After failing to get any response from Linspire as to why they are not holding annual shareholder meetings, I asked them publicly to do so in my last blog, in a hopes that pressure from customers, partners and shareholders would encourage them to do the right thing. I hold a fairly large amount of Linspire stock, but I remain in a minority position with about 100 other shareholders. Not only has Linspire not held a shareholders meeting, but to this day, they have not even responded to my inquiries with so much as a "we'll get back to you on that." Their lack of responsiveness only heightens my concern with Linspire's present management and the company's future prospects.
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Balzac
16 years 6 days 8 hours 47 min ago
Kevin Carmony made a deal with Microsoft.
That's a pretty serious mistake for a CEO of a GNU/Linux company to make.
From Kevin Carmony's comments:
"I built key and important partnerships with Ubuntu and Microsoft."
Making a deal with Microsoft is nothing to brag about.
Kevin Carmony:
"Many disagreed with the MS partnership, but it brought us millions in new sources of revenue, all without having any of the negative effects on the desktop Linux space that some predicted the MS/Linux deals would. I reduced our losses by millions in my first year as CEO, and made millions in profits my second year."
He made millions in profit in the short term, by destroying a GNU/Linux company's reputation. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to sell out to Microsoft. Any GNU/Linux distro which has a significant community could pull millions or more by selling out to Microsoft.
Kevin Carmony:
"In my next blog, the shareholders will be able to read what my plan was, and I can assure you it did not involve calling well-earned severance payments "embezzlement," or failing to nurture the partnerships I had formed."
Hmmm... CEOs and executives like to give themselves nice severance packages, especially after they gut the value out of a company. Looks like the Microsoft deal destroyed the long-term viability of the Lindows/Linspire/Freespire brand, which was a pathetic brand in the first place.
That company was joke from the very beginning. Probably the influence of the Talented Mr. Raymond had a lot to do with the bizarre saga of "Lindows".