Tuesday, January 14, 2003 |
13:47 - Stuff like this
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/28724.html
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On the other hand, Microsoft seems not to be having any trouble coming up with innovative new ways to show what a collective asshole it's capable of being.
They forged a partnership with Sendo, maker of digital phones; Microsoft promised to provide the StingerOS, Sendo promised to deliver the phones, and they'd go to market in summer 2001.
Summer 2001 rolls around; Sendo has the phones, but Microsoft has no StingerOS. But they keep trickling in the money. Time marches on. Sendo gets hung out to dry, with no product to ship; Microsoft keeps stalling.
Finally, Microsoft declares it's never heard of Sendo, and cuts off Sendo's VC funding, driving them bankrupt. But!
"Under the SDMA, in the event of a Sendo bankruptcy, Microsoft would obtain an irrevocable, royalty free license to use Sendo's Z100 intellectual property, including rights to make, use, or copy the Sendo Smartphone to create other to create other Smartphones and to, most importantly for Microsoft, sublicense those rights to third parties."
So Microsoft now has all of Sendo's IP, for free. Did they ever intend to develop StingerOS? Was there ever even anything coded? Did they keep telling the Sendo reps "Oh, sorry, those engineers are all out at Six Flags today," and "Ooh, no, that wing of the building's been blocked off for fire-code inspection"?
They must have been doing something, because now Microsoft has the Orange SPV to promote. With a mysteriously rich background of technology and IP to bolster it.
How anybody can gaze with reverential awe at this company is utterly beyond me.
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