links for 2009-10-08

• Ask The VC: How To Wind Down Your Company
  Of the most popular posts that Brad and I have created are our series on Term Sheets, Compensation, and Mergers and Acquisitions. One of the subjects that we've wanted to tackle has been the dissolution of companies. It's never fun to think about failure, but it happens a lot. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten around to it yet, so it was with great joy that my friend Roger Glovsky elected to write the series himself. This is post one of the series and I'm really excited to introduce Roger to our readers. Take it away, Roger.
  (tags: vc shutdown)
• Civilian, Military Officials at Odds Over Resources Needed for Afghan Counterinsurgency - washingtonpost.com
  In early March, after weeks of debate across a conference table in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the participants in President Obama's strategic review of the war in Afghanistan figured that the most contentious part of their discussions was behind them. Everyone, save Vice President Biden's national security adviser, agreed that the United States needed to mount a comprehensive counterinsurgency mission to defeat the Taliban. That conclusion, which was later endorsed by the president and members of his national security team, would become the first in a set of recommendations contained in an administration white paper outlining what Obama called "a comprehensive, new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan." Preventing al-Qaeda's return to Afghanistan, the document stated, would require "executing and resourcing an integrated civilian-military counterinsurgency strategy."
  (tags: Politics afghanistan)

• Iraqis on U.S.-Created Councils Feel Vulnerable as Pullout Looms - washingtonpost.com
  Weeks after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, as parts of the capital were still smoldering, American soldiers and diplomats turned to men like Hassan Shama and Omar Rahman Rahmani in their quest to plant the seeds of representative democracy. In Baghdad, Iraq's capital, they held impromptu neighborhood caucuses to appoint district and neighborhood advisory councils. The local government bodies were given no official charter, lawmaking power or public budget. In the years that followed, as the capital became a bloody battleground and the country descended into near-anarchy, council members were among the U.S. military's staunchest allies. They provided information about extremists, offered insight into Iraqi society and gave American-imposed security measures a veneer of Iraqi legitimacy.
  (tags: Politics iraq)
• Will Google's Wave Replace E-Mail—and Facebook? - BusinessWeek
  Google has big plans for Google Wave, its new online communication service—and they won't all come from Google. The Web search giant is hoping that software developers far and wide will create tools that work in conjunction with Wave, making an already multifaceted service even more useful. Google (GOOG) is even likely to let programmers sell their applications through an online bazaar akin to Apple's App Store, the online marketplace for games and other applications designed for the iPhone. "We'll almost certainly build a store," Lars Rasmussen, the Google software engineering manager who directs the 60-person team in Sydney, Australia, that created Wave, told BusinessWeek.com. "So many developers have asked us to build a marketplace—and we might do a revenue-sharing arrangement."
  (tags: Google wave)
• Toward a Wider Wireless World - washingtonpost.com
  Cellphone giants to federal regulators: We can hear you now. That appeared to be the message from AT&T and Verizon Wireless on Tuesday when the telecom giants announced separately that they would open their networks more widely to popular, and potentially rival, phone services. The twin policy decrees came as the Federal Communications Commission gets ready to take up rules that would prevent carriers from picking and choosing what services can access the Internet.
  (tags: Verizon att Mobile Google Android)
• NC-based Ziptronix raises $500,000 through debt, options
  NC-based Ziptronix raises $500,000 through debt, options
  (tags: grotech vc ziptronix)
• Maryland-based BroadSoft buys Packet Island
  BroadSoft Inc., a company selling VoIP application software to the telecom industry, has acquired Packet Island Inc., a California based company selling VoIP and video network monitoring tools. Financial details were not disclosed. Venture-backed BroadSoft has raised about $76 million since 1998. Its investors include: Bessemer Venture Partners, Charles River Ven tures, Columbia Capital, Crescendo Ventures, Grotech Capital Group, RRE Ventures and Meritech Capital Partners. BroadSoft bought California-based rival Sylantro Systems in January.
  (tags: grotech vc broadsoft)