When I served for six years as Linspire's President, and later as CEO, one of the things I took pride in was our solid management team. Organizationally, the company was buttoned up from top to bottom. We had a top-notch finance team that made sure we always stayed on top of our accounting, audits, financial statements, and compliance to shareholders with properly scheduled and documented board meetings and annual shareholder meetings. Since leaving Linspire, this practice seems to have ended.
I hold quite a bit of Linspire stock, and one of my biggest concerns when I resigned from Linspire back in July of last year was that Michael Robertson, and whomever he chose to appoint as the new CEO, would not have this same awareness and concern for the dozens of Linspire shareholders that I had.
Quite some time back, Linspire became delinquent in holding their annual shareholder meeting. I have twice emailed them asking what the status of this was (once in January and then again in March) and have not received any response.
Linspire has around one hundred shareholders, and the fact that Linspire management fails to comply with their responsibility to these shareholders is an unfortunate sign and does not bode well for those of us holding Linspire shares with no voice or oversight. My opinion of Michael Robertson is he plays fast and loose with rules, regulations and laws. It would appear my opinion is validated in regards to Linspire's responsibility to shareholders. Michael Robertson, as Chairman of Linspire's board, and Larry Kettler, as Linspire's CEO, should comply with their responsibility to shareholders and immediately hold their annual shareholder meeting. As it stands now, shareholders are left in the dark as to Linspire's plans or financial stability.
This is just one of the many things I know of happening at Linspire which lead me to believe Linspire is struggling, which is not encouraging for Linspire shareholders or customers.
Kevin
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I too fear that Linspire is on the ropes. I just heard that it's not just Linspire either, but that all of Michael's companies are shrinking, so much so, he's renting out space in their building. Maybe he'll have more luck as a landlord than a entrepreneur.
John
Sorry to hear that Kevin.
As a long-time *spire user, I can tell you that from my perspective the company has really gone down hill of late. I stopped paying attention recently and have started playing around with PCLinuxOS and Mint. Fortunately there are others who have picked up where Linspire left off.
Best of luck, and please report back if they ever decide to have a shareholder's meeting and you learn anything interesting and if you're able to share it.
DF
Hum, how 'bout that. Now may be you can understand how the "community" over to *spire felt when you were in charge. Tis a shame for the other shareholders, but I'd say they are just feeling the effects of yur legacy.
Move on, Carmony. Get over it already.
You sound like the guy, who twenty minutes after losing the argument, suddenly yells "and another thing!"
Every so often you find it necessary to sling mud at MR/Linspire. It just makes you look bad. Like a child with a 'I'll get you' mentality.
Just move on.
It is interesting that your vehicle of choice today is awareness and concern for the dozens of Linspire shareholders, You certainly had no such awareness and concern for the Linspire/Freespire/CNR customers/community when you were still employed there.
You should spend more time sharpening your own saw, than slinging barbs at Linspire.
I'm very proud of my two-year record as CEO. In addition to my introduction of Freespire and making basic CNR Free, I was able to turn around Linspire's bottom line.
In my first year, I lowered Linspire's burn to 20% of what it was when I took over, and in my second year we even turned in significant profits.
I left a company with profits, lots of money in the bank, a plan and strategy for the future (so that shareholders could actually get something), and a buttoned up organization that held annual shareholder meetings.
Had it not been for my leadership, it's likely Linspire would have gone under long ago.
It would appear to me that Linspire is in a far worse situation today than how I left things. There's no excuse for not doing the simplest of things, like holding shareholder meetings. Compare the press releases and Linspire Letters during my two years to the past year.
I made thousands of posts on the Linspire forums. The current leadership rarely visits them. How is that good for the Linspire "community?"
Kevin
You're absolutely right Kevin. Most of the community misses your leadership, the few of us who are left anyway. Most have moved on, and only the die hard remain, and that's more out of habbit than anything Linspire has had to offer us of late.
I was always impressed and appreciative of the time you spent on the forums. It's pretty rare to find a CEO spend as much time in their forums as you did. I may not have always agreed with every decision you made, but I always appreciated your transparency and communication with the *spire community.
It's pretty obvious to me that Linspire is floundering and their new CEO is a no-show among the community.
Mark
Kevin, as a Life-time Insider and early adopter of Lindows, I have been very disappointed with the path that Linspire have gone down. So much early promise and so little delivery on that promise.
