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Mark Saylor, a spokesman for Nicholas, referred the Associated Press to another spokesman, who said that lawyers for the Broadcom co-founder had no comment.

Here’s a sampling of some of the allegations from the indictment highlighted in a Wall Street Journal law blog:

•&nbsp Nicholas hired prostitutes and escorts for himself and customers, representatives, and associates of Broadcom.

The federal indictments, unsealed on Thursday, include a total of 25 counts against Nicholas. According to an Associated Press report, the charges include conspiracy, securities fraud, false certification of financial reports, filing false statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, wire fraud, and conspiracy to distribute and acquire controlled substances.

He was also known for his wild parties often thrown at his Orange County mansion that sported several touch-screen, wall-mounted computers, a hidden wooden panel in the study that opened to a secret underground tunnel to a gym, a sports bar, a wine cellar, a recording studio, and a basketball court.

In a somewhat prophetic proclamation, Nicholas proudly said in a 2004 interview with the Orange County Weekly that he was “a media relations nightmare.”

•&nbsp Nicholas directed co-conspirators and associates to invoice him for controlled substances using various code words, including “supplies,” “party favors,” “refreshments” and “E” (ecstasy).

The San Francisco Chronicle has reported that Nicholas was in custody after turning himself in to FBI agents in Santa Ana, Calif. Nicholas and Ruehle were scheduled to appear in court later Thursday, the newspaper’s Web site said.

I think it’s fair to say after this latest news, he’s the epitome of a PR nightmare.

•&nbsp In or around 2001, Nicholas distributed and used controlled substances during a flight on a private plane between Orange County and Law Vegas, causing marijuana smoke and fumes to enter the cockpit and requiring the pilot flying the plane to put on an oxygen mask.

Details of his raucous lifestyle started to come out after a disgruntled employee filed a lawsuit against him alleging he patronized prostitutes and drug dealers.

While the options backdating issue is certainly nothing to sneeze at, the drug allegations are definitely more titillating and, quite frankly, much more bizarre.

The indictment also names Broadcom’s former chief financial officer, William J. Ruehle, who faces conspiracy, securities fraud, and other charges. He is not charged with drug violations.

Broadcom co-founder and former CEO Henry T. Nicholas III is facing two federal indictments that allege conspiracy and securities fraud related to options backdating, as well as numerous drug violations.

Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Nicholas, Henry Samueli, David Dull, and Ruehle in a civil suit, accusing them of fraudulently backdating stock options that resulted in more than $2 billion of restated expenses. In May, Samueli and Dull both went on a leave absence from their roles as CTO and general counsel, respectively. Samueli also stepped down as chairman, according to a company press release.

•&nbsp Beginning in 1999, and continuing through 2005, Nicholas and other co-conspirators conspired to distribute MDMA (ecstasy), cocaine and methamphetamine; and, to maintain places, namely, the Rodeo Residence, the Warehouse, the Telescope House, and the Turnberry Condo, for the purpose of distributing and using controlled substances.

Nicholas, 48, served as CEO and president from Broadcom’s inception until he resigned in 2003. A billionaire since the company had gone public in 1998, he had always been a larger-than-life character with a personality that matched his 6-foot-7-inch physique. He was known for his bold and often outrageous predictions for the communications market and for Broadcom in general.

•&nbsp Nicholas spiked the drinks of others with MDMA (ecstasy) without their knowledge, including the drinks of technology executives and representatives who worked for Broadcom’s customers.

Financial services firm, Virgin Money announced Wednesday that it has joined the Uncrunch.org campaign in an attempt to raise awareness about alternative, social sources of credit for both consumers and businesses. Virgin joins Geezeo, Lending Club, OnDeck Capital, Credit Karma, and ChangeWave, while trying to “unthaw” the credit markets by giving consumers and businesses an online resource to research and find credit.

“With Uncrunch America, we hope to encourage Americans that have sidelined their cash to invest in a friend or family member,” Asheesh Advani CEO of Virgin Money, said in a statement. “Maybe they don’t feel comfortable in the market, but they can inject cash in the economy by lending to a loved one.”

Gmail engineers announced on the Webmail client’s official blog Wednesday that a new Gmail Labs feature called Title Tweaks is now available. The hack changes the order of the elements in the browser title bar so “Inbox” followed by the number of unread messages will be placed in front of “Gmail.”

Microsoft released Office Live Workspace stats Wednesday that show more than 3 million people are now using Microsoft Live Workspace and it’s now available in 28 total languages. The service also boasts a Folders function where users can store, share, and manage documents and storage in those folders have been expanded from 500MB to 5GB per subscription.

Uncrunch’s focus is social lending, which is why Virgin Money joined the campaign (the company has close to $400 million in social loan volume). Those who surf to Uncrunch will be able to learn about sites like Virgin Money and Lending Club and have the opportunity to take out loans from other individuals who are willing to lend cash.

