This was the third such gathering that Zelnick and his co-hosts organized, with the aim of bringing New York's best media-focused minds under one roof to talk about the future of the business. In keeping the setting intimate and the number of invitations in the ballpark of about a hundred people, the organizers hope to turn the "New Media Dinner" into a recurring salon-of-sorts, where ideas, capital and expertise can mix and match.

In a half-hour chat before the guests started arriving, Zelnick and two of the co-hosts, drop.io founder Sam Lessin and Thrillist's Ben Lerer explained to me how this all came about.

For Zelnick, chairman of video-game publisher Take-Two and co-founder of private equity firm ZelnickMedia Corp, the idea of organizing the event sprang from "a desire... to meet the next generation of leaders in the media business." Naturally, he turned to Lessin and Lerer, who are now in their 20s but who have known Zelnick since they were in their teens and frequently turn to him for advice on their ventures.

"I suspect that between the organizers, we collectively know almost everybody doing the most interesting things in new media in New York," Zelnick said. News Corp's Jeremy Philips and venture capitalist Stuart Ellman of RRE Ventures were the other co-hosts for the evening.

And sure enough, they pulled in a power crowd that included veteran dealmaker Quincy Smith, CBS's Internet chief who is quitting to start his own advisory firm, former Doubleclick CEO-turned-ex-Googler David Rosenblatt, and even Ron Conway, Silicon Valley's star angel investor who was in town for meetings.

Over dirty martinis and mini lobster rolls, denizens of "Silicon Alley" such as Betaworks' Andy Weissman and Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson rubbed shoulders with some of New York's media elite including Journalism Online's Gordon Crovitz and my own boss, Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer.

Crovitz and I had planned to chat at the dinner but I missed the chance, so we followed up on Tuesday. The former publisher of The Wall Street Journal, who now invests in early-stage media and technology companies, gave me his take on e-mail: "Technology has led to a period of intense creative destruction for the media and information industries," he said. "New York is the center for this transition, with an enormous amount of innovation and reinvention by new media entrepreneurs and the old-media executives who understand this period of fundamental change."

Some new media entrepreneurs, like Lessin, have been privileged enough to seek the help and advice of traditional media power players in navigating this changing landscape. "I've always had access to people like Strauss who've helped me figure out the landscape and told me when my ideas were terrible," said Lessin, who is 26 and the son of investment banker Bob Lessin.

But the new media get-togethers are about "introducing my best, brightest and smartest friends to some of Strauss's friends," he said, adding that the past two events -- in February and July -- have spawned many interesting discussions between people who met at the venue.

Later, I mingled with many of the guests, picking up stray bits of conversation: here a pitch from an entrepreneur to a venture capitalist, there a bit of M&A gossip, chatter about which start-ups are working and which aren't doing too well, mentions of the recent pay-models-for-journalism panel at Harvard's Shorenstein Center, not to mention heated debates on the Yankees-Phillies game.

"It was a little bit of this and a little bit of that," said Kenneth Lerer, chairman of The Huffington Post, when I followed up with him on Tuesday. "My guess is that a few investments and a few deals and a few hires will be made out of last night."

"One of these (events) don't mean much but if you have a series of them -- and I think that's what Strauss's intention is -- it's smart, good business," Lerer added.

Although most folks seemed to know each other already, I was happy to point out Fred Wilson and Tom Glocer to various entrepreneurs.

For many of New York's young media entrepreneurs, it was also an opportunity to relax (not all of them were in ties) and catch up on industry chatter. The hosts made sure the booze didn't run out, and there were few complaints about the first course of pappardelle with wild mushrooms, followed by entrees of prime rib roast and sea bass.

For dessert, the guests were treated to New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell, whose boss David Remnick spoke at the first gathering in February and was also at this one. Gladwell infused his short speech with healthy skepticism about the power of technology to bring about social change and improve our collective well-being. The audience took the bait spiritedly, and a brief back-and-forth followed. Then it was almost midnight, and the party was over. I have to believe that not a few guests were already thinking about the next one.

Photo: Strauss Zelnick (Reuters)

The speculation began last week, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Brocade was "quietly" shopping itself, and that Oracle and Hewlett-Packard could be potential buyers.

