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The LNS/York/Hale/Microsoft Smoking Gun: More - Updated: Mr. Morris of Lovells
Friday, July 24 2009 @ 03:10 PM EDT

Both HaleGlobal and York Capital Management must be reading Groklaw. Joke. Joke. As in, is there a difference?

Anyway, right after Groklaw pointed out two days ago that Microsoft Licensing was transferring its claim against SCO in the bankruptcy to an entity called LNS, and that LNS seems to point to HaleGlobal/York Capital, the phone number on one of the links we provided has been changed.

Silly wabbits. You can't cleanse the Internet. This jig is up, m'hearties. Naturally, we took the precaution of saving snapshots, which I will now show you, along with some more interesting tidbits, like the same building address for LNS and Charles Hale, Managing Director at York Capital.

First, notice the address on the filing [PDF] regarding Microsoft transferring its claim to LNS, captured in this screenshot:

We don't see the purchase price filled in, by the way. Now go to any whois and search for haleglobal.com and this is what you will find:

What a coincidence. Are these guys not a riot? I have edited out the apartment number for Mr. Hale, as a courtesy, but I'll mention that they are not identical. But that could be either a mistake on one of these documents, or they are nearby, down the hall, or whatever. But the address otherwise is identical.

Now, on the disappearing stuff. We had pointed to this HaleGlobal contact page, which then had phone and email contact info for Charles Hale. If you go there today, the phone number has changed to a 917 area code number. But here's how it looked on Wednesday, and if you check Google and go to cache, you will find it's been that way since the last Google scrape in May:

If you recall, we had linked to this contact information for York Capital on LinkedIn, which shows York Capital's phone as 212-300-1300. Remarkably similar to Mr. Hale's, which is what started us on our little research project.

Here's the link to JGD Management's Executive page on BusinessWeek, showing Mr. Hale as Managing Director at York Capital Management with the phone number 212-300-1300. Here's some more on York Capital's phone number:

  • You can see it on this blog where York Capital is listed on the Committee of Unsecured Creditors [PDF] in the Bearing Point bankruptcy.

  • You can find it in this SEC filing, which shows the phone and address for York Enhanced Strategies as 212-300-1301 and fax at 1300, 767 Fifth Ave, NYC. But I think they have it transposed, judging from the next entry.

  • You can find it on a BusinessWeek page for private company JGD Management, which lists York Capital at that same 767 Fifth address and has the phones the other way around. JDG is the legal name, and York Capital Management is the d/b/a: "JGD Management Corp. doing business as York Capital Management is an employee owned hedge fund sponsor." The key executives listed there are:
    Mr. James Gerard Dinan
    Chief Executive Officer and Member of Senior Management Committee

    Mr. Jeffrey Andrew Weber
    President and Member of Senior Management Committee

    Mr. Adam Jay Semler
    Chief Financial Officer and Member of Senior Management Committee

    Mr. Alan Henry Cohen
    Senior Managing Director and Member of Senior Management Committee

    Mr. William Charles Vrattos
    Senior Managing Director and Member of Senior Management Committee

  • You can find it on York Capital's letterhead [PDF].

Trying to cleanse the Internet is hard. Too many tubes.

And before you send me any Pulitzer Prizes, I'll tell you in all honesty that it wasn't even me that noticed the phone number similarity first. It was Groklaw as a group that noticed and collected this research. Open Source principles in action. It's a great model for journalism too.

And in case Microsoft reads Groklaw: Shame on you, Microsoft. Seriously. If you knew, shame, shame, shame.

