GetMondo or GizFugu?: Carl Freer Appointed President of GetFugu

Enhanced mobile search marketing company, GetFugu (GFGU), filed an 8-K with the SEC on Friday to handle a bunch of housekeeping, the most notable item being the appointment of the company's largest shareholder (21%) and Co-Founder, Carl Freer, as President and board member. As part of the board appointment, Freer was granted 2mil options at a strike price of $0.37 (today's stock price) vesting over 3 years. Freer is (in)famous for his association with Gizmondo, the connected handheld gaming device he launched back in 2002, while Chairman of Tiger Telematics. The rise and dramatically scandalicious fall of that platform, the company, and some of the colorful characters associated with it, are the stuff of console and mobile games industry legend... giving rise to an extensive Wired article back in 2006 that, as I reported back in May, is currently being developed into a film.

The 8-K also addressed the settlement of pending litigation against the company from spurned investor SpongeTech (SPNG). It looks like GetFugu was able to make SpongeTech happy by issuing 5.25mil shares of common stock to an associated holding company, R.M. Enterprises International, in exchange for retaining the $1.75mil advance deposit it received during the investment negotiation process. GetFugu also has issued 20mil shares to two former company advisors, Amber Capital Corporation and Summit Trading Limited, to settle outstanding compensation claims. These two items lead one to believe that the company, in the wake of the commercial rollout of its app, is trying to clean up its act a bit to make it more attractive to additional investors or, potentially, an acquirer. But, if that's the case then the Freer move is a bizarre one... as you will see from several comments to my previous GetFugu posts, he's a polarizing character, to say the least.

Gizmondo Gets Ready For Its Closeup

Back in 2004 Tiger Telematics, the maker of the upstart GPRS connected handheld gaming console called Gizmondo, was aggressively pursuing the Hollywood studios for portable gaming and VOD licenses. I don't think any of those deals ever happened and the device was a flame-out shortly after launch in late 2005. Well Gizmondo might be ready for its Hollywood sequel...and this time in a starring role. Mobile Entertainment reported on a Hollywood Reporter story from Wednesday that writer/director Craig Zobel & veteran producer Beau Flynn (Requiem for a Dream, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc.) are developing a film based upon Randall Sullivan's 2006 Wired article "Gizmondo's Spectacular Crack-up". The article focuses on the copious colorful criminal antics of Gizmondo's Swedish co-founder Bo Stefan Eriksson...infamous for, among other things, wrecking a $1mil Ferrari on PCH. I hope the film actually makes it into production and I hereby recommend that either Michael Madsen, Vincent D'Onofrio or Tom Sizemore play Eriksson and that a fattened up 1st gen nGage stars as the Gizmondo. If the film is released, my guess is that most movie-goers will be surprised to learn that the device and Eriksson are not fictional.