Later, Reuters reported more details: Brocade had in fact been trying to sell itself for several weeks, and HP had kicked the tires -- going as far as to begin due diligence -- but stopped short of making an offer for the company because they were only interested in certain assets. Then, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison publicly said his company wasn't about to buy Brocade. Apart from HP and Brocade, analysts have speculated that IBM and Juniper Networks could also be interested.

Oppenheimer's Kidron explains why Brocade might have trouble finding a buyer:

Brocade's shares have risen sharply following WSJ reports the company has put itself up for sale. We, however, don't anticipate a near-term acquisition. We view Brocade's data center switching as the prime jewel, and it's unlikely prospective buyers would pay a hefty premium for it solely.

Kidron then lists each potential acquirer and tells you why those companies won't pick up Brocade. His comments are in quotes:

• HP: "Risks losing substantial revenue given Brocade's OEM exposure and material overlap with ProCurve. Only needs a data center switch." In other words, HP might lose the revenue that comes from Brocade's partnerships with companies that sell its products. Also, HP and Brocade already make some similar gear.
• IBM: "Return to hardware business unlikely." IBM has transformed itself from a hardware seller to a global services giant and we heard last week that IBM had decided not to look at Brocade's books, although that could change.
• Oracle: "Publicly denied interest." Anyway, Oracle is waiting to get regulatory approval from the European Commission to proceed with its acquisition of Sun Microsystems.
• Juniper: "Overlap with Foundry and too big to swallow." Juniper is the No. 2 maker of network gear after Cisco and buying Brocade would add scale to its business, but would potentially bring integration challenges given Juniper's size.
• Dell: "A wild card but busy with Perot acquisition ($3.9B), limiting bandwidth." Dell might agree with that (see below).

Dell's Vice President of Enterprise Storage and Networking Praveen Asthana stopped by the Reuters office Monday morning, and here's what he had to say about acquisitions: "We don't want to overextend ourselves at any time." Yes, Dell is more acquisitive now than it has ever been, but the PC and server computer maker still wants to focus single-minded on integration and implementation after it has bought a company, so "we wouldn't want to do three large acquisitions at the same time. The main goal that we have is successful implementation. I'm sure we don't want to add too many big ones at the same time."

Kidron's conclusion?

Given the M&A hurdles and premium Brocade is likely to demand, we're doubtful of a deal near term. As such, we would take profits at current levels and are downgrading Brocade to Perform.

So far, Brocade shares haven't reacted much. They were up 0.9 percent at $9.50 in early afternoon Nasdaq trading. Clearly, the market is still holding out hopes of a deal for Brocade, whose shares have risen about 24 percent since before news of its potential sale.

(Additional reporting by Ritsuko Ando. And yes, that's a picture of a model wearing a brocade gown, courtesy Reuters. Because it makes for a better picture than networking gear.)

• Blue Coat Systems option volume is up after Deal Reporter suggested Cisco might bid for it.
• NCR calls are up on rumors of a takeover bid, although it has not been linked to any company.
• American Superconductor jumps on rumors of an ABB bid.
• Riverbed Technologies could be acquired by Juniper Networks.

Another old favorite among tech gossips is also doing the rounds today -- the idea of Microsoft buying Research in Motion. That one came from Alley Insider's Henry Blodget (seems like he suggested the same thing in February too).

But as my colleague Wojtek Dabrowski, who covers tech, media and telecoms companies out of Toronto, says: "Microsoft could have bought RIM at $35, because that's the low the stock hit in March of this year. The stock is now at $70 and RIM is under pressure from the iPhone. Such a deal makes no sense, though it could have in the past, especially given Microsoft's continued commitment to Windows Mobile."

But if there is any truth to these rumors, the media will start buzzing with news by Sunday evening. And as a deals reporter, I know that would shatter my Sunday (even if it would represent a shot in the arm into an M&A market still running far behind last year's levels). I'll probably have to rechristen my Sundays as something. Here are some suggestions from colleagues: Savaged Sunday, Slaughterhouse Sunday, Sucky Sunday, Sacrifical Sunday. Anyone got a better name?