Update: Here is the lawyer that represents LNS, Matthew P. Morris of Lovells LLP. His bio tells us this about his background, among other details:

Prior to joining Lovells, Matthew participated in the representation of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in Enron Corp.’s Chapter 11 case and has been involved in numerous other large-scale bankruptcy cases.
A bit more from Legalspan:
Matthew P. Morris is a Partner in the Business Restructuring and Insolvency practice at Lovells LLP, resident in the New York Office. Matthew concentrates on creditor-side representations in corporate bankruptcy and other business disputes. He has extensive experience in all aspects of complex commercial bankruptcy and commercial litigation and represents and advises bank, financial services, fund, reinsurance, corporate and other clients in a variety of US bankruptcy and cross-border insolvency disputes and proceedings. Prior to joining Lovells, Matthew participated in the representation of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in Enron Corp.'s Chapter 11 case and has been involved in numerous other large-scale bankruptcy cases. Some of his recent works includes advising official liquidators of collapsed Cayman-based hedge funds in various US litigation and Chapter 15 procedings [sic]; representing the BVI and Hong Kong court-appointed receivers of BVI-registered entities in connection with US litigation issues in s global dispute between French and Chinese food and beverage concerns; representing an insolvent Brazilian enterprise in defense of US preference actions; and advising multiple domestic and foreign banks and funds in connection with the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy and resulting derivative contract and trade termination issues. Mattew [sic] received his J.D from Columbia University Law School and his B.A from Middlebury College.
He represented [PDF] Centerbridge Credit Partners LP and Centerbridge Credit Partners Master LP in the Lehman matter. Last year, he lectured in a CLE course on hot topics in bankruptcy [PDF] on "Recognition of Foreign Proceedings and the 'Center of Main Interest' Presumption Under Chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code." So he's a bankruptcy guru. I don't know yet all that the rest of that means, the subject of his lecture, I think by "foreign", they mean Cayman Islands-style of foreign, though. Doesn't SCO have Cayman Island based investors still? But one thing I do know. Whoever York represents cares enough to send the very best from behind its dark screen.

CLE means you get credits if you sit through the course. Lawyers have to do that to keep up, because the law is always changing. And here's a clue as to what the subject matter of his course is about, from the law firm Holland & Knight:

Main and Nonmain Proceedings

Under Chapter 15, the foreign proceeding can be recognized as a foreign main or a foreign nonmain proceeding. Thus, at the beginning of the case, the representative(s) of the foreign debtor must seek the appropriate recognition.

The difference between main and nonmain is important.

A foreign main proceeding is a proceeding pending in the country where the debtor has the “center of its main interests.” Recognition as a foreign main proceeding applies certain provisions of the Bankruptcy Code to the Chapter 15 proceeding, including the automatic stay, which prevents any party from initiating or continuing any action against the debtor or its estate, including a Rule B attachment action. Any existing attachment action (whether in a U.S. District Court or any other court) against the debtor will be stayed by the recognition by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the foreign main proceeding.

A foreign nonmain proceeding is a proceeding pending in a country where the debtor has an “establishment,” but which is not the debtor’s “center of main interest.” Following the recognition of a foreign nonmain proceeding, the Bankruptcy Court may grant appropriate relief only on the further application of the foreign representative, including staying the commencement or continuation of any individual action or proceeding.

Effect of Recognition

Under Chapter 15, upon recognition of a main or nonmain foreign proceeding, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, at the foreign representative’s request, may entrust the distribution of the debtor’s U.S. assets to the foreign representative.11 Importantly, the Bankruptcy Court may order turn over to the foreign representative only “if the interests of the creditors and other interested entities, including the debtor, are sufficiently protected.” Although this condition was not present under the predecessor to Chapter 15,13 courts frequently considered the rights and protection of U.S. creditors in considering whether to permit the transfer of funds and other assets back to the jurisdiction of the debtor’s main proceeding. Thus, if at the time of the Chapter 15 filing assets of the debtor have been attached in the U.S., the foreign representative could request that the action be transferred to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for that court to hear the motion to vacate the attachment, and could request that upon recognition of the foreign proceeding, the assets be turned over to the foreign representative.

