Supposedly, I’m now set up to be able to file posts and stories on DavidPolitis.com via my BlackBerry.
It’s not going to be as easy or robust as doing it from a computer, but if I’m on the road and want to write/file something right away, who cares?
So . . . let’s see how it works.
As amazing as Bill Gates’ announcement was last week that he would be stepping down from Microsoft in 2008 to focus on giving away his vast fortune, it takes on even greater significance given today’s announcement that Warren Buffet is going to give away 85 percent of his vast wealth. (See the exclusive first report from Fortune magazine.)
As the second-richest man in the world, with his wealth tacked today at roughly $44 billion, Buffet’s plans charitable plans have him donating $37 billion (at today’s valuation of Bershire Hathaway) to five foundations — the bulk of it going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (Here’s a link to the copy of Buffet’s letter to the Gates’ explaining his plans.)
The initial BMGF donation from Buffet is pegged at $1.5 billion (yes, billion). It (and the planned future donations to BMGF) do come with a catch — actually three catches to be exact.
Either Bill or Melinda Gates must be alive and actively involved in running BMGF.
BMGF must be operating so as to ensure that the Buffet donation qualifies as a non-taxable charitable gift.
Any Buffet gift to BMGF must be spent in the year it was received (with some exceptions) and BMGF must also spend what it has already been spending in charitable giving on top of the Buffet donation(s).
The Gates’ foundation will be given two years to scale up operationally to handle the additional charitable work, but starting in 2009, BMGF is gonna have to really heat-up to meet the minimal requirements of close to $3 billion in donations in that year alone.
Wow! So what kind of good could be done in Utah with even one-half of one percent of that anticipated $3B charitable windfall in 2009? That’s $15 million.
How many inner city schools could that outfit with full computer networks in SLC or Ogden?
How many underpriveleged or at risk Utah children, youth or adults could be trained in high-tech skills with $15MM?
How would you spend $15 million? Makes you start to think, huh?
Perhaps only one person has had a greater imprint on Novell than Ray Noorda.
That person? Jack Messman.
Nevertheless, Novell announced yesterday (6/22/06) that current Novell President, Ron Hovsepian, has been given the additional title of chief executive officer, with board member Thomas Plaskett elected as non-executive chairman of the board. According to the release, Messman has relinquished his roles as CEO and chairman of the board, but he will remain on the board until Halloween Day (10/31) 2006.
NOTE: CFO Joseph Tibbets also stepped down at the same time. In fact, a closer read of the release (specifically, the fact that the release was distributed at 7 a.m. on 6/22 and that it said [speaking of Messman and Tibbets], “will leave Novell’s employment, effective June 21″) suggests to me that they were given the boot in a board meeting the prior evening . . . but that’s pure speculation on my part.
Anyway . . . a Novell director since 1985, Messman became the company’s president and CEO in July 2001 when Novell acquired Cambridge Technology Partners, an acquisition valued at $266 million when it was first disclosed in March 2001. Messman was then named Novell’s chairman of the board in November 2001.
On the day that the Cambridge acquisition was completed and Messman became president and CEO (July 10, 2001), Novell’s stock closed at $4.87 per share. Today’s closing price? $6.55 per share, up $0.55 on today’s news.
Along the way, Novell’s shares have closed as low as $3.11 per share on 6/30/03 and as high as $14.06 on 2/3/04.
It was under Messman’s leadership that the company moved its headquarters to Boston. Messman was also at the helm when the company decided to move strongly into the open source and Linux marketplace, including its move to acquire SuSe. And these moves appeared to be working.
However, Wall Street was surprised earlier this year on 3/2/06 when the company annouced Q1 2006 results that were not as expected. The result, a nearly 37 million shares traded hands the next day with the stock dropping $1.63 per share (approximately 17 percent) to close at $7.90, down from $9.53.
With approximately 339 million shares outstanding, it amounted to a $550 million drop in Novell’s market capitalization in one day.
The 5/31/06 announcement of the Q2 2006 results (ended 4/30/06) saw a similar drop-off, with Novell’s closing share price dropping $1.13 per share to $6.60 from $7.73, a 14.6 percent one-day selloff or an additional loss of $383 million in market cap.
Except the price kept heading downward. During the following two weeks the per share price continued to erode, closing at $5.84 on both June 15 and 20, or a two-week loss of $1.89 per share or a total market valuation loss of $640 million.
And . . . if you take the delta between the 3/2/06 closing share price of $9.53 and the 6/15/06 and 6/20/06 closing prices of $5.84, now we’re talking about a drop of more than 38 percent in less than four months. A market cap erosion of $1.25 billion.
My guess is that at that point, the board said, “It’s time for a change.”
I’m sure that there was a lot more that was going on behind this decision. I’m also not suggesting that the recent market surprises were the only reasons for Messman’s departure.
But with more than 21 years as a Novell board member under his belt, Messman has had probably more influence on Novell’s direction, success and failures than any other person, save perhaps Ray Noorda.
And soon Messman will be permanently out of the Novell spotlight too.
So what’s next for Novell minus Messman? That remains to be seen.
I recently read Paul Allen’s post about his challenges on being able to blog from the road, and his excitement about being able to blog from his BlackBerry thanks to WordPress v2.0.3.
Well, as fast as Paul Types on a BlackBerry (and apparently he’s really fast, like 50+ words per minute), I suspect he’s probably faster still on a regular keyboard.
If so, another alternative may be looking into Verizon’s Broadband Access, a service now offered locally through our client PC Laptops.
Essentially, the service requires a small wireless PC card that slides into one’s laptop and then (depending upon wher you are in the U.S.) you get access speeds of 400kbps to 700kbps and burstable access up to 2Mbps. Monthly cost? $59.99 on a two-year agreement.
Might be worth checking out for you road-bloggers.
News broke late Thursday that 2008 will be the last time we see Bill Gates III involved in the day-to-day operations of Microsoft.
Isn’t it interesting that the richest man in the world is actually a college dropout? Okay, so he dropped out from Harvard, which means he obviously wasn’t a mental midget or anything.
I also think it’s amazing that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is now the largest foundation in the world with $30 billion (yes, that’s a “B”) in its coffers. And that’s on top of his $50 billion in personal wealth.
Scary.