10:30 AM -- Anyone following the Akon developments? It looks as if telecom giant Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) has a case of rapper remorse.

Earlier this week the RBOC pulled the plug on a marketing relationship with R&B-Afri-pop-rap singer Akon, producer of the Platinum Konvicted album, after the circulation of a video showing him "simulating sex onstage with an underage girl during an Apr.12 concert in Trinidad," according to Eonline

In a statement issued to the AP today, Akon said he was sorry.

Shows you what happens when a stuffy old RBOC tries to get "hip." The results can be painful. Did Verizon think the producer of an album called Trouble would produce a squeaky-clean marketing image?

— R. Scott Raynovich, Editor in Chief, Light Reading