You can visit the site to read the rest, including the footnotes, which I removed. So. LNS sends in a guy who teaches about Chapter 15 bankruptcy. Here's what that is:
Chapter 15 is a new chapter added to the Bankruptcy Code by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. It is the U.S. domestic adoption of the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency promulgated by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law ("UNCITRAL") in 1997, and it replaces section 304 of the Bankruptcy Code. Because of the UNCITRAL source for chapter 15, the U.S. interpretation must be coordinated with the interpretation given by other countries that have adopted it as internal law to promote a uniform and coordinated legal regime for cross-border insolvency cases.

The purpose of Chapter 15, and the Model Law on which it is based, is to provide effective mechanisms for dealing with insolvency cases involving debtors, assets, claimants and other parties in interest involving more than one country....

An ancillary case is commenced under chapter 15 by a "foreign representative" filing a petition for recognition of a "foreign proceeding." (1) 11 U.S.C. § 1504. Chapter 15 gives the foreign representative the right of direct access to U.S. courts for this purpose. 11 U.S.C. § 1509. The petition must be accompanied by documents showing the existence of the foreign proceeding and the appointment and authority of the foreign representative. 11 U.S.C. § 1515. After notice and a hearing, the court is authorized to issue an order recognizing the foreign proceeding as either a "foreign main proceeding" (a proceeding pending in a country where the debtor's center of main interests are located) or a "foreign non-main proceeding" (a proceeding pending in a country where the debtor has an establishment, (2) but not its center of main interests). 11 U.S.C. § 1517. Immediately upon the recognition of a foreign main proceeding, the automatic stay and selected other provisions of the Bankruptcy Code take effect within the United States. 11 U.S.C. § 1520. The foreign representative is also authorized to operate the debtor's business in the ordinary course. Id. The U.S. court is authorized to issue preliminary relief as soon as the petition for recognition is filed. 11 U.S.C. § 1519.

Through the recognition process, chapter 15 operates as the principal door of a foreign representative to the federal and state courts of the United States. 11 U.S.C. § 1509. Once recognized, a foreign representative may seek additional relief from the bankruptcy court or from other state and federal courts and is authorized to bring a full (as opposed to ancillary) bankruptcy case. 11 U.S.C. §§ 1509, 1511. In addition, the representative is authorized to participate as a party in interest in a pending U.S. insolvency case and to intervene in any other U.S. case where the debtor is a party. 11 U.S.C. §§ 1512, 1524.

Let me fantasize, because I know nothing about Chapter 15, so that is all I can do, but from what I've just read here is my nightmare scenario: SCO Germany or Japan or China -- did we ever find out what happened to SCO China? -- or whatever files for bankruptcy in their respective country. They then ask that the foreign bankruptcy court stay all further action or even take over the bankruptcy going on in the US? Then they intervene in SCO v. IBM etc.?

OMG. Like SCO wouldn't try that. Again, I stress I know nothing about Chapter 15, so don't go by me, but the very description of Chapter 15 is appalling in a SCO context.

Oh, well. LNS may have a guy who teaches Chapter 15 bankruptcy, but Cravath probably has in its stable of attorneys one of the guys who wrote it. And it may even be too late now to even try my nightmare scenario after all the cats hopped out of the bag. But wouldn't that explain the LNS transfer?


  


The LNS/York/Hale/Microsoft Smoking Gun: More - Updated: Mr. Morris of Lovells | 208 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Corrections here please
Authored by: tiger99 on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 03:18 PM EDT
If needed, to assist PJ.

[ Reply to This | # ]

newspick discussion here
Authored by: designerfx on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 03:19 PM EDT
etc etc

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off topic here please
Authored by: tiger99 on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 03:19 PM EDT
Please remember to make clickable links where appropriate.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Area Code 917
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 03:29 PM EDT
Search returns: New York (overlays 212)

dc-houston

[ Reply to This | # ]

I'm slow today
Authored by: jbb on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 03:45 PM EDT
Can someone explain the significance and implication of all this. Thanks.

---
You just can't win with DRM.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Shame on you, Microsoft.
Authored by: Gringo on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 03:48 PM EDT

It is not clear on this page why you are admonishing Microsoft (though I'm all for it whatever the reason - they are always deserving of admonishment for something).

