Home Messages Index
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index

[News] [OT] More Enrons Not So Far Fetched...

  • Subject: [News] [OT] More Enrons Not So Far Fetched...
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:36:50 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Netscape / schestowitz.com
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
Former Refco CEO pleads guilty in NY securities fraud case

,----[ Quote ]
| Bennett, 59, the company's former chairman and chief executive officer, 
| pleaded guilty to a 20-count indictment charging conspiracy to commit 
| securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering and making false 
| filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission.   
`----

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/business&id=5961882

Sounds like Microsoft recruitment material. BayStar/SCO frauds, briberies (e.g.
in Nigeria), sabotage and threats, stacking of committees, cooking the
(financial) books....

"I’d be glad to help tilt lotus into into the death spiral. I could do it
Friday afternoon but not Saturday. I could do it pretty much any time the
following week."

                                        --Brad Silverberg, Microsoft


Related;

Microsoft's past stock options practice poses questions

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft in 1999 announced that it would end a policy of awarding
| options at monthly lows and said it would take a $217 million charge,
| though many details of that discontinued practice haven't been widely
| known, The Wall Street Journal said Friday.
|
| Those details raise questions about how Microsoft began the practice,
| what prompted the company to end it and whether the way the options
| were dated--at 30-day lows the month after they were
| granted--influenced other companies, it said.
`----

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6084617.html


Ecuador Tax Agency Closes Microsoft Branch Offices For 7 Days

,----[ Quote ]
| "We have twice requested balances, payment reports and complete tax 
| information, but the company hasn't given it to us, so in accordance with our 
| laws we have proceeded with the closure," the SRI official in charge of the 
| proceeding said.   
`----

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200710041610DOWJONESDJONLINE000810_FORTUNE5.htm


Microsoft Office raid in Hungary

,----[ Quote ]
| "Such behavior could lead to the exclusion of competitive products from 
| the market and violate European Union rules, according to the authority 
| known as the GVH."
`----

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/26/ap3957835.html


Wis. Bill to Require Tax Loophole Data

,----[ Quote ]
| Wisconsin Bill Would Require More Reporting on Tax Loopholes
| 
| [...]
| 
| A message left with Microsoft was not immediately returned.
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071219/wi_corporate_taxes.html?.v=4


Ex-CEO vouches for convicted colleague

,----[ Quote ]
| The former chief executive of Brocade Communications Systems Inc. vouched for 
| his co-defendant in a closely watched stock options backdating case, 
| asserting in documents unsealed Wednesday that she didn't know she was 
| executing improper transactions.   
`----

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071220/ap_on_hi_te/brocade_stock_options


Intel: doing the dirty on OLPC

,----[ Quote ] 
| Intel’s agreement with the OLPC Foundation included a ‘non disparagement’ 
| clause, under which Intel and One Laptop promised not to criticize each 
| other, according to Nicholas Negroponte in the latest article in the Wall 
| Street Journal.   
| 
| Still Intel tactics have violated that repeatedly to kill OLPC efforts in 
| Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan, India, China and Intel is also still trying to pull 
| those tactics in Mexico, Brazil.  
| This is simply disgracefull of Intel, scandalous.
| 
| But Negroponte has signed an agreement saying that he is not allowed to 
| criticize Intel, so he is not allowed to talk about these shameless tactics 
| even though Intel is the one violating the agreement.  
| 
| So only independant voices on the Internet can get those messages of truth 
| out about Intels tactics. 
| 
| In Nigeria, Intel came and donated 3000 laptops to counter OLPC efforts, then 
| sells 17 thousand Classmates to Nigeria at a loss. 
| 
| Then Microsoft corrupted Nigerian officials with 400 thousand dollars to 
| install Windows XP on those instead of Mandriva Linux. 
`----

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14124


Lobbying Could Cause Legal Trouble for Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| "In the wake of the exposure of Microsoft's attempt to buy Sweden's vote on 
| OOXML and Sweden's annulment of that vote due to irregularities, IBM's Rob 
| Weir points out that the fiasco could cause anti-trust worries for Microsoft. 
| He quotes ALLIED TUBE & CONDUIT CORP. v. INDIAN HEAD, INC., 486 U.S. 492 
| (1988), which says 'What petitioner may not do (without exposing itself to 
| possible antitrust liability for direct injuries) is bias the process by, as 
| in this case, stacking the private standard-setting body with decision makers 
| sharing their economic interest in restraining competition.'"       
`----

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/31/2039226&from=rss


Insider Trading Hasn't Affect Microsoft Stock - Yet

,----[ Quote ]
| MarketWatch.com reports that Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's
| Entertainment and Devices division, sold $6.2 million of Microsoft
| stock just prior to announcing that Microsoft was going to have to 
| extend XBox 360 warranties to three years because of extensive 
| failures. The filings note that this was not part of any 
| scheduled diversification or selling program; this was a 
| conscious, unscheduled sale by the guy in charge of releasing 
| news that could affect the value of Microsoft stock.
| 
| [...]
| 
| Insider trading is a very serious violation of the law; just 
| ask Martha Stewart, who served five months in prison for 
| avoiding losses of $43,000 through trades that just had suspicious 
| timing (no insider trading was actually proven). This is $6.3 
| million that went straight into Robbie Bach's pocket.
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070713/40947_id.html?.v=1


