DigitalGlobe is a Longmont, Colorado based company that sells space imagery and geospatial content. DigitalGlobe also operates a remote sensing spacecraft. The company was started in 1992 and has 350 employees. Some of their customers include Google (Google Earth, Google Maps), GeoEye, Spot Image, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The company is planning for an IPO this month in order to raise money for building a new satellite.  They were planning to go IPO last year but postponed it due to the weak economy.  Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Citi, UBS Investment Bank, JPMorgan, and Jefferies will be handling the offering.  Lehman will be helping despite their Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Lehman has $20 million in debt owed by DigitalGlobe.  After the IPO, Lehman also has the right to appoint five out of nine of DigitalGlobe’s board members due to being a large enough investor.  DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 orbiter will cost roughly $283 million which will be fully paid for after going IPO.

GeoEye Inc. is DigitalGlobe’s biggest competitor.  GeoEye is based in Dulles, Virginia and they employ about 130 people.  DigitalGlobe earned about $95.8 million on $151.7 million in revenue in 2007.

DigitalGlobe will be the fifth IPO this year in the United States.

[via alarmclock/StreetInsider]

The Union Bank of Switzerland made a pretty massive error.  The Swiss bank company made a $31 billion order ($3 trillion yen) in convertible bonds in the Japanese game company.  This deal would have been the biggest on the Tokyo stock exchange, but it turns out the order was made on accident.  The amount was wrong due to a computer error.

In actuality the investment amount was supposed to be 31 million yen ($314,000).  On the official Capcom blog, the company revealed that they were ready to do a happy dance when they first heard amount the investment.

“The official Capcom happy-dance began when we heard that financial titan UBS AG placed an order for 3 TRILLION yen (that’s 31 billion bucks!) in Capcom stock yesterday. We were unfortunately forced to reveal that there, um, isn’t ¥3 trillion worth of Capcom stock for sale, so they revised their order to a measly ¥31 million.”

Regardless of the error, at least Capcom will have a great year with the release of Street Fighter IV and it sounds like The Legend of Chun Li movie is doing okay.  Capcom is also about to launch Resident Evil 5 on March 13.  UBS apologized for their error.

[via VentureBeat]

Napster, Inc. (NASDAQ:NAPS) has hired UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) to help them with their proxy battle and to solicit an acquisition. Napster is a small competitor of iTunes and Amazon.com and was the talk of the tech town in the late 90’s/early 2000’s.

There are three shareholders that are looking to have the current Board of Napster ousted. Perry H. Rod, Thomas Sailors, and Kavan P. Singh are the three shareholders that are having a proxy battle with the current Board. Napster’s annual shareholder meeting is taking place on September 18. The Board is seeking to have Richard J. Boyko, Philip J. Holthouse and Robert Rodin re-elected.

The letter to shareholders is available after the jump.

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Today Microsoft made an announcement that they would be acquiring Parlano. Parlano is a Chicago, Ill. based company that developed software called MindAlign, an enterprise group chat messaging system. Microsoft is expecting to implement Parlano software as a part of Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator. Microsoft Office Communicator is an internal messaging system that works similar to Windows Live Messenger, commonly used among major corporations.

“Parlano has been successful in meeting the rigorous communications needs of companies in financial services and other vertical markets,” stated Gurdeep Singh Pall, the corporate vice president of the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft. “Parlano’s expertise and technology, added to Microsoft’s unified communications offering, will deliver customers the most complete presence, instant messaging and group chat solution on the market.”

Financial terms for the acquisition were not disclosed. Parlano is a spin-off from UBS (Union Bank of Switzerland) and has 50 employees. Parlano’s investors include Longworth Venture Partners and Oak Investment Partners.

“Parlano has helped many organizations enhance operations, improve service delivery and increase sales through more effective ongoing group communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing,” stated Nick Fera, the chairman and CEO of Parlano. “The resulting competitive advantage will be further enhanced as we bring Parlano technology together with Microsoft Office Communications Server and Office Communicator.”