In general rights to board seats are normally part of an investment agreement. Such agreements normally legally bind owner's votes when the board is elected. Such agreements also normally have an NDA clause saying that the parties agree to keep the details of the agreement secret. This is standard VC practise.
Moreover, such agreements, at least if the founders have done their homework, normally do not let a single minority investor control the strategy or operations of the company in any way.
As a side note Norwegian law makes it possible to exclude a board member from certain board discussions when there is a conflict of interest.
Regarding your questions, I can only refer to my previous posting.
Please understand that I cannot say much more.
Trolltech's founders and first employees were developers with roots in the open source community. Those developers know very well where they came from and they still run and control the company.
We have asked Canopy to divest since SCO turned against Linux. Unfortunately under US and Norwegian law you cannot force someone to sell something.
We have sold all our investments in Canopy companies a long time ago.
We do not like the fact that Canopy and SCO owns shares in Trolltech. The irony is that they became shareholders because the old Canopy/Caldera wanted us to continue to create good Linux software.
Canopy/SCO owns a very small share of Trolltech and has no control or influence whatsoever on the strategy and operations of Trolltech.
Trolltech is controlled by it's employees.
Eirik Chambe-Eng (President, Trolltech)
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There are currently 6 directors on the board and Ralph Yarro's term began on January 5, 2000
Now, if you excuse me, I will no longer monitor this discusion. I need to concentrate on running Trolltech and making sure that Qt gets even better.
Moreover, such agreements, at least if the founders have done their homework, normally do not let a single minority investor control the strategy or operations of the company in any way.
As a side note Norwegian law makes it possible to exclude a board member from certain board discussions when there is a conflict of interest.
Regarding your questions, I can only refer to my previous posting.
Please understand that I cannot say much more.
Trolltech's founders and first employees were developers with roots in the open source community. Those developers know very well where they came from and they still run and control the company.
We have asked Canopy to divest since SCO turned against Linux. Unfortunately under US and Norwegian law you cannot force someone to sell something. We have sold all our investments in Canopy companies a long time ago. We do not like the fact that Canopy and SCO owns shares in Trolltech. The irony is that they became shareholders because the old Canopy/Caldera wanted us to continue to create good Linux software. Canopy/SCO owns a very small share of Trolltech and has no control or influence whatsoever on the strategy and operations of Trolltech. Trolltech is controlled by it's employees. Eirik Chambe-Eng (President, Trolltech) -----