Dave Duffield’s return, Mobile YouTube, Visto’s bulldog & more

(Updated) end of week roundup:

Peoplesoft founder Dave Duffield launches new company, Workday — Some details have already leaked out, but the launch announcement coming is Monday. No surprise that it’s related to his former love, Peoplesoft, which got gobbled by nemesis Oracle — something he says he he took pretty hard. Duffield, who always loves to rally the troops, is back at it again: Workday is doing the sort of back-office software stuff that Peoplesoft was known for: It’s an “enterprise resource planning” (ERP) company, and will deliver its software online. It was founded in March 2005 by Duffield and Aneel Bhusri, a former Peoplesoft exec and partner at venture firm Greylock. Last time we checked, it was based in Nevada, and Duffield was being accused of evading taxes while jetting to the slopes. (Update: More details about the company in this Merc story: Duffield and and Greylock Partners invested $15 million into the company in 2005. They plan to kick in an additional $20 million next year.)

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YouTube planning mobile phone version — You can already load videos to YouTube from your phone, but now YouTube apparently plans to bring YouTube to you, according to comments from CEO Chad Hurley. You’ve heard of YouTube to Go service, launched in May, which lets you send a video you’ve taken with your phone to a YouTube email address, which then uploads the video. These latest comments suggests they want to bring YouTube videos to your phone — and thus tricky streaming requirements.

Microsoft making big, some would say desperate moves lately — Microsoft has partnered with Novell to make the Windows operating system work with open-source Linux software, which is a significant move — it risks eating into Microsoft’s revenues if people start relying on the open-source version. Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a partnership with Cupertino’s PHP software company, Zend, conceding that many developers aren’t using the .Net platform. And its Zune music player goes on sale Nov. 14 for $249.

Visto’s hard-headed chief — Wireless messaging company Visto has sued just about everybody, but is still losing money after ten years and after raising $267 million; the the Merc has a good summary of the company. Venture capitalist Stewart Alsop, once a backer of the Visto’s chief executive Brian Bogosian, but who ended up pulling his support, calls Bogosian a “hard-headed son of a gun.” We’ve heard he’s one a tough guy. Indeed, he’s just persuaded Oak Investment to pump in give him even more cash. Latest, though, is that competitor RIM is now fighting back, suing Visto. Meanwhile, Visto is announcing it has signed deals with carriers in…. Nigeria? And while Visto is still fighting its legal battles, Google’s out there, delivering email via an application you can download straight to your Java-enabled phone (which includes most new phones).

Venture Capitalist Peter Rip moves to SF for contacts — Venture capitalist at Leapfrog Ventures has joined Crosslink Capital in San Francisco as a General Partner. He writes he’s changing because of “relationships,” noting that SF-based Crosslink invests in everything from start-ups to buyouts, and he’ll have 15 people to help him out — instead of two guys. Yes, perhaps its a coincidence that Crosslink is in SF, but there are more and more companies up in SF these day, and more people telling us that’s the place to be. Sure, until the latest Web bubble bursts! ;)