Michael Robertson Suffers Final Blow in Attacks on Former Linspire Employees

As documented previously in this blog, Michael Robertson spent several years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, in attacking former Linspire employees.  Robertson lost at every turn, with only one minor exception, a small judgement against myself and the former CFO for not having informed Robertson in a timely manner when the CFO was laid off.  Now, rightfully so, even that one small judgement has been vacated and set aside by the Judge.  (Read the Judge's ruling is here.)  

With this ruling, and the judgement settled, none of the former employees will ever have to pay Michael Robertson ONE PENNY.  Robertson, however, continues to dodge paying the judgement against him (via his company), still owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to one of the former employees.  

Given this new vacated ruling by Judge Taylor, here is the updated and final scoreboard of how things ended up:

Updated Final Scoreboard after Judge Sets Aside Judgement

As Judge Taylor pointed out in his previous ruling, Robertson's attacks were driven by his ego.  In the end, this was a simple case of Robertson's greed and ego vs me wanting to treat good employees with some respect.  

Kevin

  

Michael Robertson Fails...Again. MP3tunes Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

Another Michael Robertson company goes belly up.

Looks like we can add MP3tunes to the long list of Michael Robertson failed companies.  MP3tunes has filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.  You can download the entire bankruptcy filing here.  

Looks like Robertson is sticking it to everyone from his lawyers ($1.4 million), to several employees ($10,775), to even the coffee vendor ($96).  The only secured creditor he lists is HIMSELF, through his SKL Trust.  No surprise there, classic Robertson move--as usual, he'll end up first in line while others get completely stiffed.  

Even worse, innocent customers are STILL getting ripped off, as it appears he's more than happy to keep selling subscriptions to his now defunct company.  Hopefully the media will alert would-be customers about this bankruptcy, since apparently Robertson isn't.  I can find no mention of the bankruptcy anywhere on the MP3tunes site, but I can find where they are still accepting $139.95 for annual subscriptions.

I admit I'm not too sad to see Robertson's partner in crime, the law firm of Duane Morris (Ed Cramp), being stuck with $1.4 million in bad debt.  You'd think the law firms in San Diego would start to learn to stay far away from Robertson, who has proven time and time again to be a very bad bet.  Prospective employees should also be paying close attention to how Robertson treats employees.

Robertson may be hoping to get out of his EMI litigation with this move, but EMI is suing him personally and will continue to keep after him.  Get ready, of course, for Robertson to blame the EMI lawsuit for MP3tunes demise.  Don't buy that for a minute.  As you'll see from the filing, the REVENUES from MP3tunes hardly moved the needle, ever.  MP3tunes was just another poorly executed business idea from Robertson.

To keep up on all the latest Robertson fiascos, visit Freespire.com.

Kevin

My Fifth Annual American Idol Predictions - Season 11 - 2012

As some of you know, each year I make my predictions for who I think will win American Idol and in what order I think the contestants will be voted off. I also invite others to post their predictions in the comments below or email them to me. We then score our predictions each week as contestants are voted off. (Here were the predictions and score results for previous years: 2011 - 2010 - 2009 - 2008)

As usual, I'm setting my predictions after the first performance night of the Top 13.

Here are my predictions for this year. As always, I'm not saying these are my PERSONAL favorites, but just how I think America will end up voting. (Phillip, Jessica, and Hollie are my personal favs.) To hear how each of these artists sounds, you can click their photos and sample 90 seconds of their songs from previous weeks via iTunes.

My predictions are:















Click to sample their earlier performances.
#1 is my predicted winner, and #13 my prediction as first to be voted off.

As with previous years, email me with YOUR predictions or post them as a comment to this thread, and we'll use the same point system used in previous years to see who is winning at the end of each week and how we all did by the end of the season. Don't worry if you miss sending me your predictions before they start voting people off this week, as the point system takes into account when you jumped in with your predictions with a penalty for jumping in late. (You can see the details of how the scoring works below.)

To make it easy to email or post your predictions, here are the contestant's names in text form (alphabetical order), so you can easily cut, paste and move them around in the order you predict.

DeAndre Brackensick

Hollie Cavanagh

Colton Dixon

HeeJun Han

Jermaine Jones

Skylar Laine

Joshua Ledet

Shannon Magrane

Philip Philips

Jeremy Rosado

Jessica Sanchez

Elise Testone

Erika Van Pelt

Let's see who has the golden ears and can spot what America likes.

Kevin

SCORING POINT SYSTEM: Every week, you get 1 point for every number off you were for where someone would be voted off. For example, if you predict Casey will make it to #2, but he gets voted off #4, then you get 2 points. If you guess it smack on, you get no points. Like Golf, the LOWEST SCORE WINS.

