I've been involved in a, ah, discussion of JuxtaComm v. Ascential, et al, a software patent lawsuit that has been vehemently argued on Vincent McBurney's IT blog for many months now. Disclosure: I've been in the small minority of advocates for the defendants, even since the defendant I work for (which will remain unnamed here) settled on undisclosed terms.
At this point, there's one dispute McBurney has gotten tired of hosting (well, at least one). He's tired of the JuxtaComm shareholders bitching and back-biting over the allegedly duplicitous dealings of JuxtaComm's management team.
Experimentally, I'm going to offer them this open thread on which to continue the dispute. I won't referee or censor them unless they piss me off, though I reserve the right to delete posts that cross the line with me.
Who knows, maybe I'll expose the workings of casino capitalism (which this patent suit is) to my own withering attacks. Or maybe not. What I hope for is that they'll come here for the main course (in their view) and then hang around for some lovable liberal dessert, where the real intellectual nutrition is.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Patented open thread
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14 comments:
So, is JuxtaComm's management a bunch of scum-sucking Bernie Madoffs in the making, or are they paragons of resolute circumspection who are determined to achieve the fairest and largest possible payoff for their shareholders?
LL knew your heart was in the right place all along. This is not a Madoff kind of thing, rather how much is going to be lopped off by management, and whether it is a reasonable amount or not. They are making a mistake by not simply addressing this. It will only make things worse. "Stand and defend yourselves".
We will not allow current TH mgmt to intimidate, and steam roll over the shareholders. Enough is enough.
We require some freshness on the board, that will properly represent the shareholders.
We have nothing to lose if we stand untited and let this mgmt team know we are no longer going to roll over and take it up the poop shute.
CommonCents
What amazes me, I have been talking about this for years but people completely put their heads in the sand now it is posted on pacer people want action. Every year at the AGM management would stand up and say this is going to be our year we have all been waiting for. Arrogance would flow since the TH management had 70M shares under proxy so no matter what happened they were in control. I just hope some of those investors have now wised up and come to the fair and just side.
Believe me management is going to be well looked after without the 15% bonus and 20% options. Just think at 10% options on 1B that is 100M (who does not think that is fair compensation)? Not to mention existing share holdings and that is at 1B what if it is 2-5B.
People talk about how management did not take a salary and the sacrifice they made. Let me tell you I know of a few who invested wrongly because of false info and sacrificed way more with the loss of dreams with loved ones. So don't tell me timing was just a little off. THIS WAS THE TRUE SACRIFICE WHICH KEPT THE COMPANY GOING!!!!!!
I only hope it is not too late. I have been in communiqué with the Alberta securities (yes I know it is not a public company) but they are putting me in contact with the right people I will know more tomorrow evening.
Lets move fast on this people to keep as much of our hard earned after tax dollars we invested.
Sam says,
CC ,,, you are right on with this. It's my belief that the shareholders have had enough talk, then silence, and now want accountability.
Just a suggestion to welcome guests: You guys don't have to get an OpenID or a Google account or anything that radical, but I can't be the only one who would be helped by signatures.
Oh wait, I get it, you're signing up front.
tonic_water says,
The post by CommonCents is a good example of Jacques Ellul's point that when it comes to money, people have no sense of humour. A way to show this is to tell a joke about money to a group of people, and no one laughs, because you are blaspheming the sacred.
It seems to me that if you are going to battle, there are better causes than to fight over whether you are getting your fair share of the loot. If, as Lord Peter Wimsey has said, the motive gives value to the action, the current action does not rate very high, because the dominant motive seems to be greed.
Cobalt et al have painted themselves as on the moral high ground, and defenders of the shareholders, but history has shown that things rarely get better for the average person after a revolution replaces the leadership. In fact, often the new leadership is worse.
Sam_008 says,
This is not a revolution in which we want all mgmt replaced. What we initially sought is answers to some basic inside buisness dealings that affect all shareholders. Current mgmt has refused to address these issues, therfore, they bring about this action upon themselves.
Why would one fear change,,, from a dictatorship to a democracy
CommonCents posts a well-reasoned, moderate comment. For his trouble, money4you101 responds with a diatribe. Par for the course - this is the blogosphere, after all.
Anyone who responds as money4 did has an agenda that's not related to the niceties of shareholder so-called democracy.
On the other hand, anyone who invests in a patent holding company that's tightly held among insiders should be aware that his investment is along for the ride and he has no effective control over it. Those insiders will vote themselves every penny they legally may and perhaps then some.
Obviously, I've made the assumption that Teilhard is closely held. This goes beyond what I know. What's the truth? Who has firm control of TH? How much of the stock do they control?
Fun times on Vincent's blog - mockery can be sooo much more fun than straight-up invective!
Interesting that more people aren't posting here. So, I made a couple of calls. Guess what I found out? Not that anyone couldn't guess there are many contributors that have more than one handle. And out of those many handles are people that have been "encouraged" by TH to support them and to counter any postings questioning the TH management team. Go figure!
Come out, come out wherever you are.
If it sounds like one of them, it is one of them. Yes, NOID, I know one of them is you.
Sock-puppetry, the last refuge of an Internet scoundrel!
Hey, my kids love sock-puppetry. More Dad, more. Do the one with the stinky white ones Dad.
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