Etelos gets rid of CEO — and headquarters, too?
A truism of PR: Get all the bad news out at once. Etelos, a startup Web-applications marketplace, fired its CEO, Jeff Garon, last week, but didn't bother to tell shareholders until Wednesday. Founder Danny Kolke, the company's CTO, has taken back control for now. But that's not all: A tipster tells us the company may be closing its San Mateo headquarters and relocating to the company's Renton, Wash. office. The move seems sudden: Garon's last blog post, dated September 1, is titled, "Remember what can be replaced." He didn't include himself on the list.I don't know much about Etelos, but I find this much curious: Before joining Etelos, Garon was CFO at a company called Tripath Technology. Garon quit in 2006, and Tripath filed for bankruptcy last year. Etelos hired Garon a year ago, and opened up an office in San Mateo. In April, Etelos went through what's called a reverse merger with Tripath, whose shares still traded over the counter — a somewhat messy maneuver to give Etelos a public listing at a time when few tech companies were going through conventional IPOs. Oh, and Garon seemed easy with money when it came to burnishing his image; our tipster said he spent $155,000 of the company's cash on a "diamond sponsorship" at the Web 2.0 Expo conference, which gave him a speaking slot as a perk. Anyone know more?