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Mesirow Files A 2nd (Much Lower) Bill |
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Wednesday, January 23 2008 @ 07:59 PM EST
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Mesirow has filed its second bill for providing financial services to SCO. This time it's for one month, the month of December, and it's for only $21,117.00, $16,334.10 (including holdback -- they say they are voluntarily reducing the total from $23,097) in compensation and $4,782.90 in expenses. That's a fair bit less than the first monthly bill for nearly a half million, which actually covered the time period from September 14 to November 30.
Here's the filing: 313 - Filed & Entered: 01/23/2008
Application for Compensation
Docket Text: Monthly Application for Compensation (Second) and Reimbursement of Expenses as Financial Advisors to the Debtors for the Period from December 1, 2007 through December 31, 2007 Filed by Mesirow Financial Consulting, LLC. Objections due by 2/12/2008. (Attachments: # (1) Notice # (2) Exhibit A # (3) Exhibit B # (4) Exhibit C # (5) Exhibit D # (6) Exhibit E # (7) Certificate of Service and Service List) (Werkheiser, Rachel) They provide quite a bit more detail this time too. Exhibit A is the breakdown; Exhibit B is the hours for each category of services; Exhibit C is the expenses; Exhibit D provides daily descriptions of services rendered by each professional; and Exhibit E provides details about the expenses. I'm deducing Mesirow would like there to be no objection from Novell to this bill like the one
Novell filed objecting to their first bill.
Update: I've had a chance now to look a bit more carefully, and just like the first bill, it's almost all about the York deal or, in this bill, preparing the first bill. But that is eye opening, because SCO withdrew the motion to sell the assets to York in November, albeit without prejudice, and this bill is for activities in December, and the last thing is about revisiting the possibilities in the new year. So this is a withdrawn motion, not necessarily a dead duck. Um... didn't York and SCO tell the court there was a time emergency to get the deal done?
Please take a look at page 5 and 6 of the motion. Fifty out of 72.2 total hours were spent on the preparation of the first bill they submitted. That's a lot of hours, even if it was almost all an associate and paraprofessional doing the work on that task. They end up charging somewhere between $7,000 and $8,000 for those two just on that task alone. I'm thinking they must have some arrangement with SCO to let them bill for bill preparation, because I've never worked anywhere where the firm billed for preparing a bill. Maybe because of the extra demands of bankruptcy court.
And as for the higher ups in the firm, look at the breakdown by employee on Exhibit A. Out of the 72.2 hours, the Managing Director worked 16.5 at $650/hr; a Senior Vice President, Todd Zoha, billed 6.7 hours at $580/hr; a Senior Associate, Lyle Bauck, billed 2.6 hours at $350/hr. So that's roughly 25 hours. Here's what they toiled on, as shown on
page 4 of Exhibit D, listed as D-2. There we find the higher ups working on the York deal, participating in various conference calls and phone meetings. Boies Schiller shows up, too, in various discussions about the York deal and how it intersects with Utah, I think, both Stuart Singer and apparently David Boies himself, at least judging from the entries for December 11 and December 10. The Mesirow Managing Director, Bill Fasel, was on the conference call with Boies (listed as Bois). Todd Zoha was on the one with Stuart Singer "regarding SVRx contracts and UNIXWARE and SCOsource licenses". I'd certainly like to have been on that call.
Fasel was a participant on an hour-long December 14 call with SCO management "to decide on 'tabling' sale discussions and revisit potential sale process in the new year." On page 6 of Exhibit D, technically
Exhibit D-3, we find one entry under the category "Merger/Acquisition/Divestiture Analysis", a "conference call with D. Charnin (Potential Bidder) regarding Potential Bidder's response to SCO's non-negotiable terms". Page 6 of the Motion provides a bit more on what that was about:
Negotiate the Asset Purchase Agreement, Credit and Security Agreement, Cross Licensing Agreement, Bid Procedures Motion, Sale motion with the potential stalking horse bidder."
Exhibit E shows Lyle Bauck traveling and eating out. Memorable meals, one would hope, in some cases, given that on 11/16 he bills $174.50 for "Out of town dinner, 2 attendees". Again on the 25th, it cost $72.43 for two attendees at dinner. I think that means him and one other person, because breakfast on the 29th for 1 attendee was $7.70. He traveled to both Provo Utah and Chicago, so let's assume the dinner for one attendee listed at $33.16 was in Provo and the one for nearly $96.39 for one attendee on the 28th was in Chicago. Pressed duck, maybe? Suckling pig? Wait! Maybe wine? I know working for SCO would make me turn to drink, so maybe that's it. Crying in his beers in the Windy City. Just kidding, folks, trying to figure out how one person even in Chicago can spend so much for one dinner.
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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 23 2008 @ 08:16 PM EST |
As needed, if needed.
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--Bill P, not a lawyer. Question the answers, especially if I give some.[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, January 23 2008 @ 08:17 PM EST |
Please, nothing on topic here.
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--Bill P, not a lawyer. Question the answers, especially if I give some.[ Reply to This | # ]
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--Bill P, not a lawyer. Question the answers, especially if I give some.[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: rsteinmetz70112 on Wednesday, January 23 2008 @ 09:37 PM EST |
I suspect Mesirow is learning the ropes.
I sort of expect SCO to go into hibernation until the trial.
