Companies make mistakes. For instance, Netflix goofed on how the new pricing plan was introduced to customers. Or Google killing the Gmail app for Blackberry. Even HP killing the tablet. The key is Communications.

Right now, Penn State is facing the worst possible scandal imaginable. It will forever smudge its image. Likely, it will destroy the Paterno legacy. I'm not going to get into the right and wrongs here, because I think we can all agree that there wasn't much right being done.

In a case, where a state powerhouse (and money-maker) is presented with 40 counts and two high level execs have to resign, the PR team should have been working 24/7. It should have began when word hit the College that the arrests were imminent. Why? Because no prosecutor is making arrests in this size case without hard evidence and all ducks lined up. Because ESPN is going to turn into Fox news for a week over this. Playing the story 24/7 till people have to turn off the TV.

This will result in billions lost - in licensing merchandise, ticket sales, boosters, donations, TV cash, recruitment and more. There's no room for either short term thinking or let's wait.

The first step is to get in front of the scandal as soon as possible. How? Admit the problem. Apologize for it. The public needs to hear that (a) Management or the Board knows that there is indeed a problem and that they are sorry for the problem.

Next, Paterno should have apologized and retired yesterday. Not today. Not at the end of the season. As long as he is the coach, this scandal will be front and center. And the grad student who reported it and is now a coach needs to go. (He didn't follow through. No one did.) Penn State needs a clean slate.

HP should have wiped out the Board of Directors after the tablet fiasco. Why? Under the BOD's watch, two CEO's have been fired - there was the Mark Hurd scandal; Leo Apotheker was fired; and the tablet flub. Ultimately, the BOD has (at least some) responsibility in all 3 heaps, including the lack of clear communication to shareholders and customers. It damages the brand long term.

We live in an online, 24/7 news cycle. The news cycles are relentless and longer. We also live in a world where everything online is archived forever! Brands (and companies) need to be transparent, forthright and crystal clear in doing the right thing, because like a balloon it just takes one prick to pop it.

Communication with your constituents, employees, customers and marketplace is paramount in a situation. I'm not saying spin the story either. I'm saying be genuine, swift and decisive. The longer you wait, the worse it looks. Plus the news machine will have numerous talking heads giving their take. Not your take. Their back seat driver look through the window view. [And those darn bloggers]

In addition, do you want to be back-pedaling on the story or presenting your own message clearly? [There's a really good book about this by Barry Eisler.]

TW Cable had a nationwide outage this morning as reported on twitter and TheVerge. Internet slowdowns and outages were still being reported by Noon Eastern time.

According to the NANOG chatterbox, Level3 & TWC are having the same problem: it appears that Juniper routers are doing a core dump due to a BGP advertisement that triggers a bug. BGP peering causing a number of crashes on the Juniper platform for the last year or so. Unsure if that's related to this problem or not, but the saying one hears frequently is "IPv6 bgp peering isn't as widely tested as the vendors would have you believe"."

I'd use this outage to sell redundancy!!!

Big day at Best But as they buy out the stake in Carphone UK and pick up an MSP.

Bloomberg reports, "Best Buy Co., the world's largest consumer-electronics retailer, agreed to buy Carphone Warehouse Group Plc (CPW)'s stake in their U.S. mobile-phone joint venture for 838 million pounds ($1.34 billion) and close the U.K. stores it opened less than two years ago."

So Best Buy goes deeper into mobile retailing (well, not sharing profits on its Best Buy Mobile stores).

Today, Best Buy also decided to buy an MSP, mindSHIFT Technologies, Inc., for $167 million.

The press release stated, "The transaction will help accelerate Best Buy's growth in the small and mid-sized business IT services category. mindSHIFT provides cloud services, data center services and professional services to more than 5,400 clients and 25,000 managed desktops in key markets throughout the United States."

Rodrego A. Byerly tweeted, "mindShift deal makes strategic sense -Best Buy possesses very significant distribution capabilities to deliver managed services to small biz." Best Buy management thinks that their future is as some kind of MSP, which may or may not be true. And buying one that focuses on small biz (it has less than 5 desktops per customer????) is a start, but can it work? Will businesses look to Best Buy as their technology partner? Not sure, since most experiences I hear about say that the Best Buy herd is unskilled. They are no Chuck Bartowski!

More from the MSP / VAR space: "Presidio will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of INX. The proposed transaction will create one of the largest national advanced IT solution providers. The post transaction company, which will carry the Presidio name, will employ over 1,800 IT professionals operating out of 45+ offices across the United States and will offer clients unparalleled access to world-class consulting, engineering & technical resources."

This represents a big day for the VAR/MSP space. We will be seeing more and more of acquisitions in the VAR and MSP space through 2012, it's just too hot of a space. Telcos, cablecos and other VAR's are looking to grow - revenue, skills, talent and technology (like data centers and NOC's). It's far easier to buy than to build.

Telecom equipment provider Tekelec agreed to be taken private for $11 a share in cash, or about $780 million, by a group led by Siris Capital. Other participants in the deal include ComVest Group, GSO Capital Partners, Sankaty Advisors and ZelnickMedia.

In VZ news, FairPoint trust sues Verizon for $2B for fraud in its sale of New England landline business to Fairpoint in 2008. The $2.3B deal is allegedly the reason that Fairpoint went BK. Not for nothing, but I and other analysts wrote about how this deal would be a disaster. Apparently, we were right and Fairpoint didn't do proper due diligence. Where's the lawsuit against the Fairpoint Board of Directors for failure of their fiduciary responsibility?

According to Business Insider, "Urban Airship which helps companies add features like push notifications and in-app purchases to their mobile apps on multiple mobile platforms, has raised a $15 million Series C round with strategic investments from Verizon and Salesforce."