That said, I think that you have taken more than your share of blame for what went on behind boardroom doors. Where is Michael Robertson? Why doesn't he front up to the community that he established? Isn't MR still the major shareholder in the company?
There are a lot of people, like me, who are still feeling hurt and betrayed by the way they have been treated by Linspire.com. I also wonder at how the Linspire saga impacts on the wider Linux community and the prospects for more general adoption of Linux.
As a member now of the Ubuntu community and a daily user of their product, I can tell you that "the wider Linux community" is very much alive, well and thriving!
With Ubuntu I've found a vibrant community, a stable product, regular updates, new and interesting features, etc.
Sometimes if you live in the dark too long, you assume everyone else is as well. Linux is very much alive and well on the desktop, but no longer with Linspire. I certainly saw this trend when I was CEO, and that is why I tried to forge a strong alliance with Ubuntu, to work together, both doing what we do best. Unfortunately, existing Linspire management has destroyed that relationship.
Where is Robertson? Where is Kettler? Good questions. My guess is Robertson is staying far away and will let Kettler be the fall guy.
They can try to make me the fall guy, but the facts speak for themselves. I left Linspire with a plan, lots of cash in the bank, a profitable year, and most important, a strong relationship with Ubuntu, which to this day *I* still have.
Kevin
Kevin- I was one of the early Linspire users and remember your presence on the discussion boards, and I always remember how cool it was that the CEO was actually interacting with the customers. This isn't very common. I have noticed that Linspire, Freespire and even CNR don't seem to have the community base that I remembered in the past. It really seems like everything is falling apart over there.
Jeff,
I never saw Michael embrace our users, it was more like he "tolerated" the community than anything else. Therefore, it's not a big surprise that with me, and pretty much all the best people now gone, that it's come to this. Ken is great, but he's a lone man standing I'm afraid. He won't have the resources to keep the community vibrate without management's support, which given Robertson and Kettler's track record....
Heck, just a few days ago I saw they were censoring a user's posts over at MichaelRobertson.com, which, as the censored user herself said, "was telling."
Kevin
I remember years ago in his blog, Michael Robertson making a big deal out of some letter he sent to Ballmer or Gates (I forget which) and that he didn't get a response. I'd say not responding to you about a shareholders meeting is about as basic as it gets, and yet they don't reply. That is pretty astonishing.
Heck, just a few days ago I saw they were censoring a user's posts over at MichaelRobertson.com, which, as the censored user herself said, "was telling."
All comments must be approved by the blog author
Something about the pot calling the kettle...
You are just being petty. Get over it already. Move on. Let it go. Grow up.
1) This isn't a company blog, and 2) I have NEVER censored a post in my blog. Something that can't be said at MichaelRobertson.com
When someone attacks my friends, makes up and spreads lies about them, threatens them and their families, tries with falsehoods to destroy their good names, calls them thieves, and tries to get them put in jail, I don't get over that, and anyone who does is a coward and no better than the perpetrator himself.
It was Robertson himself who said that until someone stands up to the bully, he'll just keep getting away with it, as is evidence by those who will defend unethical behavior for the sake of a paycheck.
Kevin
Hey, Kendall, where were you when your employer was trying to put good, honest people in jail with bogus, trumped-up lies?
"Move on, Carmony. Get over it already."
So let's get this straight, "Mr. Anonymous."
1. I (and many others) invest up to six years of our lives in building a company.
2. As CEO, I help it become profitable, with cash in the bank.
3. I resign to move on to other pursuits, leaving the company not only with cash, but with a plan to return shareholders at least some value. I leave, never having made any upside with the company, other than the shares of stock I hold.
4. After I leave, the company doesn't follow the corporate charter by holding shareholder meetings. It doesn't respond to emails, or account in anyway to the shareholders, and we're all just suppose to "move on" and "get over it?"
Yes, how dare we as shareholders expect anything from Linspire!
Robertson has a pathetic record of giving investors and shareholders a return. Vivendi purchased MP3.com shares well below the IPO price because Michael's arrogance cost that company hundreds of millions from his copyright infringements (the same thing he's doing now at MP3tunes with Sideload.)
It would appear Michael would love the shareholders to "drop it," so he can do anything he likes with the Linspire assets, without any accountability.
