VentureBeat

Here’s the latest action:

Silicon Valley high-powered law firm Wilson Sonsini pays $9.5M to brocade to protect itself from civil claims, and Brocade leaves the Wilson Sonsini out of law suit — In a striking development in the valley’s ongoing stock option backdating scandal, Brocade is now suing 10 former executives and board members for the $830 million in costs it has incurred because of the scandal. Criminally convicted CEO Gregory Reyes and HR chief Stephanie Jensen are named along with other defendants in the 282-page complaint. However, notably, one name is missing: Larry Sonsini, who sat on the company’s board when Brocade backdated stock options. His firm was outside counsel. Still, strangely, Sonsini has remained relatively protected from legal action throughout. There’s no explicit proof Sonsini has done anything wrong, but increasingly tongues here in the valley are wagging about how Sonsini has been able to avoid blame when he was on the board throughout. Sonsini and his firm claim they were “misled” by the company, but for one of the valley’s biggest scandal’s to unfold right under his firm’s nose is a significant screw-up for his firm nonetheless. Will this be the end of it, we wonder? Law.com has the details. Significantly, the company decided not to sue Sonsini in part after considering his firm’s “willingness” to help the company resolve any “outstanding questions” about the backdating. Wilson’s money was a factor, too, according to a footnote in the filing, which disclosed that the Wilson Sonsini paid $9.5 million to Brocade to help it with its costs. Is this a legal settlement by other means?

Finnish travel site TripSay opens to the public — The site focuses on finding and sharing travel tips. TripSay has apparently improved its search tools and interactivity since we wrote about its private test.

Russian online advertising booms — It is up 73 percent in the first half of the year.

Microsoft teams up with Paramount Pictures and Ubisoft Entertainment for in-game promotion of film “Tropic Thunder” – The companies have placed an interactive scavenger hunt in “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2,” published by Ubisoft, which encourages gamers to actively interact with the dynamic in-game campaign, take action from the clues, and get rewarded at the final stage of the hunt. Microsoft’s participation is led by its unit Massive, the network for video game advertising

Meteor Games introduces new multi-player game — Meteor, the independent game studio created by Neopets founders Adam Powell and Donna Williams, is developing Twin Skies, a multi-player game that will target players of all ages with all new content, accessible gameplay and advanced social options. While Twin Skies is a complete, fully 3D PC MMOG, players will be able to interact with and impact the online game world in new ways, including through a series of extensive web-based activities, mobile applications and social networking capabilities.

Doctoc provides new way to share business plans — The company is making it possible for entrepreneurs to track when the VC has viewed their business plan, when they have downloaded it, and see who they have emailed it to – and they can prevent anyone from downloading the document. More here, and example here.

Business listing site MerchantCircle launches “instant website” service — The service pulls the information from a business’ MerchantCircle listing and creates a new website without requiring any extra work.

Green power use on the rise — One of the reasons cited by a Florida commission for forcing Florida Power and Light to shutter its popular green energy program is that the concept of a voluntary buy-in to green energy “has kind of had its day in the sun”, according to an official interviewed by Earth2Tech. Prices have shot up because of intense competition to buy the renewably generated electricity.