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Sendo vs. Microsoft: The Truth Comes Out
igotmybfg writes "The Register has a story which includes many details about the phone maker's Texas suit against the software giant. It seems that Microsoft had much more to gain from letting its partner fail than helping it to succeed: in the event of a bankruptcy, Microsoft acquired all of Sendo's intellectual property related to the z100 Stinger SmartPhone, and was then free to do whatever it wanted, which in this case turned out to be going behind Sendo's back and making a deal with Orange SPA." Read our original article about this to get more background information.
"Sendo got what they deserved - for neglecting the reality of harsh businesses practices."
Not at all, business relationships - like all relationships - must have a basis of trust to succeed. Sendo obviously made the mistake of thinking that Microsoft was run by humans.
That was classic intercourse!
In MS's defense, there is no (nor should there be any) law against getting into really sweetheart deals at the expense of the other party. If I see an antique on eBay selling for $5 that I know to be incredibly valuable, I should buy it -- I'm under no imaginable obligation to contact the seller and let him know he's an idiot.
And so it appears in this case: whoever was making decisions at Sendo really, really screwed up. They gave MS the power to destroy them, then gave them huge incentive to do so.
That's life.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I mean, if I would have THIS clause in the contract, it is NORMAL to assume that MS would play hardball to then gain all the rights. This is to be expected. Unless they crossed some lines then (which to proove will be the problem of Sendo), Sendo got what they deserved - for neglecting the reality of harsh businesses practices.
This part doesn't suprise me much, having read up on the history of Microsoft's dealings with its 'partners' over the years.
What gets me is that this sequence of events started back in 2001, at the time that Judge Jackson was throwing the book at Microsoft for, amongst other misdemeanours, doing the very same thing they were evidently planning on doing to Sendo!
Even if Sendo's case falls flat, it will have served to make Microsoft's circle of friends even smaller. What more proof could you ask for to show that the people in charge of Microsoft have not learned to play fair?
-MT.
if Sendo engineers can actually integrate onto a Series 60 platform.
Just because the OS can't do what you need, then just bypass it. A classic example of this is SIM Locking to a particular network, or group of networks. The SDK (Pocket PC 2002 and Smartphone) doesn't support this. Sendo complain, HTC, MiTac, Samsung, and Compal work around it (to varying degrees of success).
You can try to twist this in any pro-microsoft way you like, but the plain fact is that they have again been very, very bad.
And we are not talking about some presumed badness that may or may not happen in the far future. We are talking about well-documented badness that happened just now.
Running your business partners into the ground and stealing their trade secrets is NOT normal business practice.
If you are a company with any intellectual holdings or patents, dont ever work with Microsoft. If you only manufacture things and dont know anything about what you do then its fine.
Its nearly written in stone since before. Microsoft is a midas touch to any company with any form of knowledge that works together with them. Sendo should have realized this ofcourse. Still that doesnt in any way defends what Microsoft did wich clearly fradulent behaviour and underhanded business practises. If every company behaived like Microsoft all resources would go to fighting instead of developing good products. This kind of mafia methods needs to stop now!
In my book thats bad for me and other consumers.
HTTP/1.1 400
That's what I thought on first reading the article, but maybe this extract is significant:
...summer comes, and the code isn't ready. It isn't ready in the autumn, either, and this starts to play hell with Sendo's budgets. December rolls round, and according to Sendo, bugfixes that carriers have requested are being refused by Microsoft. Sendo is in a cash crisis, and a call to VCs is spurned. So Sendo asks Microsoft for a further cash injection, which is declined:
"Microsoft refused with the full knowledge that this refusal would push Sendo to insolvency", claims Sendo in the filing.
So, it looks like MS failed to deliver the software on time, which caused a cash-flow problem for Sendo. According to the story, MS also refused to make a scheduled payment to Sendo, thus causing them further financial difficulties.
A friend of mine has an Orange/MS phone. Judging by the problems he has experienced (counter-intuitive address book, problems connecting via GPRS), I think MS have had genuine problems getting the software right. I mean, this phone shipped about a year after MS failed to deliver working code to Sendo, and it still isn't finished.
I doubt this is a conspiracy by MS to steal Sendo's IP, but it still looks as if they bear some responsibility for the situation. If they signed a contract and can't honour it, they should be held accountable for any damage that causes.
From the article:
... I would say we're lucky this technology wasn't determined by American companies (and I basically don't care if they are European or Asean), or else we'd pay double for our phones, just for the patents to use the proprietary communication format.
To Americans, the telecom world's model of promoting growth through vertical investments (a Nokia or an Ericsson bails out the carriers) and through IP sharing (yeuch!), and promoting common standards (that's goddam Communism!), must look like a filthy and incestuous business.
Perhaps slightly unrelated (yes, mod me down), but I wonder if the cell phone market would ever have been that successful as it is now without these common standards, especially if you think that the mobile market/penetration is the largest in Scandinavia. Imagine a world where a Nokia phone could not communicate with a Sony/Ericsson, what a waste of resources would that be,
But hey, isn't that exactly what we have on the desktop?
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
1. Sendo sues MS.
2. MS fights for a little while.
3. Sendo gets more desperate, and settles with MS for enough money to appease their investors.
Case closed.
$8.95/mo web hosting
Well - no.
Microsoft promised to have Stinger ready in summer 2001. Without Stinger, Sendo couldn't make any money. Over a year later Microsoft still hasn't got the product ready and is refusing to fix some of the bugs Sendo found. You get the picture?
So yes, Sendo was stupid. Everybody is stupid who thinks Microsoft can put out a working product in schedule.
Anyone familiar with the term "critical path"? That is the path in the development cycle that affects all others, and ultimately the deliverablilty of the product. If you delay the critical path, you delay the product.
If you are planning a product that will determine the success of your company, you should make sure that critical path is kept in-house where it can be controlled. Sendo's management obviously didn't get this. (A better buisiness decision might have been to use an open source operating system and hire a bunch of developers to customize it for you.)
This is why many smaller broadband companies went belly up in the ".com roaring 90's". They depended on someone else (telcos and cable companies) to deliver on their critical path. That's just plain stupid.
-ted
I mean, really. Anyone considering a deal with MS that involves the transfer, licensing, ownership of IP to Microsoft should click their heels together three times and say:
"Spyglass, Spyglass, Spyglass."
It's not like MS hasn't been caught redhanded pulling this sort of crap before.
KFG
I keep hearing on /. about this thing called a Constitution which guarantees one to be innocent until proven guilty. I guess that only applies selectively according to the whims of geeks? Rights exist to protect ALL whether you agree with or even like others. I guess all the whining is really the releasing of a bunch of hot air from people with no life.
/. doesn't like Microsoft, ANY lawsuit, regardless of merits, is a good thing. Until the judge rules, neither side is guilty, PERIOD.
What did you expect IN THE FILING FROM SENDO?!?!?! "Microsoft treated us with the utmost respect, w screwed up and lost a bunch of money but we're going to use anti-Microsoft sentiment to push this case along and get a crack at the 40+ billion dollars they have sitting around just itching to be plundered by a bunch of lawyers."
The filing is Sendo's side of the case but since it's a lawsuit against Microsoft and
How can [Bill Gates] be evil when he wants to save children in third world countries from AIDS?
Well, according to several recent reports on his contributions to various efforts, he wants to save them from the threat of linux even more he wants to save them from AIDS.
--
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.