Copyright ©1997-2008 Glenn Fleishman except as noted otherwise. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact Glenn Fleishman at glenn at glennf.com. Photo © 2008 Laurence Chen; used with permission.
Copyright ©1997-2008 Glenn Fleishman except as noted otherwise. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact Glenn Fleishman at glenn at glennf.com. Photo © 2008 Laurence Chen; used with permission.
Turning technology from mumbo-jumbo into rich tasty gumbo
� Amazon's Review Rules | Main | The Senate Dismisses Inflation's Power �RealNetworks and Microsoft just settled for $761 million--that's Microsoft to RealNetworks--which covers resolving lawsuits and partnering for services. This is fantastic news for Real, which gets the payoff for years of fighting, and Microsoft, which has now settled all of the major domestic lawsuits and government actions against it. This has distracted them, to be sure, and given Google an opening. Microsoft is now the underdog...with tens of billions of dollars in the bank.
Why does this make me ethical? A reporter called to ask me my opinion on this, and I had to decline to comment. About eight years ago, Real bought the assets of Film.com, a company I had helped incubate, and I received a small but very nice chunk of stock for my participation in that. During the Internet heydey, I sold about 2/3rds of that stock paying, among other things, for a new roof for my house.
The remaining stock is Section 144 insider stock which means I have to file about 1 inch of paperwork for it. I've sat on the small number of shares that remain because there was only a little upside versus what I thought might happen if Real resolved its Microsoft difficulties. When Real retained money in the bank turning profits, I had to think Microsoft now knows it can't simply outlast the company which is making money in spite of what it's spending on lawyers. (A commenter pointed out that Real has had little GAAP profit; nonetheless, they have increased shareholder equity while only very slowly tapping cash reserves over the last three years.)
It would be wrong of me holding insider stocks with a material benefit of literally hundreds of dollars--no typo--to comment on it even though I never worked for Real.
Posted by Glennf at October 11, 2005 11:23 AM
TrackBack URL for this entry:
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Recent Entries
Archives
May 2008 | April 2008 | March 2008 | February 2008 | January 2008 | December 2007 | November 2007 | October 2007 | September 2007 | August 2007 | July 2007 | June 2007 | May 2007 | April 2007 | March 2007 | February 2007 | January 2007 | December 2006 | November 2006 | October 2006 | September 2006 | August 2006 | July 2006 | June 2006 | May 2006 | April 2006 | March 2006 | February 2006 | January 2006 | December 2005 | November 2005 | October 2005 | September 2005 | August 2005 | July 2005 | June 2005 | May 2005 | April 2005 | March 2005 | February 2005 | January 2005 | December 2004 | November 2004 | October 2004 | September 2004 | August 2004 | July 2004 | June 2004 | May 2004 | April 2004 | March 2004 | February 2004 | January 2004 | December 2003 | November 2003 | October 2003 | September 2003 | August 2003 | July 2003 | June 2003 | May 2003 | April 2003 | March 2003 | February 2003 | January 2003 | December 2002 | November 2002 | October 2002 | September 2002 | August 2002 | July 2002 | June 2002 | May 2002 | April 2002 | March 2002 | February 2002 | January 2002 | December 2001 | November 2001 | October 2001 |