In the last 8 months since my resignation, I've seen quite clearly how Michael Robertson treats MUSICIANS, COPYRIGHT HOLDERS, CUSTOMERS, EMPLOYEES and SHAREHOLDERS. It's appalling. I haven't even begun to call this "bully" out, and have no intention of stopping as long as I see the injustices continue.
Did you tell Robertson to "get over it," when he was pointing out Microsoft's evil acts? The hypocrisy is evident.
Kevin
I agree with Carmony about the censorship at michaelrobertson.com It's one thing to choose to moderate your blog (you pretty much have to at Blogger.com if you allow for anonymous posts or you end up getting spammed to death from the bots), but it's quite another thing to actually remove posts that are relevant to the discussion, just because they are a contrasting point of view.
I've seen quite clearly how Michael Robertson treats MUSICIANS, COPYRIGHT HOLDERS, CUSTOMERS, EMPLOYEES and SHAREHOLDERS. It's appalling. I haven't even begun to call this "bully" out, and have no intention of stopping as long as I see the injustices continue.
Michael Robertson has never lied to me. You have. Community Driven, anyone?
Did you tell Robertson to "get over it," when he was pointing out Microsoft's evil acts? The hypocrisy is evident.
I agree with MR about the 'evil' that is MS. You obviously didn't, you jumped into bed with them.
Linspire wouldn't be around today if it weren't for Microsoft.
Kevin
As the CEO of Linspire, you publicly lied to all of your employees (starting the day you laid off nearly half of your company) by continually telling them them you were not taking a salary...to help the company and employees. Years later I saw the payroll records -- you were secretly pulling down $350k a year. I can't see how that is beneficial to Linspire users, shareholders or community members.
Former Linspire Employee
Secretly???
Someone needs to learn how a corporation is run. A CEO of a company doesn't set his own Compensation.
I had an employment contract which stated very clearly what my salary was, and that employment contract was put into place by AN OUTSIDE BOARD OF DIRECTOR'S COMPENSATION COMMITTEE (Robin Richards, Rex Bosen, and David Buzby), and signed by the Chairman, Michael Robertson. How could it be a secret if Michael himself signed it?
My salary and employment contract were hardly a secret, given the fact anyone could have, and still can, Google it and find it.
When I became CEO, Michael Robertson was "pulling down" a salary of $410,000 a year (also approved by the Board). His employment contract can also be Googled. When he stepped down, he went from a salary of $410,000 to $100,000 a year, which I assume he still makes to this day.
There was a period where I did in fact VOLUNTEER to go off salary. It became unnecessary, and it's not my obligation to share my salary with employees. In fact, it's a violation of company policy (although as I say, anyone could have Googled and read my employment agreement).
You can hardly equate managements desire to keep quiet about salaries with the lies that Linspire has told to not just employees, but filed with government agencies in an effort to destroy people's lives and see them tossed in jail.
Anyone would stands by Linspire's claim that Randy, Cliff, Theresa, etc. did anything wrong are cowards, yourself included.
I was the only person who ever stood up to Michael when I worked there, and now that I'm gone, there is no one there to challenge him and his unethical treatment of employees and shareholders, just a bunch of spineless puppets and yes men.
Kevin
I agree, the fact that Linspire isn't holding shareholder meetings, even when asked, is a bad sign. I mean, how hard is it to have your annual shareholders meeting? I run a small company with only about 10 shareholders, and we make sure to not only hold our annual meeting, but go out of our way to keep our stockholders informed. Not only is it common courtesy to those who have invested in your company, it's the law.
Linspire should be careful. There are lots of hungry attorneys that would love to slap a class action suit on them on behalf of the minority shareholders.
Aren't they obligated by law to have an annual shareholders meeting?
Aren't they obligated by law to have an annual shareholders meeting?
Not necessarily. Delaware law (Linspire Inc. is a Delaware Corporation), allows exclusions:
(b) Unless directors are elected by written consent in lieu of an annual meeting as permitted by this subsection, an annual meeting of stockholders shall be held for the election of directors on a date and at a time designated by or in the manner provided in the bylaws. Stockholders may, unless the certificate of incorporation otherwise provides, act by written consent to elect directors; provided, however, that, if such consent is less than unanimous, such action by written consent may be in lieu of holding an annual meeting only if all of the directorships to which directors could be elected at an annual meeting held at the effective time of such action are vacant and are filled by such action. Any other proper business may be transacted at the annual meeting.
http://delcode.delaware.gov/title8/c001/sc07/index.shtml#TopOfPage
Since Linspire is NOT a publicly traded company, it has few actual shareholders. Most of which are current/former employees, who no doubt gave that 'written consent' at the time they became shareholders.