Photo: Jamie Lee Curtis and family arrive for Freaky Friday premiere/Reuters

Hewlett-Packard is said to have looked at Brocade, as did Oracle. One source said on Monday that HP went as far as to begin due diligence. But from what I hear, no one has found Brocade compelling enough to shell out a few billion dollars on the spot. If anything, HP could be interested in some of the assets of Brocade rather than the whole company, which could be why it stopped short of making an offer.

Other potential acquirers include IBM and Juniper, which is the No. 2 network equipment maker after Cisco, but bankers and analysts think neither company is likely to step in. From what I understand, IBM has not looked at Brocade, although that could change any minute.

Given this picture, you've got to wonder if Brocade and/or Qatalyst Partners, the firm reportedly hired by the networking and data storage company to shop it, strategically leaked the news after failing to find a buyer. Companies and their advisers are known to use the media to float trial balloons, put pressure on potential acquirers to step up and make a bid, test investor appetite for acquisition ideas and even drive up the acquisition price.

One banker called it the "European" style of M&A, where "people constantly create and leak rumors to build the perception of action."

Rumor or not, the market clearly wants a sale, going by the 19 percent jump in Brocade's stock on Monday. A Qatalyst spokeswoman declined to confirm that Frank Quattrone's firm has been hired.

As for who might buy Brocade? We're all working overtime to find out.

After all, CSC -- an IT services company that competes with ACS, and has a market value of $8.1 billion -- was the first company that came to bankers' and analysts' minds when I asked them who else could be in play, as tech companies look to buy into new growth opportunities.

Given how market sentiment works, any comments from the chief senior executive of a potential acquisition target like CSC could easily move the stock. As a rule, that's why, companies typically don't comment on rumor or speculation about themselves. So naturally, an on-the-record interview with the CSC chairman executive wasn't something I could pass up.

The e-mail offered:

...(T)he opportunity to hear comments from Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC). As you might know, CSC is a marketplace contrarian that can offer a POV on the other side of the coin - staying independent.
CSC anticipates greater interest from those clients that value the objectivity of a technology-independent approach. With one less independent firm in the marketplace, CSC's position is strengthened as a global, technology-independent option for clients.

I let Ogilvy know of my interest, and waited, and followed up, and waited. By the late afternoon, I figured the pitch was too good to be true because CSC had thought the better of it. Sure enough, the e-mail that eventually turned up in my inbox, said: "CSC now prefers not to comment."

Wonder if that was a PR learning experience.

(Photo: CSC.com)

Update: A CSC spokesman called on Tuesday to say Dave Booth is not chairman, but president of global sales and marketing at CSC. I have updated this post to include the correct title.

Talks grew hot and heavy over the summer, especially as the credit market conditions improved, a second source said. Xerox has committed financing of $3 billion for this deal, which is being arranged by JPMorgan, so the deal only began to look like a real possibility once the financing side was sorted out.

ACS, which competes with other technology services providers such as Computer Sciences Corp and Accenture, is an attractive company because of its recurring revenue business model. It's been an especially alluring target for private equity buyers, with Cerberus having offered to buy it for $62 a share in 2007. Cerberus withdrew its offer citing the credit crunch and ACS management's refusal to engage with them. TPG was also interested in ACS about five years ago, the second source added.

Buyout firms didn't lose the opportunity to sniff around at ACS this time around either, the sources said, although it's not clear if the ACS management asked its bankers to run a formal sale auction.

"Every PE firm in the world that could raise the debt was kicking the tires on this one because of the cash," said the third source.

So after doing the M&A dance for months, why did the companies rush to announce the deal on Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday? Apparently, word got around on Sunday that Xerox was preparing a significant announcement, and some reporters were tipped off about it, two of the sources told Dealzone. But the board only ended up meeting late at night to approve the deal, and so it was considered "safe" to hold on to the announcement overnight, but not through all of Monday!

Update: From my colleague Franklin Paul, who said Xerox CEO Ursula Burns apologized to the audience on the ACS deal call "for our need to do this announcement on Yom Kippur." "It was certainly not our intention," Burns said, but they wanted to seal the deal before it began leaking. Certainly they did, given that Xerox has coveted ACS for a long time and probably would have hated to see the deal botched by rumors before the two sides signed on the dotted line.

