Natalie Cedeno is a former Director of HR at Penthouse Internet slash Various, Inc. slash FriendFinder Networks.  Penthouse acquired Various Inc. (parent company of FriendFinder) for $500 million around December 2007.

“Natalie is one of the best HR managers I have worked with. She is a true professional and is always there to assist and guide staff through any situation. Natalie possesses strong organizational skills and a deep knowledge of many other areas including leadership/executive level coaching, facilities management, payroll and office operations,” stated Mike Rogers a colleague of Cedeno, on her LinkedIn profile as a testimonial of her work. “I would recommend Natalie to any organization looking to hire a seasoned HR manager and would gladly work with her again.”

It sounds like Cedeno was a good employee, but it appears that FriendFinder pushed the wrong buttons.  She has been fired since then and she is taking FriendFinder to court over labor laws.  Here is the full story.

Cedeno claims that FriendFinder withheld two years of pay that she was owed under her contract unless she stayed silent about FriendFinder’s violations.  Cedeno’s lawyers believed this is a case of extortion.  Cedeno filed the claim under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

Both FriendFinder Networks and Penthouse Media Group are adult entertainment companies.  As a token of appreciation to the FriendFinder, Penthouse sent a few Penthouse Pets to the California offices from Florida where Cedeno worked.

When one female employee complained about the Penthouse Pets coming to the FriendFinder officers, executives had the Pets humiliate the employee.  “They came into her office and placed her breasts on her head in an attempt to humiliate her, and they had someone ready to take pictures,” stated Cedeno.  The employee quit one month after.

Valleywag points out that if Cedeno wins the law suit, it could affect the IPO that FriendFinder was planning.  And if FriendFinder’s executives are penalized financially, the company may have a hard time paying off the $420 million in debt that they currently have.

There are a plethora of other problems that the company has right now.  This includes the recent firing of the company’s sales department, the COO hating on the operations team, and a former controller planning to file an age-discrimination lawsuit.  Its just one big mess.

What are your thoughts?  Leave a comment.

Nintendo in Japan has unleashed a new controller for the Wii.  To best honest, I think I liked the look of this controller when the Nintendo 64 first came out.  But that was 1996 and this is 2009.  Nintendo, its your own fault for setting the bar high for yourself.  I rate this controller as being “uglii.”

The controller is coming this summer and no price has been announced yet.  No word yet on whether it is going to make its way overseas to the U.S.  Do wii care?  Not reallii.

John Linwood quit Yahoo! last year.  He was Senior VP of International Engineering for about 5 years.  Before that he was with the MSN team at Microsoft for 10 years.  Looks like all that technology experience paid off because he was offered a position at BBC as the Chief Technology Officer.  Linwood will be joining on April 1.

Linwood will be responsible for maintaining the company’s technical infrastructure.  The CTO position was created recently as a direct result of a restructuring of the future media and technology department made by Director Erik Huggers.

“As the BBC moves into the digital age, more of our content is being produced and distributed using digital platforms, placing a greater emphasis on software engineering,” stated Huggers. “With 28 years’ experience as a software executive, John’s appointment adds critical expertise to our proud broadcast engineering heritage.”

Another result of the restructuring last year was Anthony Rose becoming controller of vision and online media.  Richard Titus took the controller position of audio, music, and mobile.

Solomon Trujillo, CEO of Telstra will be stepping down on June 30.  Telstra is a telecommunications company based in Australia.  His salary with the telecommunications company is about $11 million plus bonuses.  Trujillo put Telstra in an awkward position because he initiated confrontation with the Australian government regarding regulation against the telecommunications company.

“The whole world is turning against the sort of attitude that Trujillo put on display,” stated Paul Budde, head of BuddeComm.

Trujillo was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming and received his Bachelors and MBA from the University there.  Trujillo joined Telstra around the middle of 2005 and was previously CEO of US West, Graviton, and Orange.  In December, Telstra was ejected from the National Broadband Network after submitting an incomplete bid.

Telstra’s Next G wireless broadband will be boosted to 21Mbps and they are consolidating to an all-IP core according to CNET.   The new CEO will oversee the transition to this new network.  The infrastructure must prove to be relevant and profitable.  Telstra also will need to quickly offer new applications and services that utilizes the new network.

Budde believes that the new CEO will not be within the company.  The new leader “will have to be a far more diplomatic, more charismatic person who is willing to sit down with the government–and not the level of arrogance that Trujillo has displayed.”

LG is known for creating sharp LCD monitors.  The W2261VG is no exception.  This monitor has full HD resolution.  The TN panel LCD has 1000:1 contract, 300 cd/m2 brightness, and 160/170 viewing angles.  The monitor has HDMI, VGA, HDCP, and DVI-D connections.  This monitor is great for gaming and other multimedia uses.

Currently this device is only available in Japan with an MSRP of 22,000 Yen ($226).

[via SlashGear]

At an investors conference, Yahoo! CFO said today that the search engine company is not opposed to a search deal.  BI spotted him making this statement on Bloomberg today.  “The deal would have to maximize the unit’s value, Jorgensen said during a presentation today at an investor conference,” stated Jorgensen.

The talks about a search deal with Microsoft reignited when Steve Ballmer stated yesterday that Microsoft was still interested in a deal, but the new Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz ignored discussion requests.  I think that the companies should move on and go their separate ways.  Each company has their own strategy and business plan, combining them will not take away a lot of Google’s market share for search.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has decided to file a lawsuit against TomTom today regarding the violation of in-car navigation services.  Microsoft believes that TomTom is violating 8 of their patents.  Three of these violations relate to the way that TomTom implemented the Linux kernel.  Using Linux isn’t the main point of the lawsuit, but it is more of the violation of using proprietary software.  Microsoft said that they filed the lawsuit out of last resort.

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle and the International Trade Commission.  Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s corporate VP and deputy general counsel stated that this is the first time Microsoft has had this kind of lawsuit.  Both of the previous lawsuits were settled after they were filed.  Microsoft has had about 500 patent licensing deals made in the past 5 years.

“In exceptional cases such as this one, when a pragmatic business agreement cannot be reached, we feel that we really have no choice but to pursue legal action to protect our innovations and our partners who license them,” stated Gutierrez.  Microsoft has struck licensing deals with other in-car navigation services.  The company “remains open” to resolving the TomTom lawsuit quickly.

[via TechFlash]

Today there was a shareholder meeting for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).  Even though the company has been hush-hush about the matter of Steve Jobs’ health over the last 9 months, Tim Cook assures that he will be back.  There will be no changes to the announcement that they made earlier.  Jobs will return in June.

“He is deeply involved in all strategic matters and has delegated day-to-day authority to Tim Cook and his team,” stated a co-lead director of Apple and the CEO Genentech Inc. Arthur Levinson, “That’s where it stands.”

Apple general counsel Daniel Cooperman refused to answer a question about how Apple handled the investigation by security regulators regarding the disclosure of Jobs’ health.  “I was disappointed by the fact that the board was not more transparent about the health of Mr. Jobs in addition to a succession plan,” stated Brandon Rees, representative of the AFL CIO Reserve Fund.

Cook also gave an update regarding the shareholder voting of Apple’s eight member board of directors.  Jobs, Al Gore, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt were re-elected.  Steve Jobs turned 54 this week.

[via NYT]