Canopy Group
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The Canopy Group is an investment firm founded by Ray Noorda, headquartered in Lindon, Utah. It serves as the parent company of various technology companies. One of its most well-known members was the SCO Group. The companys much-criticized litigation has forced Canopy to try to downplay its links to other owned entities by retiring their investment on it. Therefore, since the Yarro case this company does not belong to the Canopy group anymore.
The Yarro case
On December 17, 2004, CEO Ralph Yarro III, CFO Darcy Mott and corporate counsel Brent Christensen were removed from the company by Noorda and other shareholders, and now stand accused, in essence, of having defrauded the company of many millions of dollars. Yarro and the other executives sued for wrongful temination, and Canopy countersued the three men. On March 8, 2005, the day before initial hearings were scheduled to begin, both parties negotiated a settlement out of court, ending the litigation. In a joint press release by the parties it was disclosed that Canopy would relinquish ownership of all its shares in the SCO Group which would be transferred to Ralph Yarro III along with an undisclosed sum of money. In exchange, Canopy would regain all its shares controlled by SCO, thereby severing ties between the two companies. Further details can be found on the Groklaw website originally established to follow the SCO-Linux controversies.
Suicides
Val Noorda Kreidel, the daughter of Canopy Group founder Ray Noorda, committed suicide March 17, 2005 according to Orange County supervising deputy coroner Cullen Ellingburgh. The suicide occurred within days of a settlement on March 11 of a legal battle between her family and three former Canopy executives challenging their firings On December 23, Canopy IT director Robert Penrose also shot himself to death after Kreidel allegedly engineered the ouster of CEO Ralph Yarro and two other executives (former CFO Darcy Mott and former corporate counsel Brent Christensen), and installed new management led by current Canopy CEO Bill Mustard. [http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=50756
Canopy Group Management
Following the removal of Ralph Yarro III from the Canopy Group, Canopy subsequently appointed John Noorda and Andy Noorda, Ray Noordas sons, to the Canopy Board of Directors. Following these appointments, John and Andy Noorda assumed control of the Canopy Group and they subsequently hired Ron Heinz of Helius to oversee Canopys investments as the CEO of the Canopy Group. Ron Heinz was formerly the head of North American Sales for Novell, Inc. and was responsible for building several of the Canopy Groups profitable ventures, including Helius, a provider of Satellite Internet technology in conjunction for Hughes Corporation.
Following these changes, The Canopy Group has revitalized its portfolio and is again actively investing in Utah high technology companies and development.
List of companies Canopy has investments in
Taken from [TuxRocks.com].
- Altiris [link] - Canopy completely divested from Altiris by mid-2005.
- AvenueMe [link]
- AxiomPress (subsidiary of Geolux) [link]
- Center7 [link]
- Cerberian [link]
- ClearstoneHealth (subsidiary of Geolux) [link]
- Cogito, Inc. [link]
- Communitect [link]
- Data Crystal [link]
- DeviceLogics [link]
- DigitalHarbor [link]
- DirectPointe [link]
- Fatpipe [link]
- Geolux [link]
- GMMI/Ridgeline [link]
- Helius [link]
- Homepipeline [link]
- iArchives [link]
- Industrial Training Zone (subsidiary of Geolux) [link]
- Januslogix [link]
- Learning Optics (subsidiary of Geolux) [link]
- Linux Networx [link]
- Luxul [link]
- MaxStream [link]
- Mi-Co [link]
- MTI [link]
- MyFamily.com [link]
- North Face Learning [link]
- Perimeter Labs [link]
- Planetearthtools [link]
- Power Inovations [link]
- Smart Chip Technologies [link]
- SurfChina [link]
- Trolltech [link]
- Tuglet [link]
- Viawest [link]
- Vultus [link]
- Wrenchead [link]
External links
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