Carmony is just blowing smoke. There is no 'there' there. Betcha this comment never gets approved for posting on the blog, despite his 'I have NEVER censored a post in my blog' claim...
Ah, "exclusion," Robertson's favorite word.
My point wasn't a legal one (although Robertson likes to make everything legal), it's a MORAL and ETHICAL one (something Robertson has little experience with).
The fact that Linspire is hiding behind "exclusions" proves my point.
Robertson has a very bad record for returning value to shareholders. Linspire, it would appear, will be no exception.
If a company has good news, why not tell your shareholders? When I was at Linspire we ALWAYS held an annual shareholder meeting (rather than look for "exclusions.")
Linspire has almost exactly one hundred shareholders. This is classic Robertson, "Screw the other 99, it's all about me." Dozens of these shareholders paid money for their shares by exercising stock options. (This is where Robertson says "Yea, but it was only hundreds or thousands of dollars each, chump change.")
As I said, unless it's spam, EVERY comment gets posted on my blog. It's how I get to rebut a point, rather than bury it (ala michaelrobertson.com).
So, what have we learned? Linspire doesn't care about their one hundred shareholders, hides behind "exclusions," and has no good news to report. Or was any of that news?
Kevin
As an early employee at MP3.com, I watched my net worth drop from millions to thousands because of Michael Robertson. No one liked him there either. Sorry Carmony, you got what you deserved when you signed up with him. You have no one to blame but yourself. Anyone who spends any time around him sees what he's like, so you had to know he was a bastard early on, and yet you stuck around.
Fair enough. Not a mistake I would make twice.
I actually did quick a few years back, until Michael agreed to let me be CEO and stay out of things, which he did, for the most part.
Towards the end, however, he started to make crazy recommendations to me, which as CEO, fortunately, I didn't have to follow. But, rather than deal with even listening to his ideas anymore, I was thrilled to just leave. Unfortunately, his ego got bruised (he's not use to having a CEO authorized to make decisions he doesn't like) so he started to wage war against a lot of really good, honest people. Fortunately, he's lost at every turn, and truth has prevailed.
Kevin
Ah, "exclusion," Robertson's favorite word.
My point wasn't a legal one
I was responding to the previous comment that Linspire had a legal obligation to hold the meeting. Please note I quoted him. It was not an invitation for yet another Carmony tirade about MR.
As I said, unless it's spam, EVERY comment gets posted on my blog. It's how I get to rebut a point, rather than bury it (ala michaelrobertson.com).
Must be a new policy for you (not that changing policies at the drop of a hat is a new thing for you. It's more your regular M.O.)
Not one of my comments (it was more than one) for your Feb 16 blog (Linspire's CNR.com - Bye Bye Linux, Hello Microsoft Windows!) actually appeared on the comments page.
That exception thinging still doesn't explain why they ignore requests from shareholders. Linspire has lost it. What a shame.
JP
Looks to me like Carmony cared more about the spirit of the law, so he kept shareholders informed and made them feel a part of things. Looks like Robertson is about the letter of the law. I know I wouldn't be very happy if I paid money to exercise stock options, and I asked how the company was doing, and was quoted that legal-mumbo-jumbo paragraph! eegaad
Linspire only has a few employees left, under 15 I've heard. I've also heard they're actually moving offices since they've shrunk so much. If they have 100 shareholders, and maybe only 10 or so employees today who might hold shares, sounds to me like most of those shareholders must NOT be employees. If they were past employees, they would have had to buy their stock options and put out cash for those.
Yes, kind of a poor way to treat the 90 or so paying shareholders.
Correct. Pretty much all those shareholders paid cash to buy their shares, some of them thousands of dollars. But, Robertson doesn't seem to get the fact that thousands to most people is a lot of money. He also has little respect, it would seem, for the time employees put into a company. He clearly discounts the value of shares "earned" vs those "purchased." This would explain his disdain for employees and how he treats them.
