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Silk Road 2.0 staffer gets 8 years in prison
It's clear that authorities want Silk Road 2.0's operators to face stiff penalties for running an online black market... even when they're not the top dogs. A federal judge has sentenced Brian Farrell, a key assistant to site architect Blake Benthall, to 8 years in prison. Farrell had pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to sell illegal drugs (including cocaine, heroin and meth) through the Dark Web portal, which emerged just weeks after law enforcement shut down the original Silk Road in fall 2013.
THQ CEO calls PS3 Motion Controller 'Arc' throughout investor call
Even after all this time Sony's hand-held wand bent on bringing some of that interactive Wii game play to the PS3 still doesn't have a name. Announced at E3, Sony as recently as January 20th was still calling its PS3 Motion Controller, well, "Motion Controller" in its official communications with a footnote that the name was still tentative. Of course, we've heard whispers that it'll be called Arc -- and we're not alone. THQ boss Brian Farrell has either been reading the same sites as us or (more likely) is privy to some inside information. During an investor call, Farrell referred to the "PlayStation Arc motion controller" multiple times in both his prepared statements and in the Q&A round that followed. Remember, this is the same man who loose-lipped the Natal launch date well before Ballmer confirmed it for late 2010. Yeah, so PlayStation Arc it is.
THQ's CEO joins the fun, says Natal is coming "late next year"
So, let's recap. We've got Microsoft's own Steve Ballmer on record saying that the company's Project Natal is on track for a 2010 release, a redaction of said statement, and a slimy report from overseas noting that the motion-sensing accessory is slated for a 2H 2010 launch. Just in case you needed one more modicum of evidence that Natal is headed for Christmas trees far and wide next year, THQ CEO Brian Farrell has said as much on the company's Q1 earnings call. To quote: "With respect to the cycle itself, if you look at what's happening in the industry, the fact that we have for example, Natal from Microsoft, a platform addition coming late next year." Of course, Mr. Farrell here may just be regurgitating news that he heard through the grapevine rather than inadvertently slipping the world a piece of insider knowledge, but hey, are you seriously going to question the insight of the guy who green-lit Bratz: Super Babyz? Exactly.
THQ CEO Brian Farrell exercises stock options, sells shares
We don't claim to be stock market experts (we don't know how anyone can keep up with all those bulls and bears and acronyms) but we're pretty sure that when a company's head honcho exercises options for over 73 thousand shares in his own company, then promptly sells off close to 53 thousand of those shares (netting a cool $10 million profit in the process), that's usually kind of a bad moon rising for said organization. When the honcho in question is Brian Farrell, CEO of the economically tumultuous game designer and publisher THQ, our rarely used financial spider-sense can't help but tingle. Sure, our conjecture could be entirely off base -- Farrell might just want to fill his swimming pool with singles -- but considering the company's recent chain of headline-making damage control maneuvers, we can't help but wonder if THQ is more SOL than anyone could have guessed.