Microsoft's Predatory Response to GNU/Linux

,----[ Quote ]
| 142. GNU/Linux is an "open source" operating system that runs on Intel-
| compatible PCs. Microsoft has targeted the competing operating system
| by pressuring Intel, as well as various major OEMs such as Dell and
| Compaq, to boycott Linux. In late 2000, for instance, Microsoft
| executive Joachim Kempin described his plan of retaliation and
| coercion to shut down competition from Linux: "I am thinking of
| hitting the OEM harder than in the past with anti- Linux actions" and
| will "further try to restrict source code deliveries where possible
| and be less gracious when interpreting agreements - again without
| being obvious about it," continuing "this will be a delicate dance."
| 
| 143. LindowsOS (now known as Linspire), which is developed and
| marketed by Lindows.com, Inc., is an Intel-compatible PC operating
| system based on Linux and which competes directly with Microsoft on
| the. PC desktop. On information and belief, Microsoft interfered with
| Lindows.com, Inc.'s ability to distribute its product through the OEM
| channel. Microsoft also initiated a lawsuit against Lindows.com, Inc.
| that adversely affected Lindows.com, Inc.'s ability to exist, obtain;
| funding and conduct business. Mierosoft's Antieompetltive Agreements
| With OEMs To Foreclose Competition 144. Microsoft Chairman and former
| CEO, Bill Gates, reportedly summarized the effects of the DOJ's 1995
| consent decree--which banned "per processor" licenses, among other
| 
| 47Page 48 exclusionary licensing termsmas "nothing." Microsoft was
| able to devise other restrictive OEM agreements to foreclose
| competition in th¢Õ 145. A "per system" license was the practical
| equivalent of the "per processor" license. Under the "per system"
| license, the OEM had to pay royalties to Microsoft for every computer
| of a particular "model" or "system" that it shipped--again, as with
| the "per processor" contracts, regardless of whether the PC contained
| Microsoft's operating system. Microsoft defined "system" and "model"
| so broadly in its contracts that virtually all of an OEM's production
| was subject to Microsoft's "double tax" if the OEM wanted to give the
| consumer a choice of operating systems. Microsoft did not agree to
| give up its "per system" licenses in the 1995 consent decree, even
| though the Department of Justice warned the federal district court
| that "per system licenses, if not properly fencet in, could be used by
| Microsoft to accomplish anticompetitive ends similar to 'per
| processor' licenses"--and in fact were. 146. Another way that
| Microsoft found to circumvent the federal court's 1995 injunction
| forbidding its use of "minimum commitment/per processor" licenses was
| what Microsoft calls its "Market Development Agreements" ("MDAs").
| Microsoft contrived the MDA as a device to evade the Court's decree
| prohibiting Microsoft from requiring OEMs to adhere to "minimum
| commitments." As Steve Ballmer (Microsoft's current CEO) acknowledged:
| "We have always given better prices to customers who work with us to
| make the market. Those used to take the form of commits [i.e., minimum
| commitments] which we do not do anymore as a result of the [federal
| court's] decree but we still believe in rewarding people who help us
| create demand. Hence the iMDA." Under the MDAs, Microsoft granted
| large discriminatory price concessions to those OEMs that would agree
| to market and promote Microsofl's Windows to the exclusion of any
| rival operating system. These discounts were
| 
| 48Page 49 calibrated so as to force the OEM to sell most of its
| computers with a Microsoft operating system in order to obtain the
| lowest price. 147. Because the OEM market is so competitive and profit
| margins are so thin, every OEM had to get the lowest price it
| could :from Microsoft in order to survive. In March 2002, a Gateway
| marketing executive (Anthony Fama) testified before Judge Kollar-
| Kotelly in State of New York et al. v. Microsoft, Case No. 98-1233
| (CKK), about how Microsoft used its MDA program in order to force OEMs
| to market Microsot's operating system exclusively: "Given the
| substantial nature of these discounts, participation in the MDA, as a
| practical matter, is not optional. In other words, not
| receiving :these discounts would put Gateway at a substantial
| competitive disadvantage, and Gateway has communicated that self-
| evident proposition to Microsoft." Microsoft also used its MDAs to
| lock OEMs in and competitors out by offering a discriminatory price to
| the OEM in a later year provided (a) the OEM reached Microsoft's
| imposed goal of Windows sales over competitive sales in the prior year
| and (b) renewed its exclusionary contract with Microsoft for ,the
| later year. This placed the OEM on a perpetual treadmill, eliminating
| competition indefinitely. Microsoft continued these exclusionary terms
| at least past April 2002. 148. One method for encouraging competition
| in the operating systems market would have been the sale by OEMs of
| "naked machines" (i.e., computers that are sold without a
| predetermined suite of software forced upon the consumer). "Naked
| machines" would allow consumers to choose their computer's software
| configuration from an array of competitive software products, either
| for preinstallation by the OEM or installation by the end user.
| Microsoft sought and obtained the agreement of the OEMs to refrain
| from selling "naked machines." Instead, OEMs universally agree to
| "bundle" Microsoft applications and operating 49Page 50
| 
| systems with their computer hardware, effectively depriving consumers
| of any competitive choices. These restrictive agreements exited before
| 2000 but, in 2000, Microsoft ratcheted the restriction up so that OEMs
| are forced to forfeit all discounts otherwise earned if they ship any
| "naked machines" to consumers. This heightened restriction, which (on
| information and belief) continues to the present, prohibits PC users
| and PC retailers from buying and installing lower priced or better
| quality operating systems of their choice.
`----

http://edge-op.org/iowa/iowaconsumercase.org/assets/attachments/Petition.pdf

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index