When I left, I proposed a plan that would allow Shareholders to sell some of their shares back to the company for $.50 a share. Michael, as the largest shareholder, voted down that idea, saying that he could make everyone's shares worth more than $.50 by keeping all the funds in the company. I think it's only fair to all of the shareholders to ask him how he plans on doing that. From the outside, it would seem those shares aren't worth much at all, so we're all curious what his brilliant plan is to one day have those shares worth so much.
Kevin
I was laid off from Linspire just before Kevin Carmony resigned. When he let me go, he gave me a severance package, commensurate with my title and tenure.
Soon after Carmony resigned, Michael Robertson and Larry Kettler came after me, threatening me and my family if I didn't give back the severance pay, attacking me and my good name, and even stooping so low as to accuse me, and many other honest Linspire employees of embezzlement. I had never witness such greed and corrupt actions in all my life. Linspire has continued to make my life hell ever since.
Kevin, who has no stake in this at all, since he resigned without taking any severance pay, is the one person who has stood up for me and the others.
Michael and Larry disgust me.
Former Linspire Employee
I was laid off from Linspire just before Kevin Carmony resigned. When he let me go, he gave me a severance package, commensurate with my title and tenure.
If Carmony left the company with "profits, lots of money in the bank, a plan and strategy for the future", why did he let you go? Why would a Carmony led successful business need to lay anyone off?
Carmony did a lot of layoffs while I was there, which I agreed with fully. Linspire lost MILLIONS by overspending. When Carmony became CEO, he brought the spending down.
The reason I was laid off, was his plan was to focus on CNR, not the OS, and trim even further. I agreed with the plan fully, as did Michael Robertson and all the execs. It was the RIGHT thing to do to insure the future success of the company.
Did I mention that Robertson and Kettler disgust me?
Former Linspire Employee
Wow!
This has been very telling. Linspire's seeming demise now makes a lot more sense.
Insider
I know Michael Robertson well. I'm not a bit surprised at how he's behaving.
What is surprising, however, is how people can defend his actions. But, as Ron Paul said, "Truth is treason in the empire of lies."
Best of luck Kevin
Kevin, it appears from what you say and from others comments that there has been much going on unknown to former Insiders and community.
"former linspire Employees" comments in particular are incredible to those of us who do not know the internal politics of Linspire nor the employees and exec board members personally.
It is regretable what has happened to Linspire, it had such great promise and was fondly held and supported by many of us who have since moved on and left the ship to sink.
Some of what you say goes some way to explaining the actions and direction taken with linspire, which led to a lot of people/insiders feeling betrayed.
As shareholders, the board of Linspire is answerable to you, I hope you get the answers, and thanks for "going public" with this information. It certainly opens a new perspective on a sore subject.
I cant wait for the next revelation! Even more so Id be fascinated to read MR & LK's responses to this blog!
All the best
Former linspire Supporter and Insider
Thank you.
Indeed, this blog, and the responses from current employees of Michael Robertson, have in fact brought to light just a very small part of the real story.
I really liked the quote from Ron Paul someone shared in an earlier post. "Truth is treason in the empire of lies." This quote has inspired me to go public with ALL of the story. Look for that in the very near future.
At some point your name gets slandered enough, you have no choice but to defend yourself and share your side of the story. My "side" will be facts of record, emails, documents, etc. Then each can judge from themselves about the reputation of all involved.
Kevin
This quote has inspired me to go public with ALL of the story. Look for that in the very near future.
Define "very near".
That will depend when I get some free time to write it up in an appropriate manner. It's a long story, and I want to make sure and include all the appropriate evidence (emails, documents, etc.). Hopefully within the next couple of weeks.
Kevin
Kevin, I fully support your decision to step down as Linspire CEO. I thought you did a remarkable job - and 350K/annually was beneath you. You were and are worth so much more. A true model of success in my book.
As for Linspire, I hate to see what has become of her. It is a sad shame. I had so much hope for her success. But..
Reading through the numerous posts and hearing the TRUTH about Michael Robertson and the actions being taken against former employees... I am appalled. I am a believer in the Law of Attraction... and Michael Robertson will get his in the end. What you give out returns to you.