It seems to me no one will make a bid for SCO knowing Novell is watching. The
trial isn't that far away so any speculative offer probably wouldn't be approved
before the trial anyway.
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Rsteinmetz - IANAL therefore my opinions are illegal.
"I could be wrong now, but I don't think so."
Randy Newman - The Title Theme from Monk
[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: fudisbad on Wednesday, January 23 2008 @ 09:40 PM EST |
Exhibit D page 4: "follow up call with SCO regarding York's desire to continue
to pursue sale discussions". Dated 13 December.
The deal seemed to be killed
in BK 287-A, around 20
November. --- "SCO’s failure to provide code for the methods and concepts
it claims were misappropriated is [...] a violation of this court’s orders." -
Judge Brooke Wells [ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Bernard on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 12:26 AM EST |
I don't know about New York or Chicago, but here in Brisbane , Australia, I've
eaten in restaurants (not even particularly up-market ones) that charged $35 or
more for a main course dish (I guess what you American folks would call an
entree, though that's the term we use to refer to starters).
Then you include a good quality bottle of wine (many are $40-$50, and I've seen
some over $1,000, although that's just ridiculous IMHO).
I've paid restaurant bills for four that were over $200 Australian, and as
mentioned, that's not a particularly up-market restaurant. I've been a guest at
a restaurant where the dégustation menu was $180 a head... (and the waiters told
an amusing story about an American tourist who bought the $120 lobster platter,
and then mortally offended the chef by asking for ketchup before even tasting
it!)
So, I guess my point is, I can easily imagine that an up-market restaurant could
cost far more than $170 for dinner for two.
Of course, whether dining in an upmarket restaurant is justified when the bill
is ultimately being paid by a company in bankruptcy, well, that's another story
altogether...[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: DodgeRules on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 12:49 AM EST |
Just kidding, folks, trying to figure out how one person even in
Chicago can spend so much for one dinner.
It's easy when you are a
big tipper with someone else's money.[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 01:41 AM EST |
Boies Schiller shows up, too, in various discussions about the York
deal
and how it intersects with Utah, I think, both Stuart Singer and
apparently
David Boies himself, at least judging from the entries for
December 11 and
December 10.
I think the references are to the firm, not to Boies
himself. The same
entries refer to Berger Singerman without specifying an
individual. Of the
entries that do name individuals, none mentions
Boies.
The unnamed "Potential Bidder" is represented by one D. Charnin. The
only lawyer that seems to match is David B. Charnin, listed as a general
practitioner with an office address in Boston. Possibly this same person is a
law graduate of the Univ. of Michigan, and was recently admitted to the
Massachusetts bar with an affiliation of ATMI, Inc. ATMI is a manufacturing
firm based in Connecticut, so that's as far as I get. [ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 05:46 AM EST |
Will there be a bill in January for preparing the December bill for preparing
the November bill?
In a few months, this could get as exciting as those sur sur sur replies of yore
:)[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 07:29 AM EST |
And the next bill will show time spent preparing this bill, and so on forever.
SCO will never finish paying Mesirow, because when they get the "final
bill" and pay that, they will get another bill for preparing the final
bill.
Gee, wish I could do that with my customers. But they wouldn't like it, and I
want to keep them, and be able to use them for references in the future. [ Reply to This | # ]
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- Scheme of things. - Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 12:54 PM EST
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 09:43 AM EST |
Any news on those monthly filings?
It should be dockets 311 and 312, I presume.
Pacer, anyone?[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: xetheriel on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 09:47 AM EST |
$96.39 for one dinner? For 1 person?
There must have been drinks. Lots of drinks.
My grocery budget for a week is $100. Thats for a whole week... for 2 adults,
and 2 children.
Even when my wife and I go out for an *expensive* dinner, we wont spend more
than $80... for *2* people.
Crazyness... absolute insanity.
I should have taken up law. :)
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The wheel of time forever turns, and history repeats.[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: TomWiles on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 10:21 AM EST |
I think an argument can be made that the York deal was a scam to defraud Novell
and other credators. It appears that the primary purpose of the deal was to
remove any SCO assets from the reach of credators and to damage credators
further by pushing the legal process as far as possible.
Mesirow, as officers of the court, should not have participated in these
activities.
I believe that the court should at least look at the position of disallowing any
payment even remotely associated with the York deal.
Tom [ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: DMF on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 11:28 AM EST |
Has any item of any bill we've seen been for developing a Reorganization Plan?
Maybe in hindsight Novell shot itself in the foot by getting the case
re-awakened in Utah. Seems that the Bankruptcy Court now intends to wait for
Judge Kimball's decision before shooting SCO in the head.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, January 24 2008 @ 04:43 PM EST |
This is the latest application for compensation from Berger Singerman, for
December 2007. Here are some highlights from Exhibit A.
AJS
12/20/2007
Office conference with G. Robson and review R9027
and 28 USC Section 1452 regarding removal of action pending in district court
to bankruptcy court in a diffrent location (0.3); review Gray complaint
(0.7).
GR 12/11/2007
Research regarding
factors for venue (1.2); continue review state court pleadings and draft
motion to transfer venue (2.0); conference with R. Werkhesier and A. Spector
regarding same (0.3); email R. Tibbits and S. Singer regarding same
(.1).
So no surprise here then ...
[ Reply to This | # ]
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