December 19, 2006

While footnoted.org doesn’t typically spend a lot of time on small companies that aren’t quite publicly traded yet (indeed, this may very well be the very first post about one), the consulting agreement filed by InferX yesterday was too yummy to pass up. That’s because the Virigina-based software company, whose site lists mostly government clients, including the Missile Defense Agency, has decided to hire Michael D. "Heckuva Job Brownie" Brown according to an 8K filed late yesterday.

For his services, which the filing describes as "the development, marketing and presentation of our products to potential government and commercial customers", Brownie will be paid $8K a month and receive 75,000 options (@ .50 a pop). He’ll also get an 8% commission on any product sales and a 3% commission on any consulting sales. In fairness to Brown, he has repeatedly said that he was the fall-guy for the failed response to victims of Hurricane Katrina last year. The InferX gig is also not Brown’s first post-Katrina gig, as the NY Times reported back in late August. Still, it’s hard to imagine why a company like InferX would want to generate this kind of publicity by hiring such a high-profile guy.

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On a separate note, if you didn’t catch Stephen Colbert’s interview with former GE Chairman Jack Welch last night, you should (it’s a two parter and the funnier stuff is in Part 2). In it, Colbert asks Welch about why there’s so much talk about CEO pay and Welch says, "There’s not enough of it" meaning, we have to assume, that most CEOs are not paid enough money. He then goes on to talk about supply and demand and rolls out the tired old chestnut that because a few high-profile sports stars like Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka are paid a lot of money, CEOs should be too. Then again, what else can you expect from a guy who thought it was OK for shareholders to pay for his dry cleaning and fresh flowers?