Kevin, I have been following your blog for some time now. I admire your style. You are a hero - one to be admired. It is a good thing that you left Linspire before it muddied your record. It is evident that while you were there, Linspire was as close to success as it will ever be. Now it is going the way of the dodobird. I believe in a former post you mentioned how you felt Linspire would be gone within a year. From the sound of it, that is a good thing. I want nothing to do with the company. Ever.
I will be forever thankful to Linspire for introducing me to Linux. But it is time to move on. I now use Dreamlinux for which I recently wrote a review to be published in Linux Magazine. It is a great distribution - easy to use for the novice. Comes with all the codecs/drivers a person needs. I can even run Dreamweaver and Fireworks 8 through Wine Doors. But, as good as Dreamlinux is... it still isn't perfect. No operating system is.
I investigated getting a Mac from your last post where you showed a very informative demo of your Macbook Pro. Great video! May do this later this year. Mac will do everything that I need - Linux can't.
Anyway... thanks Kevin for your time as Linspire CEO. And thank you for revealing the truth to us. Those "anonymous" posters... get off Kevin's back. You weren't there...
It's like people telling me, a Gulf War Marine, what should be done or what should have been done about the Gulf War. If you weren't there... shut up.
Enough said.
Thanks Jay. I really appreciate your support.
I suspect some of the post are from current employees of Michael Robertson, choosing to look the other way to continue feeling good about collecting that paycheck.
As for the Mac, yes, you really should give it a try when you can justify it. In many ways, it's just a really great Linux distribution. It has all the things you like about Linux, and dislike about Windows, but with an additional layer of work to make it a spectacular desktop environment.
Thanks again!
Kevin
I suspect some of the post are from current employees of Michael Robertson, choosing to look the other way to continue feeling good about collecting that paycheck.
Again, I am not Kendall, I am not employed by MR in any capacity. I have never met him.
Your paranoia is showing.
So you're saying "you" made every post in this thread with a "contrasting point of view?" If so, then it would appear you're alone if you views.
If you've never met Michael, then I'd suggest your input has a lot less credibility than the posts made here by those who have met him.
Kevin
I am Kendall. I heard that my name was getting thrown around a lot over here so I decided to come and see for myself. This is the first post that I've made on this blog.... EVER.
My IP address is 71.136.38.112 and if you look that up you'll find that it maps to my house in El Cajon, California using AT&T Internet Services.
If you want to try to "prove" it's me.... the Linspire forum contains over 18,000 samples of my writing that you can use for comparison. Go look it up.
As I've told Kevin before: leave me out of this. I don't know. I don't want to know. And I don't care. All of you need to stop mentioning me. This has nothing to do with me.
My name keeps getting tossed around. It's not me posting. Never was. All of you need to get a life. If I have something to say I'll sign my name to it.
Kendall
Kendall,
I searched and can only see your name mentioned two times in my entire blogs over the many months. I appreciate you setting the record straight, but it's not like you were the central topic.
Kevin
I was going to hold back commenting on this blog but I have just been hit in a major way by an "unadvertised" feature of another Michael Robertson product.
I subscribe to the MP3TUNES Music Locker service, and there are only two ways to get music into a locker (which is supposed to be a PRIVATE space to store your music collection in order to be able to access it from multiple locations). One is with their LockerSync program, and the other is with the Oboe Sideload extension to Firefox.
Because LockerSync wasn't working on my PC, I uploaded the tracks from a friend's new album to my private webspace, and "sideloaded" them from there to my locker a week ago. Then I deleted them from my webspace again.
To my horrified surprise I discovered today that they had not only been "sideloaded" to my locker, but also to the public site www.sideload.com, where they are available for public download.
I think this shows how much respect Mr Robertson has for the law and for the private property of his customers, and is fully in line with other comments about him here.
wnpaul As the manager of independent musicians, I too am concerned with some of the practices of Michael Robertson in this regard. I'd be curious to speak with you about this. If you read this, shoot me an email at kevinshomepage at airpost dot net.
Thanks,
Kevin
Just a small comment from a person who has no relationship with either Kevin or Michael, nor with Linspire.
A lot of people seem to be openly attacking Kevin here, or openly attacking Michael. Yet, they all hide behind the name of "anonymous". Have the decency to log in and sign yourself, unless you really have something to hide. And if everyone has something to hide ... well ...
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