“The first [myth] is that Caldera Systems – the one that
filed for the IPO – is closely-related to Caldera Inc, the winner
of the settlement from Microsoft. Not only did Caldera Systems
not know about the settlement in advance, as luck would have it,
the announcement of its IPO – which had been in preparation for
months – was planned for the day that Caldera Inc happened to
announce the settlement.”
“…the next myth: Ray Noorda was not the prime mover in
bringing the case against Microsoft. The person Microsoft must
thank for the opportunity to put right the wrongs it inflicted on
DR-DOS is Sparks. Noorda wanted to remove his name from the
lawsuit, so that he too could concentrate on his work of supporting
start-ups. This was an important reason for his changing the name
of the trust he established (the Noorda Family Trust) to the Canopy
Group. So nearly all the Microsoft settlement money has ended up
with Canopy, with some for the lawyers of course.”
“We’ll be watching Novell’s accounts carefully too, because as
part of its deal to sell DR-DOS to Caldera, for which it received
$400,000, it also retained an interest in any award or settlement
of the case, but we do not yet know how much.”