[ Reply to This | # ]

I got Nothing.
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 03:58 PM EDT
PJ, this whole claims assignment deal is smelly enough, theres
just no legitimate alternative light to look at this in to try
and find a neutral ground. The neutral ground on this is
standing in a slimy bog.

I went out this morning and bought a subscription to SuSE
Linux Enterprise Desktop. We will see if my wife can figure
out how to use SuSE and open office.



---
Clocks
"Ita erat quando hic adveni."

[ Reply to This | # ]

The LNS/York/Hale/Microsoft Smoking Gun: More
Authored by: JamesK on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 04:09 PM EDT
"But that could be either a mistake on one of these documents, or they are
nearby, down the hall, or whatever. But the address otherwise is
identical."

It could be a virtual office. It's one of those places that has only one front
door, but several "office" numbers. You'll often find a single
receptionist answering the phone for several companies. The "office"
is only a mail bin.



---
Self Assembling Möbius Strip - See other side for details.

[ Reply to This | # ]

IBM depositions
Authored by: nola on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 04:35 PM EDT

Does this mean that IBM could have Microsoft deposed in order to discover the details between LNS, Your and Norris?

That could be very interesting.

[ Reply to This | # ]

  • IBM depositions - Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 05:06 PM EDT
Oracle
Authored by: nola on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 04:55 PM EDT

I wonder if the Oracle involvement recently is some part of its recent acquisition of Sun? Sun's SCO deal is now Oracle's issue.

[ Reply to This | # ]

  • Oracle - Authored by: Ed L. on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 05:38 PM EDT
  • Oracle, part 2 - Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, July 25 2009 @ 02:36 AM EDT
  • Oracle - Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, July 25 2009 @ 12:21 PM EDT
You can't cleanse the Internet
Authored by: DannyB on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 05:01 PM EDT
Yet SCO seems to think that if they were to disclose the evidence of
infringement that they claim to have, that somehow all copies of Linux source
code everywhere would be cleansed of the (allegedly) infringing lines. Even
millions of commercially produced silkscreened CDROM's of Linux with source
code, distributed for more than a decade now.

Yep, yessiree, all of that source code would just disappear once SCO disclosed
their (non-existant) evidence.

---
The price of freedom is eternal litigation.

[ Reply to This | # ]

    The LNS/York/Hale/Microsoft Smoking Gun: More
    Authored by: Chris Cogdon on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 05:46 PM EDT
    That gap for the purchase price is mighty small... I would hazard a guess that
    it's not any more than $999. No room for anything more than a dollar sign and 3

    digits.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    How to get hold of (proposed?) trial exhibits?
    Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 06:03 PM EDT
    SCO have given us a hint of five trial exhibits (proposed?) of IBM which we should expect to find very interesting, in SCOGBK#868 (available on epiq).

    Exhibit No: 36
    Description: Email from Hans Beyer to Eric Le Blan, Stephen Norrs and Jim Kelly
    Basis for Objection: Hearsay, hearsay within hearsay

    Exhibit No: 37
    Description: Email chain with various senders and recipients.
    Basis for Objection: Hearsay, hearsay within relevancy hearsay, and relevancy

    >Exhibit No: 39
    Description: Email chain between Eric Le Blan, Stephen Norrs, Jim Kelly and Hans Beyer.
    Basis for Objection: Hearsay, hearsay within hearsay, and relevancy.

    Exhibit No: 40
    Description: Email chain between Eric Le Blan, Stephen Norrs, Jim Kelly and Hans Beyer.
    Basis for Objection: Hearsay, hearsay within hearsay

    Exhibit No: 49
    Description: Email from Eric Le Blan to Stephen Hearsay, Norrs and Raif Awaida including attachment
    Basis for Objection: Hearsay within hearsay, and relevancy

    Do we know Jim Kelly and Raif Awaida?

