and honored that Mr.
Rock has now officially joined our team as a Board member and we look
forward to his valuable experience and contributions going forward.” Lang
also announced that Eric Walters, the Company’s Vice President of
Operations, was appointed as the Company’s Secretary.
The company also announced that as of May 17, 2005, its CEO Richard
Lang and its Vice President of Operations Eric Walters have both signed
new 3-year employment agreements with the company. As part of his
agreement, Mr. Lang was granted an option to purchase 1,250,000 shares of
the company’s common stock at an exercise price of $.50 per share. Mr.
Walters was granted an option to purchase 250,000 shares, also at an
exercise price of $.50 per shares. Options for both executives vested
immediately and both have exercised their options in their entirety with
4-year non-recourse Promissory Notes with the company. The Board also
extended existing non-recourse promissory notes for both executives until
May 2009 and added a provision providing for forgiveness of the notes, at
the election of the executives, under several circumstances, most notably
including the termination of either executive without cause or acquisition
of the company or substantially all of its assets by a person or entity
not currently in control of the company. Salary levels for both executives
remained at current levels.
According to Burst Director Barry Ritholtz, “We are very pleased to
announce that Mr. Lang and Mr. Walters have signed on to continue in their
leadership of the company at this important juncture. Over the past 15
years, they have proven themselves to be tirelessly dedicated individuals
with the interest of the shareholders always in the forefront. As pioneers
in the industry who have already been validated by Burst’s success thus
far, they are poised to lead Burst into the next exciting phase of our
company’s development. As outside Board members, we are thrilled to see
these employment agreements put into place.” According to Ritholtz, both
executives’ employment agreements contain separate Intellectual Property
Agreements that assign innovations by either individual during the course
of their employment to Burst. Mr. Lang and Mr. Walters are both currently
the inventors-of-record for most of the company’s issued and pending
patents around the world.
Mr. Ritholtz is chief market strategist for the Maxim Group in New
York. He is a frequent guest on CNBC, Fox and other business news outlets,
as well as a contributor to TheStreet.com. On May 18th, he and Mr. Brian
Murphy, a member of Burst’s Board of Directors since 1994, each received a
3-year option to purchase 200,000 shares of the company’s common stock at
an exercise price of $.50 per share. Also, in conjunction with his new
appointment as a Board member on May 24th, Mr. Gordon Rock was granted a
3-year option to purchase 50,000 shares of the Company’s common stock at a
price of $.54 per share. Options for all 3 board members vested
immediately. The company’s Office Manager was granted an option to
purchase 50,000 shares of the company’s common stock at an exercise price
of $.50 per share, which vested immediately, and which he has exercised
with a 4-year non-recourse note with the Company.
According to Lang, “We are very fortunate to have a Board of Directors
that has taken a thoughtful, meaningful and active role in the affairs of
the Company. Over the course of many years and multiple challenges along
the way, they continue to serve without any cash compensation, so we are
pleased to be able to provide them with the incentive to continue in their
important and valuable ongoing contributions to the company.”
The Company also announced that is has been granted a new patent from
the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. U.S. patent # 6,850,965, entitled
"Method For Connection And Rapid Determination Of Optimal Multi-Media
Content Delivery Over Network," is authored by the Company's former Chief
Scientist, Arthur Allen. According to Lang, Burst’s newest patent brings
Mathematical Optimization Theory to bear on the problems associated with
multi-media network delivery.
“Many in the industry have mistakenly assumed that cheap storage and
lots of bandwidth alone will provide the quality of service required for
commercially viable video-on-demand, somehow solving all media deliver
problems in one step; no less important is the ability to effectively
manage and fully utilize aggregate network and server capacity. This
patent describes an approach which artfully combines dynamic "burst" media
delivery and optimal utilization of network & server resources. We believe
that as the industry continues to develop, the value of this intellectual
property will become increasingly apparent, and we look forward to
successfully incorporating it into our licensing programs” Lang noted.
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About Burst.com:
Burst.com, headquartered in Santa Rosa, California, is the developer of
Faster-Than-Real-Time™ and Burst-Enabled™ video and audio delivery
software. Burst.com’s Burstware® provides high-quality delivery of
full-motion video and CD-quality audio over IP-based networks. The
company, established in 1990, has built an international patent portfolio
covering bursting, video delivery scheduling and Rapid-casting.
Burstware®, Faster-Than-Real-Time™ and Burst-Enabled™ are trademarks of
Burst.com. More information about Burst.com is available at
www.burst.com.
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