5:40 PM -- Redback Networks Inc. scored a bit of a coup in 2007 by recruiting Alan Lippman to head its video efforts. Lippman was a very early employee at RealNetworks Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK) and knows a thing or two about media streaming. (See Redback Hires Video Guru.)

Now, he's gone. Lippman and Dan Lieberman -- who, if I understand this right, comprised all of Redback's video architecture team -- have left for a startup called Twowei, and they've taken Redback's director of corporate communications, Doug Wills, with them.

Lippman and Lieberman will remain in Seattle, according to Twowei's minimalist Website. There's no indication whether the company has any ties to Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. , although it's an awfully strange choice of name if it doesn't. It's almost certainly a video company, since it appears to be in beta.

Anywei, Redback had some pretty cool video projects going, as you'll recall, including live feeds from the dearly departed San Jose Grand Prix and, possibly, from the upcoming 'round-the-world Ocean Race.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading