decoration decoration
Stories

GROKLAW
When you want to know more...
decoration
For layout only
Home
Archives
Site Map
Search
About Groklaw
Awards
Legal Research
Timelines
ApplevSamsung
ApplevSamsung p.2
ArchiveExplorer
Autozone
Bilski
Cases
Cast: Lawyers
Comes v. MS
Contracts/Documents
Courts
DRM
Gordon v MS
GPL
Grokdoc
HTML How To
IPI v RH
IV v. Google
Legal Docs
Lodsys
MS Litigations
MSvB&N
News Picks
Novell v. MS
Novell-MS Deal
ODF/OOXML
OOXML Appeals
OraclevGoogle
Patents
ProjectMonterey
Psystar
Quote Database
Red Hat v SCO
Salus Book
SCEA v Hotz
SCO Appeals
SCO Bankruptcy
SCO Financials
SCO Overview
SCO v IBM
SCO v Novell
SCO:Soup2Nuts
SCOsource
Sean Daly
Software Patents
Switch to Linux
Transcripts
Unix Books

Gear

Groklaw Gear

Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.


You won't find me on Facebook


Donate

Donate Paypal


No Legal Advice

The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

Here's Groklaw's comments policy.


What's New

STORIES
No new stories

COMMENTS last 48 hrs
No new comments


Sponsors

Hosting:
hosted by ibiblio

On servers donated to ibiblio by AMD.

Webmaster
Jean Acheson No Longer at SCO; New CEO at SCO Germany
Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 04:58 PM EDT

Jean Acheson no longer works at SCO, I hear. She is now with AtTask, which is where Michael Olson works now too. He was CEO of SCO Germany, if you recall, after which she got the job, and Olson was Comptroller at SCO too. The new CEO in Germany is listed as Ken Nielsen, who was, last I looked, the Interim Financial Officer at SCO.

She became Comptroller after Olson moved on also. She was also the SCO Group's Ethics Officer. Could one have anything better on one's resume? I thought you'd want to know, since it may explain why SCO's monthly reports have recently been late and some are not filed at all.

Actually, Olson was listed as VP Finance/Comptroller, in the SCO press release in 2003, explaining and defending against insider trading questions. Darl McBride pointed out at the time, in SCO's August 14, 2003 teleconference where the press release was discussed, that he had not sold any of his shares, and McBride was a shareholder, he said, "since early 2000". He picked up some more in June of 2003. And of course the executives benefit from an Employee Incentive Bonus Plan published in 2005 and an Executive Officer Stock Option Agreement, should there ever be a settlement with IBM. And in 2006 he was granted stock options, as were they all in the happy SCO family, some of whom got raises and all the executives stock options at that same time period. There was also a SCO Shareholder Rights Plan in 2004, which talked about what folks got in the event of liquidation. Then you'll recall the motion filed in bankruptcy court to bless stock option grants to McBride and three others. Back in 2003, I researched what everyone there at SCO had made by that time, including Mr. Olson.

Acheson's was Revenue Manager in her first Declaration in the IBM litigation back in 2005. She showed up in the Novell case too. Her testimony didn't impress Novell much, as you can see in a heavily redacted footnote in a filing in January of 2007 where it told the Utah District Court that for SCO bankruptcy was "inevitable" and "imminent", an analysis SCO pooh poohed at the time and then later in September made totally come true. In the footnote her declaration is lumped in with others Novell characterized as "hearsay and speculation". And later Novell filed evidentiary objections, asking that the testimony be excluded. You can read the basis for the objection to her specifically in our text version of the filing. But it's under that same umbrella, lack of personal knowledge and hearsay, as well as being inadmissible parol evidence. That's one of the issues on appeal. And one final basis stands out:

Best evidence rule. (Exhibit 52, ΒΆΒΆ 6, 11, 14-15). Ms. Acheson purports to recite the contents of the relevant contracts, but misstates those contents. This testimony should be excluded because the agreements themselves are the best evidence of their contents.

At some point in time, Acheson got promoted. When SCO filed a memo in support of an ultimately unsuccessful motion [PDF] asking Judge Dale Kimball to reconsider his August 10, 2007 ruling, SCO listed her title as "SCO Director of Revenue."

When SCO filed for bankruptcy, she showed up on the list of people SCO owed money to. She played a prominent role at the 341 Creditors Meeting [audio], and by the time of the trial in SCO v. Novell, she was the comptroller, and apparently that happened in September of 2007, when SCO filed for bankruptcy. She testified on SCO's behalf, of course. So she is one of the witnesses SCO hopes to call if its dreams come true and the appellate court orders a jury trial, as is Michael Olson.

Why list all this as carefully as I can? Because someday, there may be future litigation and the same cast will be scattered to the winds, and who knows what folks will tell the court then.


  


Jean Acheson No Longer at SCO; New CEO at SCO Germany | 148 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
New CEO at SCO Germany is now off the books.
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 05:10 PM EDT
I won't post the Corrections, OT an NP threads as anonymous.

I do want to remind folks that SCO Germany is NOT a BK
entity, and is thus free of the reporting requirements that
SCO Ops and Group endure.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Corrections Here
Authored by: ralevin on Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 05:11 PM EDT
Should you find any flaws.

[ Reply to This | # ]

OT, the Off Topic thread
Authored by: clicky_maker on Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 05:40 PM EDT
Always other interesting things to discuss.

---
because some people like clickys, you should know where they take you, but I
can't promise to catch them all.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Newspick Comments
Authored by: clicky_maker on Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 05:41 PM EDT
Please include the title in the subject line.

---
because some people like clickys, you should know where they take you, but I
can't promise to catch them all.

[ Reply to This | # ]

SCO Group's Ethics Officer
Authored by: billyskank on Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 05:42 PM EDT
A sinecure if ever I heard one.

---
It's not the software that's free; it's you.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Jean Acheson No Longer at SCO; New CEO at SCO Germany
Authored by: Kilz on Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 06:17 PM EDT
"She was also the SCO Group's Ethics Officer. Could one have anything
better on one's resume?"

Im glad I didnt have a mouth full of coffee when I read that.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Acheson, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Authored by: jbeadle on Thursday, June 18 2009 @ 07:44 PM EDT
Man, is this train rolling, or what??

8:P...

Thanks,
-jb

[ Reply to This | # ]

Job titles you don't want on your resume
Authored by: barbacana on Friday, June 19 2009 @ 04:05 AM EDT

She was also the SCO Group's Ethics Officer. Could one have anything better on one's resume?

Makes one wonder if there are other job titles you would not want on your resume. For British readers,

"Head proofreader at The Guardian"

would probably top the list (see under Grauniad .)

[ Reply to This | # ]

Groklaw © Copyright 2003-2013 Pamela Jones.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.
Comments are owned by the individual posters.

PJ's articles are licensed under a Creative Commons License. ( Details )