Good article, John.
"I and senior management will have the better part of our net worths invested [in the combined company]. If we wanted to sell out, we would have pursued a cash deal, and we probably would have ended up with a different company," he said.
Indeed. And, they could have done it quite easily, I'm certain.
Cowell added that he would probably become the single largest individual investor in the newly merged 3Com.
Can't think of a better person to have in the same boat.
Later, Cowell said there was no "issue of price or premium" between the two companies. "We tried to find a way [to merge] that was non-dilutive to both companies," he said in an interview.
Win-Win. They each received a premium for their stock, and they each received a discount for the other. 'Till death do us part ...no... For richer for poorer ...no... In sickness and in health ...no... As long as we both shall live. Yeah - that's better.
Cowell said 3Com would likely remain a member of the forum. While he did not disclose whether U.S. Robotics would also join, he didn't sound overly optimistic about the prospect.
Why open our R&D books? They have to in the name of "openness" - we don't.
"What was proposed is, since we're ahead, why don't we come in and lay all our technology out on the table?" Cowell said. "We were invited to do this about an hour before they created the forum."
Hee hee. They talked up being open and sharing for the "greater good". 3Com was there, while ROK/LU/MOT/BOCI/ZOOM/ASND/CSCC/CSCO/BAY/et al plotted a way to set us up to take a fall in the public's eye. What the fools didn't know.....
"The current [standards] effort is aimed not so much at making the market grow faster but at slowing us down," he said.
There you have the Consortium objective in a nutshell. |
