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Technology Stocks : LHSP: Lernout En Hauspie -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jhg_in_kc who wrote (2177)	5/13/2000 4:35:00 PM
From: A.L. Reagan	Respond to of 2467

But this Bastiens did something fishy but what I still cannot find out. He was CEO and CTO of Quarterdeck. Basically fired 8/27/96. Their 6/96 quarter stunk - big losses. June earnings warning and then it hit the fan. Went to LHSP in October, 1996. Not a whole lot of unemployment. Prior to Quarterdeck, he was VP and General Manager of Apple's "Personal Information" enterprises division. Responsible for the Newton. Too early to market. Didn't go into 1997 to see if QDEK restated. Maybe they did. Quarterdeck was pretty much doomed to be killed by MSFT. Shrink-wrapped software in PC utilities, PC fax, an early web browser. MSFT made all those products free. One of the dumb things Gaston did was buy other dinky shrink-wrapped PC software companies (getting killed by Microsoft) so that they could be bundled into one larger target to be killed. Procomm acquisition case in point. As far as I can tell, QDEK was doomed no matter who ran the joint, as were a number of its industry compadres in the shrink-wrapped market. Nothing I researched hinted an impropriety, but again, I didn't look at 1997 when the auditors presumably would have showed up and dug around. Quarterdeck was ultimately bought by Symatec, long after Gaston had exited. Here's an old story from PC Week: August 28, 1996 10:45 AM ET Quarterdeck CEO steps down By Margaret Kane -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gaston Bastiaens has resigned as CEO of Quarterdeck Corp., although he will continue as a director and consultant, the company announced. The Marina Del Ray, Calif., utilities developer will form a temporary office of the president to run the company, comprising former interim CEO and Chief Operating Officer King Lee and Senior Vice President Anatoly Tikhman. Tikhman was president and CEO of Vertisoft Systems Inc. before the company was bought by Quarterdeck. The company will begin a search for a new CEO. Quarterdeck also announced that William Lane, chief financial officer of Intuit Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif., has been elected to the board of directors. zdnet.com