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    How useful is Webcite??
    Authored by: LaurenceTux on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 07:05 PM EDT
    In these cases of "interesting" things being found on a website how
    useful is a service like Webcite??

    as an example the url http://www.webcitation.org/5ftBWk92t

    shows a dated snapshot of
    http://www.caldera.com/company/legal/update/LTC%20-%20JFS%20for%20Linux%20Feb%20
    2002.pdf
    would this help in cases where "we" need to show that a webpage showed
    certain info??

    (not asking if this would be as such court grade evidence but is the theory
    sound??)

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Monday expectations (humor?)
    Authored by: snakebitehurts on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 08:34 PM EDT
    Setting expectations.....
    Sort of what I expect, with some sarcasm/humor thrown in.

    SCO - "...all innocent and explainable mistakes that we corrected after
    Novell and IBM pointed them out..."

    SCO - "... to insure there is no appearance of impropriety with the
    $150,000 , we now how a down payment of $xxx. Guaranteed by this piece of
    paper, backed by a derivative contract of a derivative, of a derivative policy
    guaranteed by (pick your unknown foreign company name). We just finalized this
    and will have the details soon..."

    Novell - Adam Lewis will continue his ineffective tactics not realizing they are
    not working. He won't notice at all when the judge tunes him out and plugs in
    his ipod and smiles at him. The gallery will refrain from throwing shoes at Mr.
    Lewis to make him look at the judge and understand what is going on.

    IBM - Mr. Levin will methodically begin nailing witness body parts to the
    floors and walls. There will be no escape.

    SCO - will do the best dancing routine seen to date. They will dance around
    IBM's onslaught and do their best. It will be impressive. "If you can't
    dazzle them with brilliance; baffle them with bull(hockey)"

    Darl - ".. I don't remember that ...". "... any $$$ was
    personal and not related to this ..."

    Trustee - will point out time is up and a decision is needed. He will be
    thanked, and ignored.

    SCO - "..the court needs to know the VALUE of our claims ..."
    Objections. Rinse, repeat. If we are lucky, one frustrated IBM or Novell
    lawyer will point out that despite their rosy predictions - they LOST in court.

    Steven Norris - unknown. New player. Will be very uncomfortable by one ton
    hungry IBM sharks circling in attack posture. Will be unhappy when his body
    parts start getting nailed to furniture.

    IBM - having nailed all available body parts to the available furniture, will
    begin ripping of body parts of witnesses and start eating them right there in
    the courtroom. The judge will pretend not to notice.

    SCO - will completely ignore they blood all over the floor and will begin the
    last act of their uber dancing routine. Mr. Spector will pull an Ace card out
    of his sleeve and throw it on the table. IBM and Novell will point out that
    there are only 4 ace cards in a deck; and this is a fifth ace. Chaos will
    ensue.

    Judge - will let everyone go over their time. Will mention that the 15 days to
    make a decision is coming up, and will say that he will decide in 2 business
    days after this hearing; unless he feels like not doing it. "What will
    they do, take me out and shoot me?"

    MikeD
    -----------------------
    I have tried using a laptop at court with handwriting OCR to expedite things.
    It was a failure. Will be taking handwritten notes and then typing them into a
    report, then sending to PJ. Court has been so chaotic the last few hearings
    that "live" updates is not realistic. Will send brief updates at
    lunch or breaks. Full report to PJ will likely be about 2 hours after the
    hearing ends. PJ then needs time to (THANK YOU) clean up my manic notes. The
    hearing could go on until 6 pm. For those outside the US watching, we are GMT
    -05:00


    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Can attorney generals read Groklaw too?
    Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 10:12 PM EDT
    While it is very interesting that HaleGlobal and York Capital Management seem to
    be reading Groklaw, I only wish that any state or federal attorney general with
    jurisdiction would read Groklaw as well.

    In my opinion, all of these clowns are WAY too confident that they will never be
    called to justice. It appears that they have left a MASSIVE electronic and
    paper trail of their misdeeds. They are basing their whole strategy on the
    premise that no legal authority really cares, which very well may be true. But,
    if they are wrong, if someone ends up caring at some point, they will be sitting
    ducks.