BONUS POINTS: Top Three Bonus: You get to deduct 1 bonus point for each of the top three contestants you correctly guessed. Top Two Bonus: You get to deduct 3 bonus points if you guessed the Top 2 correctly. Winner Bonus: You get to deduct 5 bonus points if you predict the winner. (Think hard on your top 3!)

PENALTY POINTS FOR LATE ENTRANTS: All predictions must be in BEFORE the results this Thursday night (5:00 PM PST March 8th). If you're predictions come in after that time, you are penalized 4 points OR the maximum points anyone else was off for the first round (when they vote off #13), whichever is higher. If you miss the first two rounds, you are penalized 8 points OR the maximum points anyone else was off for the second round (when they vote off #12), whichever is higher. No more entries after the first two rounds and we are down to 11 contestants.

My Annual Academy Award Predictions for 2012

Post your predictions in the comments and let's see who comes closest.

The Academy Awards are tomorrow, so I wanted to get posted my predictions. Before I do, however, I'll give you my personal favorite movies from these that I would highly recommend you see, if you haven't already: The Artists, The Descendants, Midnight in Paris, and Moneyball. Many of the others are also quite good (Iron Lady, Girl w/t Dragon Tattoo, The Help, Hugo, etc.) and definitely worth seeing, but the four I listed as my favorites this year should not be missed.

OK, so on to my predictions:

Best Picture

- The Artist - MY PREDICTED WINNER

- The Descendants

- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

- The Help

- Hugo

- Midnight in Paris

- Moneyball

- The Tree of Life

- War Horse

Best Actor

- Demian Bichir (A Better Life)

- George Clooney (The Descendants)

- Jean Dujardin (The Artist) - MY PREDICTED WINNER

- Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

- Brad Pitt (Moneyball)

Best Actress

- Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs)

- Viola Dais (The Help) - MY PREDICTED WINNER

- Rooney Mars (The Girl w/t Dragon Tattoo)

- Meryl Streep (Iron Lady)

- Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn)

Best Director

- The Artist - MY PREDICTED WINNER

- The Descendants

- Hugo

- Midnight in Paris

- The Tree of Life

Best Supporting Actor

- Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn)

- Jonah Hill (Moneyball)

- Nick Nolte (Warrior)

- Christopher Plummer (Beginners) - MY PREDICTED WINNER

- Max von Sydow (Extremely Loud & Incredible Close)

Supporting Actress

- Berenice Bejo (The Artist)

- Jessica Chastain (The Help)

- Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids)

- Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs)

- Octavia Spencer (The Help) - MY PREDICTED WINNER

I feel pretty good about my predictions, with the exception of Best Actor, that one could just as easily go to Clooney, so it was a close one for me there.

Think I'm off? I hope you'll post your predictions in the comments below (or email me with your picks), and we'll see who comes closest.

Kevin

Deja Vu - Mitt Romney Leads in Delegates, Wins, Votes & Money Raised

Mitt Romney won big in Florida last night. I'm happy about that, but not celebrating just yet, and here's why...

Below is a chart I put together that shows the situation currently, following tonight's Florida results.

Romney leads in delegates, wins, votes and money raised.

(Click to enlarge)

As you can see, Romney leads in Delegates, Wins, Votes and Money Raised. Looks pretty promising for Romney, no? Thing is, I made this same chart three years ago, in the 2008 Republican Primaries, and Mitt Romney was in an equally great spot this early on. In fact, after SIX states he was leading in all these same areas but McCain went on to win the nomination.

Here is the chart I made in 2008:

(Click to enlarge.)

See the similarities? They're amazingly stark.

Newt Gingrich has vowed to fight on, and being the historian that he is, why wouldn't he? He knows that if McCain could pull out form behing after 6 states, why can't he after only four?

I do believe there are a few differences this time around than in 2008, so I'm still encouraged that Romney will win. The first difference...in 2008 it was Romney and Huckabee splitting the vote to oppose the "next in line" (McCain), and that split vote is what ended up foiling Romney's chances. This time, however, Romney is the seeming next in line and it's Gingrich and Santorum splitting up the vote. I also believe Gringrich is much less liked than was McCain. Another difference, is Florida is included in the early states this time, and Romney won there, big. Lastly, the calendar for the next several states leans very favorably for Romney.

For these reasons, I still believe Romney will not only be the Republican Nominee, but will also go on to beat Barack Obama for the Presidency. But then again, I was saying the same thing in 2008. Time for all the Romney supporters to step it up and not start celebrating or backing off!

Kevin