Posted by
ryuzaki0
on from the getting-duh-money dept.
rak3 writes "Transmeta has received $88 million in investments from AOL, Gateway, Compaq, and Sony among others. Now where's my Sony Vaio with Crusoe inside :) " Wow - pretty cool - congrats to Transmeta.
I'd expect there to be several sets of "handcuffs" to hold him at Transmeta for a while yet, notably:
I'm sure that Linus has a bunch of stock options, but. Stock option plans tend to have some stipulations.
They tend to vest over time.
Thus, if Linus has options to $20M of shares, it is fairly likely that he only has part of that now, and that leaving now would cost him big.
Those options that aren't vested are lost if he leaves.
At this point, Transmeta stock isn't publicly traded.
Repeat after me: Not Publicly Traded.
I've gotten phone calls from people (morons!) who want to buy Transmeta stock who thought that my Speculations About Transmeta indicated that I actually owned shares.
Despite the "excitement," there is no public market in the stock. Any stock that has vested in Linus Torvalds' hands doesn't have a market in which to sell it.
The theory that the stock is somehow "worth something" is only made true when there is actually a public market in Transmeta stock. Maybe that will happen next year; I suspect it won't be this year.
For those that didn't know, Linus Torvalds is Finnish. He is not an American citizen. And so, his employment at Transmeta is at the "sufferance" of the INS, under an H1B visa.
If Linus walks away from Transmeta, he will very likely not wind up employed by a US company, as he would be asked, fairly shortly, to return to Finland.
As for why Transmeta hired him, I would tend to think that they wanted something more than just a marketing figurehead.
Suggesting that he's a worthless figurehead is decidedly "flameworthy;" I don't have to be part of the Linus Personality Cult to find that distasteful.
Long and short is that there are a number of reasons why Linus is not likely to leave Transmeta tomorrow.
-- If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
AOL + Gateway + Crusoe + Linux = Wireless Web Pad
by
Booker
·
· Score: 4
AOL and Gateway are working together to make a linux-based wireless web pad with a Gecko based browser - I guess this means it'll have a Crusoe chip in it. Cool! Maybe they'll tuck 'em into magazines for free....
AOL release is here and the Gateway release is here
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Amazing how CNET gets things wrong!
by
Merlin_
·
· Score: 4
"Transmeta, which aims to take on Intel in the processor market, announced that it has received $88 million [snip]".
I guess that the author of this story on CNET was not at the Transmeta press conference way back when. Transmeta is _not_ looking to take on Intel. They specialize in the mobile market, where Intel has not made serious efforts. Looks to me to just be sensationalist journalism. And 88 Million is nothing much for a chip company considering that Transmeta has been running on Angel money for the last 5 years... a lot more than 88 million.....
--
Remembering your name in the morning is already a good start...
Slashdot Mirror
Thus, if Linus has options to $20M of shares, it is fairly likely that he only has part of that now, and that leaving now would cost him big.
Repeat after me: Not Publicly Traded.
I've gotten phone calls from people (morons!) who want to buy Transmeta stock who thought that my Speculations About Transmeta indicated that I actually owned shares.
Despite the "excitement," there is no public market in the stock. Any stock that has vested in Linus Torvalds' hands doesn't have a market in which to sell it.
The theory that the stock is somehow "worth something" is only made true when there is actually a public market in Transmeta stock. Maybe that will happen next year; I suspect it won't be this year.
There was a Slashdot story on this; see Workers - Including Linus - Left in Limbo by INS
If Linus walks away from Transmeta, he will very likely not wind up employed by a US company, as he would be asked, fairly shortly, to return to Finland.
Suggesting that he's a worthless figurehead is decidedly "flameworthy;" I don't have to be part of the Linus Personality Cult to find that distasteful.
Long and short is that there are a number of reasons why Linus is not likely to leave Transmeta tomorrow.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
AOL release is here and the Gateway release is here
---
"Transmeta, which aims to take on Intel in the processor market, announced that it has received $88 million [snip]".
I guess that the author of this story on CNET was not at the Transmeta press conference way back when. Transmeta is _not_ looking to take on Intel. They specialize in the mobile market, where Intel has not made serious efforts. Looks to me to just be sensationalist journalism. And 88 Million is nothing much for a chip company considering that Transmeta has been running on Angel money for the last 5 years... a lot more than 88 million.....
Remembering your name in the morning is already a good start...