Shoeboxed, an online receipt and business card manager, announced Wednesday that it has partnered with Evernote to launch a “direct integration” between the two services. According to the company, users will be able to mail receipts and business cards to Shoeboxed, which will be analyzed by the service and sent directly to Evernote where they can be accessed online, on the desktop, or on a mobile phone. The integration requires registration on both sites, but it’s free.

Google has officially dumped public calendar search, the company wrote on its Calendar help page. First mention of the missing search was made by concerned users more than two weeks ago. Google said on the company’s help page that the search wasn’t used “as extensively as [it] would have liked” and it will look for ways to make it easier to search in the future.

Dex announced Wednesday that it has launched its revamped local search service that will allow users to find landmarks, businesses, and service areas. The site features semantic technology, which lets users search for anything they want in specific or general terms and DexKnows.com will find relevant results based on those queries, the company claims. The site is available now.

David Pakman, eMusic CEO

An important part of Pakman’s legacy at eMusic is that the company continues to exist. How many CEOs of digital music stores have been around for five years or longer? I can think of only one: Apple’s Steve Jobs.

His relationship with eMusic remains a good one and he will have a role in helping to find a successor, he said.

Pakman has watched stores from MTV, Microsoft, Sony, Yahoo, and AOL come and go. “We outlasted almost every other digital entity in the space,” Pakman said. “We’ve proven the business model, growing the company by five times. I’ve had an amazing team.”

David Pakman, CEO of eMusic, is leaving the online music service at the end of the year, he said in an interview with CNET News on Monday.

That business model he referred to was based on selling music subscriptions to a niche market. Unlike Napster, or Yahoo’s now shuttered music store, eMusic sold music in the MP3 format, which allowed songs to play on any digital music player.

(Credit:
eMusic)

Because the big music labels didn’t want their songs distributed without copy-protection software on them, they shunned eMusic for years. The service carved out a niche by selling music from unsigned artists or those with smaller labels. Pakman’s strategy has been vindicated now that the big recording companies have acknowledged erring in their MP3 strategy by embracing the format.

Pakman said he is departing after five years at eMusic to become a partner at a venture capital firm. He declined to specify which firm.

St. Patrick’s Day is a popular day for “celebrations” and realizing that, Boost Mobile has those who want to party covered. According to the company, it will offer the #TAXI feature on all Boost Mobile phones free of charge on St. Patrick’s Day. Upon dialing #-8-2-9-4, Boost Mobile users will be connected automatically to the first available cab company in their area. The feature will work in over 2,000 Boost Mobile network coverage areas. The service will only be free Tuesday.

People search site, 123people, has expanded into new markets, including Switzerland, France, and Spain. It’s now also available in six languages, including, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Catalan. The new versions of the site are available now.

TweetDeck, a desktop Twitter app, has launched version 0.24, which includes “the first elements of Facebook integration.” According to the company, users will be able to see friend status updates, which are updated automatically each month and they will also be able to post messages to Twitter or Facebook within the Tweet window. The release isn’t available for everyone, but it will be rolled out once it’s tested. So far, there is no timetable for that release.

Visual search company, Quintura, announced Monday that it has secured context-based search visualization patents to ensure it has the most “interactive” search service on the Web. The company hopes that it will be the competitive advantage it needs going forward.

Mint.com, an online personal finance service, announced Monday that it added its 1 millionth user Sunday. According to the company, it was able to add 1 million users in just 18 months, making it the first personal finance service to add that many users in the period. Mint is now tracking over $50 billion in transactions and $15 billion in assets.

Google has also more deeply integrated its Calendaring tool and handling of URLs within its forms tool. You can now plan a meeting with people you’re collaborating on a spreadsheet with right from the share menu. This simply opens up a Google Calendar event with the participants, subject, and link to the spreadsheet automatically filled in for you. Likewise, any URL you drop in forms or the form confirmation messages will get converted into links automatically. Previously users would have to copy and paste it into their address bar.

All these changes may be small, but like the change to Docs back in March, it’s a fascinating shift. Considering Google’s Chrome browser lets you run tools like Docs and Spreadsheets as standalone Web applications, the closer it gets to feeling like software people are used to, the more willing they’ll be to try it out. The big question is how far Google is willing to go with this new interface to make it better.

Over the weekend, Google rolled out a brand-new look for its Spreadsheets tool by adding a simplified toolbar to the top of the page, much like the one Google Docs received back in late March. The change is twofold: one to better organize all the various bits and pieces that had turned the tool into something resembling an airplane cockpit, as well as ready it for additional features.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

Google Spreadsheets users now have a similar menu to the one in Google Docs, which compacts many of the options into menus for the sake of organization.