    Microsoft should have tried to stay as far away from this as possible. There is
    no IP cloud over GNU/Linux. Regardless of what happens with the appeal, SCO
    never came up with any infringing code. They are certain to lose and everybody
    knows it. Therefore delay no longer benefits them. By hooking up with these
    crooks again, they are just increasing the likelihood of being punished for
    their misdeeds without gaining any upside whatsoever.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    I need to get out more...
    Authored by: inode_buddha on Friday, July 24 2009 @ 10:57 PM EDT
    I read the first Hale phone number as "leet".

    ---
    -inode_buddha
    Copyright info in bio

    "When we speak of free software,
    we are referring to freedom, not price"
    -- Richard M. Stallman

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    The LNS/York/Hale/Microsoft Smoking Gun: More
    Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, July 25 2009 @ 12:27 AM EDT
    Just thought I'd point this 145 W 58th St in NY is a 10
    story office building. (Thank you Google Maps and street
    view). Just because two businesses share that address does
    not mean they are related. When you search that address
    Google also brings up a list of businesses at the address.
    Included on the list are: 7 Days 24 Hours Plumbing, Dental
    Recycling North America and Scholten Japanese Art. Would
    all these be related to each other or to the businesses
    you cite in the article? Probably not. It doesn't mean
    your connection is invalid, just that using this address
    to connect them is not enough evidence.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    The one who controls the search engines ...
    Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, July 25 2009 @ 02:21 AM EDT
    ... controls the collective mind. Trying to get number one in the search engine
    market is not for getting money from advertising alone. It is also for
    controlling information -- not directly but indirectly by only selectively
    showing information. Now with a powerful Bing certain people could try to flush
    old information and distribute only proper information. "Newspeak" is
    not a language, it is a search engine.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    The LNS/York/Hale/Microsoft Smoking Gun: More
    Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, July 25 2009 @ 03:14 AM EDT
    "Anyway, right after Groklaw pointed out two days ago that Microsoft
    Licensing was transferring its claim against SCO in the bankruptcy to an entity
    called LNS, and that LNS seems to point to HaleGlobal/York Capital, the phone
    number on one of the links we provided has been changed."

    Call 212-300-1337 after hours and after a few rings you get sent to the
    voicemail for Charles Hale (the name on the listing).

    Don't listen to the whole greeting -- zero out (press the "0" key) and
    you get...

    "You're being transferred to the attendant <<pause>> Thank you
    for calling York Capital Management. Our business hours are Monday through
    Friday from 8am to 6pm. If you know your parties four digit extension please
    dial it now. For our corporate directory please press nine."

    Or, if you prefer, call York Capital Management's number, 212-300-1300, get the
    message above -- press 9 for the corporate directory -- enter last name
    H-A-L-E... guess where you go? That's right 212-300-1337. (Or if you prefer,
    dial 212-300-1300 -- get the message above and enter the four digit extension
    1337 -- guess where it goes?... You got it.

    So, Charles Hale (of HaleGlobal) can be reached through York Capital
    Management's corporate telephone directory. They are on the same telephone
    system.

    Small world -- ain't it?

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Microsoft - The LNS/York/Hale/Microsoft Smoking Gun: More - Updated: Mr. Morris of Lovells
    Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, July 25 2009 @ 10:08 PM EDT
    Let me get this straight. Microsoft sold their debt to a company that is
    proposing to buy sco. So for x - w dollars they now have an x dollar claim
    against the company they are buying the assets of. So they will give x plus y
    dollars to SCO for SCO's assets, then turn around and collect that x dollars
    back from SCO.

    Sounds fishy to me.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Matthew Morris' Old Firm
    Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, July 26 2009 @ 12:40 AM EDT
    Quoted from ZoomInfo(l ast article on page):
    From 1991 to 1996, Matt was a Litigation Associate for Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he managed large teams of associates and paralegals and executed complex legal assignments primarily for multinational technology and media clients.
    dc-houston

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Looking at Microsoft's involvement with the SCOGscam longterm
    Authored by: Brian S. on Sunday, July 26 2009 @ 07:56 AM EDT
    First post for a while, but in an attempt to understand Microsoft's interest in
    a $1.00 disconnect from SCOG.......


