Linspire, née Lindows, the originally feisty Linux house that threatened to deprive Microsoft of its precious Windows trademark - and got $20 million out of it from Microsoft - has collapsed into Xandros. Xandros, like Linspire, was one of the Linux 'unfaithful' that signed a patent covenant with Microsoft.

 “One of the reasons I resigned from Linspire is that Michael wanted to issue a dividend only to himself and his father-in-law. (We had a very profitable year, and there was a lot of cash in the accounts.) I told him the way the company was structured any dividend would need to be issued to ALL shareholders, not just him and his father-in-law. He protested to me, saying it was common to do this in companies. I went out and had TWO different outside law firms confirm I was right, and that ‘this’ company (Linspire) was not organized that way. Once Michael saw me pushing back, he started making obvious moves to see the CEO (myself), CFO, and controller removed from the company. He also fired everyone on the board of directors other than himself. It was pretty clear to me he was carving a path to get to the cash. After my departure, I had my lawyer fight to see the books, something I should have certainly been entitled to given my history and the amount of shares I held. Robertson pushed back, and to this day I have not been allowed to review the books.

 

“2. A few years back, Linspire had a 5-man independent board, with three of the board members being outside of the company. Today, Michael Robertson is the only board member. So, if you’re looking for ‘the board’ to be responsible, you’re banking on the ethics of this one man.”