All this isn’t just cosmetic ,though; Google says overall speed has been improved, too. One of the things that’s kept me away from using it all these years is that Excel absolutely kills it on larger spreadsheets. In a quick test on some older, large spreadsheets I really did notice a big difference, although it still has to stream in all your cells, whereas Excel is ready to go as soon as you open it.

Something small, but really important is the inclusion of a full screen mode. Hitting Ctrl+Shift+F lets you cycle through two additional views, one that gets rid of the menu bar, and another that gets rid of both the menu bar and toolbar. If you’re working on a laptop with a small vertical resolution this gives you an additional seven rows(!).

Robert Hagstrom, a portfolio manager with Legg Mason Growth Trust, was quoted by Reuters at the Chicago Morningstar annual investment conference as saying:

“Icahn has got three things. He wants to fire Jerry, eliminate the severance package and he wants to force the sale…If he can’t force Microsoft to buy them, what’s plan B? I need a plan B. And if you are going to fire Jerry, who do you hire?”

Investor activist Carl Icahn is expected to file his definitive proxy by July 4, signaling whether he will ultimately run a dissident slate of directors to unseat a majority of Yahoo’s nine board members, or look to oust just a few, according to sources familiar with the billionaire investor.

As part of any proxy filing process, a dissident shareholder may face some back-and-forth discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission, prior to filing their definitive proxy. And, as one would expect, a dissident shareholder would be loath to disregard any SEC comments before filing their definitive proxy.

Update 1 p.m. PDT, with more information on the timing of Icahn’s definitive proxy and alternatives.

Icahn is gearing up to share another round on his “views about Yahoo and its management shortly,” according to a posting on his Icahn Report blog Friday.

Icahn, who filed another preliminary proxy just the other day, has yet to file his definitive proxy. The definitive proxy will list the final number and names of candidates Icahn wants to run against Yahoo’s nine-member board when it holds its annual shareholders meeting on August 1. That definitive proxy will indicate whether Icahn seeks majority control of Yahoo’s board seats, or minority representation.

Meanwhile, some Yahoo investors like Eric Jackson are calling on Icahn to run a minority slate of dissident directors, in an effort to increase his chances of getting representation on the Yahoo board.

Another option is for Icahn to run a full nine-member dissident slate and hope that proxy advisory firms, such as RiskMetrics, Glass Lewis & Co., and Proxy Governance, advise their institutional investor clients use Icahn’s gold proxy card, rather than Yahoo’s white proxy card, and vote for all of his nominees.

In his Friday blog post, Icahn notes:

But absent these advisory services advocating for electing all of Icahn’s dissident directors, the investor activist may find these advisory services may be willing to recommended that some of his candidates get elected, noted one source.

Meanwhile, a portfolio manager with Yahoo’s third largest investor, Legg Mason Capital Management, expressed reservations Friday about supporting an Icahn board unless the billionaire investor activist can develop a “Plan B” should Microsoft fail to do a deal with the search company, according to a Reuters report.

At this time, due to SEC regulations, I do not intend to post your comments regarding the proxy fight. However, I am planning to give you my views about Yahoo and its management shortly. If you wish to be informed I invite you to subscribe. Stay tuned.

Jackson, as well as a source with a proxy solicitation firm, noted that it may be difficult for Icahn to win control of Yahoo’s board should no deal with Microsoft loom on the horizon. But even with a minority slate, Icahn may find success in pushing for change from within.

Many of you have been asking me about Yahoo. Please remember I am in the middle of a proxy fight. A proxy fight involves a complicated process of SEC approvals, federal securities laws, filing requirements and a great deal of time and money.

The acquisition seems a natural move for Hitachi. For the Japanese company, it means an expansion into a market for external-storage hardware currently dominated by Seagate and Western Digital. For California-based Fabrik, it means broadening its market horizons, though it probably also means limiting the internal hard drives for its external storage solution to those of Hitachi.

When I reviewed Fabrik’s SimpleTech Signature Mini and SimpleTech (re)drive external hard drives a while ago, I liked its tasteful designs. As it turns out, my taste wasn’t so peculiar.

If you haven’t heard of Fabrik, this is because it has been selling external storage under two better-known brands: G-Technology and SimpleTech. CNET has reviewed several products launched under each brand.

Although the financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, Hitachi made it clear that Fabrik’s business will remain intact and form the core of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies’ new external-storage business.

(Credit:
Fabrik)

Fabrik's (re)drive, the first external drive made partially of bamboo.

Hitachi on Monday announced its decision to acquire Fabrik, a privately held supplier of personal and professional storage solutions.

Going forward, you will still find Fabrik external storage in both G-Technology and SimpleTech brands. The combined company plans to offer external-storage solutions based on both regular hard drives and solid-state drives.