    It can easily be argued that M$
    behaviour towards old SCO in the late 90's as they pushed them towards failure
    just reflected their normal corporate behaviour.

    However, at the same time as
    Doug Michaels began shopping around for money, Ray Noorda finally succombed to
    the ravages of Altzheimers.

    This created a situation around "the Unix
    copyrights" which to an outside observer was probably a bit blurred.

    It's my
    personal belief that Bill Gates and M$ realized there was an opportunity to
    exploit this situation and in January 2000 held a meeting with Ralph Yarro in a
    Seattle hotel room to arrange the necessary.

    ISTM that Ransom Love, Doug
    Michaels and Ray Noorda were just bystanders as Ralph Yarro took Bill's cash to
    settle the Caldera dispute and arranged the buyout of Santa Cruz.

    Over the next
    two years the foundations were laid to carry out the SCOG scam.

    With everything
    ready in 2003, Yarro hired Darl Mcbride to put the plans into action and
    Microsoft appointed Martin Taylor as their "point man on Linux".

    SCOG filed
    their cases in the Utah court and elsewhere. A squeeze between Martin Taylor and
    SCOG was exerted on EV1 servers causing them to settle and provide an
    example.

    The pipe fairy kept the gears finacial gears oiled.

    Trouble was,
    everyone else fought their corner and so did the Linux community. Dubious
    dealings started coming to light involving Baystar and EVI. Eventually,
    documentation, evidence and testimony about these dealings began to be heard in
    court. The scam was backfiring on Microsoft and I don't think they liked what
    they saw.

    The disconnect started in August 2006 when they fired Martin Taylor
    while he was waiting for a plane and he hasn't been heard of since.

    The pipe
    fairy dried up and SCOG have been on their own ever since. ISTM that Microsoft
    just wish the whole thing would just go away.

    In 2007 Microsoft replaced Martin
    Taylor with David Kaefer, the guy who changed their tactics against open source
    and has just sold SCOG's debt to Microsft for a dollar.

    But the trouble for
    Microsoft is that although they can clear the decks which they control, people
    like Ralph Yarro and Darl Mcbride know the exact extent of MS involvement in the
    scam.

    How can Microsoft buy these people's silence in the long term???


    Just
    suggestin and askin.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Chapter 15
    Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, July 26 2009 @ 08:58 AM EDT
    Loathe as I am to question PJ's comments, especially given her track record, I
    read the quoted paragraphs about Chapter 15 as meaning that SCO's subsidiaries
    could only be classified as "non-main foreign proceedings" were they
    to enter bankruptcy themselves. If that is true, then any consequences for the
    Delaware court become far less certain, and there would be no automatic stay.
    It would then be a matter for a representative of the foreign proceeding to
    argue an application before the Delaware court, for grant of relief if
    applicable and appropriate. I see the provisions' purpose as being to protect
    the legitimate interests of the creditors of the "main proceedings",
    so that the assets of subsidiaries cannot be dissolved without reference to the
    main proceedings.

    OTOH, this might be a strategy inspired by SCO to defend against a perceived or
    potential threat from Novell/IBM/Trustee since, IIUIC, the bankruptcy in
    Delaware as actually the main proceedings and would enable the representative of
    SCO in bankruptcy to stay foreign proceedings and attach assets of foreign
    subsidiaries where they themselves enter bankruptcy, under the provisions of
    "UNCITRAL". That might represent a real danger of exposing
    documentation and dealings which some people might wish to remain hidden.

    Dave N
    London, UK

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    For Those Heading To Visit Mr. Morris ...
    Authored by: sk43 on Sunday, July 26 2009 @ 05:40 PM EDT
    The New York office of Lovells is on Madison Ave. in NYC, just a couple of
    blocks from York, and a little over 3 blocks from Hale Global and LNS. Quite
    convenient.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

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