"Excited? I'm so excited about it, I could do a Yahoo yodel," she said. But then, she didn't oblige. Bartz did say New Yorkers will see splashy Yahoo signs and other gimmicks over the next few days. But it's not just New York.

The campaign, which the New York Times says is backed by a $100 million budget, will be launched all over the world, Bartz said. We'll have more on Tuesday, when Yahoo executives tell reporters what they are up to. Until then, here's a sneak peak courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, which says the campaign tagline is "It's You!".

And here is a (admittedly not very good) picture of Bartz posing for the cameras outside the Nasdaq building, taken from my BlackBerry:

The networking giant has long been trying to expand in the consumer gadgets market, and six months ago, it paid $590 million to acquire the San Francisco-based maker of pocket-sized digital camcorders. These sell for between $149.99 and $199.99.

Last week, Apple unveiled a new iPod Nano with built-in video. The 8GB version that can shoot up to two hours of video costs $149, and the next version costs $179.

Cisco's plan was to use its operational scale and marketing to bring Flip to a much wider market. Given how much people like to post home-made videos on YouTube and other channels, it sounded like a smart idea.

But now Apple is giving Cisco a run for its money. Some people say the Flip shoots better video than the Nano, but generally speaking -- which device would you rather choose, given that both are similarly priced? A hip little music player that also lets you shoot baby Morgan's first steps (not to mention plays radio and has a pedometer), or a Cisco-owned digital video recorder?

Even when they don't copy an entire film frame by frame, Bollywood directors often borrow from several films at once, melding story lines and adapting them to an Indian setting, complete with song and dance. They do this, of course, without buying the remaking rights. Despite a lot of original cinema coming out of Bollywood, plagiarism is rife.

Hollywood hasn't cared until now, The Washington Post's Emily Wax reports. Twentieth Century Fox recently settled a lawsuit with BR Films -- a well-known banner -- over its remake of the 1992 hit "My Cousin Vinny." Fox accepted $200,000, paving the way for a release of the Hindi version, called "Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai" or "This Guy is Fearless".

The Times of London has reported that a lawyer representing major American studios has recently sent warning letters to producers who he believes are copying Hollywood films. Among the titles are "Ghostbusters", "Jerry Maguire", "The Departed" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", the paper reports.

Will Fox's action finally put a stop to the widespread plagiarism in Bollywood? More likely, Bollywood producers will just have to cough up the money to buy remaking rights, which is how it should be.

Keep an eye on:

• Nokia plans to tackle Apple's iPhone with a bet on Linux software. (Reuters)
• Channel 4 will drop Big Brother as it focuses more on public service broadcasting. (Financial Times)
• Alcatel-Lucent shares jump on rumors of Chinese bid. (Reuters)

Photo: www.moviegoods.com

On Tuesday, the Hollywood studio announced it was replacing its chief executive Harry Sloan with a team that includes a turnaround expert. It's a well-known fact that MGM, which is owned by private equity firms and Comcast, has struggled with a massive debt load. It has payments due on $3.7 billion of debt and the future isn't looking too good, given the down market and shrinking DVD demand.

Media and entertainment industry analysts believe MGM won't last much longer as an independent studio, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times:

Most industry watchers believe that MGM will not survive much longer as an independent studio and is likely to be sold to a bigger media company such as Time Warner Inc. or merged with another movie and TV studio like Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Qualia Capital, a private investment firm headed by Amir Malin and Ken Schapiro, is actively looking at MGM, said a person with knowledge of the situation.

Who else could be a buyer? There were rumors earlier that investor Carl Icahn, who is a major shareholder in Lions Gate, was buying up MGM's debt in the open market with the intention of forcing a merger between the two studios.

Then, there's Comcast, which already owns a stake in MGM and could potentially be interested in owning MGM's rich content librabry, which includes the James Bond films. Reuters' Yinka Adegoke recently wrote that investors worry that Comcast will make a splashy acquisition soon. Could this be it?

Keep an eye on:

• Travel Channel bids were due on Tuesday. Who's going to buy it? (CNBC)
• Virtual cooking is a hit on Facebook. (Los Angeles Times)
• The New York Daily News bumped the Wall Street Journal off most-visited sites list. (Editor & Publisher)

Photo: Actor Daniel Craig. the current James Bond/Reuters