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Microsoft Shown Involved with Baystar and SCO
baryon351 writes "Back a few years ago, when SCO looked like it was hemorrhaging cash, a surprise investment came out of the blue from venture capitalists Baystar. They invested $20 million in SCO and aided their anti-Linux cause, enabling McBride & co. to continue with (now shown incorrect) claims of line-by-line code copying of SCO IP in Linux. Now one of IBM's submissions to the court reveals Microsoft was behind it after all. Baystar's manager says about Microsoft's Richard Emerson: 'Mr. Emerson and I discussed a variety of investment structures wherein Microsoft would backstop, or guarantee in some way, Baystar's investment ... Microsoft assured me that it would in some way guarantee BayStar's investment in SCO.' Despite the denials about their involvement, Microsoft helped SCO continue this charade — and on top of that halted all contact with Baystar after the investment, reneging on their guarantee."
...it's nice to finally have some concrete back-up from those directly involved, instead of just having to piece things together from what leaked out around the edges.
No matter if SCO loses as they should, the millions of dollars their phony lawsuits cost others, the doubt they cast over all of 'free' software, and the delays in some companies considering a move to Linux until Vista could finally be made (allegedly) viable, definately helped Microsoft.
Hopefully there will be enough of a tie-in for Microsoft to be pursued for their part in the charade.
--
Tomas
Actually, I think Microsoft is scared of everyone. It seems like they feel the need to compete with everyone after they've brought an interesting product to market and they decide they can make some money there. Now one might say that they've decided they can do a better job in that market spot, but they never really do a better job. The X-Box 360 may or may not be an exception to this, but I really wish, for the sake of everyone that uses their products and everyone else that needs to deal with them they they'll stop trying to run everyone else into the ground and just make a core set of products the best they can be. There's no innovation, they kill everything they make through design by committee.
IBM wouldn't have submitted it unless there was something to back it all up with (This is something
submitted as testimony/evidence in a Civil Trial- IBM is not wont, unlike MS and SCO to fabricate
things for the court (Both of the latter mentioned companies are VERY guilty of that!)...they don't
HAVE to...). A paper trail.
We see glimpses of it floating about on the Internet, if you know where to look. Not as much
of a libel or fiction as you'd like to believe.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
IBM wouldn't have fielded this as part of their filings unless they were laying the groundwork
for going after each and every party involved with this charade for it's worth. I'm hoping so
myself- it'd be nice to see all the people responsible for this whole lame affair being pilloried
for their efforts.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
This would fall under something prohibited by the Antitrust Acts. Since they have been found to
be an effective monopoly under those acts in a Findings of Fact from a prior Antitrust Trial, with
really no change in the circumstances, they're at violating the law again. (Small surprise that-
with nothing but slaps on the wrist, they really don't have any incentive to NOT do it again and
again, with more flagrant violations of the law being done over time.)
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Except for the fact that Goldfarb was under oath, meaning he goes to jail if he gets caught lying.
Oh, and the documentary evidence that already corroborated this story.
Mike Anderer (the person behind SCO's ludicrous claims that 'spectral analysis' showed that there was lots of Unix code in Linux) was drunk late one night and fired off a stroppy, and semi-literate, email to his paymasters complaining that HE was the person who convinced Microsoft to tell Baystar to pump SCO full of cash, and that he deserved a bonus for it. This email ended up on Eric S Raymond's desk, back when our Eric was the hotline for disgruntled Microsofties with incriminating internal documents to share.
Read all about it here
You mean a sworn affidavit in a court of law, at the risk of perjury, in front of a judge and council is not good enough for you.
evil is as evil does
Microsoft issued an relatively unusual press release in mid-September 2003, announcing that Emerson was leaving to "spend more time with his family". The announcement got published in the New York Times, and Emerson's supposed end date was August 31, 2003. He would consult on "complicated transactions".
Emerson's position as "SVP Corporate Development" reporting directly to Steve Ballmer was abolished on his resignation, and the Corp Development division demoted to supervision by the CFO. After a period, Brian Roberts, Emerson's long time deputy was promoted to run the division. Robert's left Microsoft in 2005 to work with Emerson at his new position at Evercore Partners. Roberts and Emerson have been associated since running telecomunications portfolio in the dot-com days at the investment bank Lazard-Freres.
Emerson made political contributions to the Bush re-election campaign in mid-September 2003, and listed his occupation as Microsoft Executive, so his August 2003 resignation is a bit atmospheric or conveniently backdated.
Emerson had been given a 12 Million dollar loan as a signing bonus to MSFT in 2000. A mid-September 2003 proxy noted that he was paying the loan back with vested stock options. The options were underwater, but had a positive Black-Scholes valuation based on their future potential to be profitable. Emerson used this positive valuation to retire the loan on a cash free basis.
Emerson had little public trace through most of 2004, and then acquired a position at Evercore Partners, a mergers and acquisitions investment advisor. Evercore has since IPO'd, and is traded as EVR.
Emerson and a Baystar principal Andrew Farkas were both listed as advisors/investors in a NYC Venture, I-Hatch Partners. A Farkas relative (Younger brother, I believe) is the fund executive. This is good evidence that the Baystar and Emerson relationship had alternative means of communication, and unreturned phone calls from MSFT headquarters should be considered a convenient fiction.
Emerson and deputy Roberts also show up in July 2003 SEC documents as the signatory for the Microsoft investment in IMMR (Immersion) that had patent suits against Sony and MSFT. The MSFT stock investment in IMMR ended the Microsoft portion of the suit (for game controllers) while ensuring the suit against arch-rival Sony would continue. This "investment in a strategic lawsuit" has echoes in the Baystar Pipe deal occuring just months later. We can conclude that the IMMR and SCOX investments are implementations of a similar strategic idea. Sources:1 19312503051346/ddef14a.htm 0 3E6DB103AF933A1575AC0A9659C8B63 t y=SEATTLE&st=WA&;last=EMerson&first=RICHARD
http://news.com.com/2100-1022_3-5079594.html
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789019/000
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=95
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?ci