|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
(last part - Autodesk comes to its senses, at least on the issue of
hardware locks)
Escalation: Eyeball-to-Eyeball
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 90 15:40:29 PST
From: John Walker
To: Al Green
Subject: Letter re: hardware locks
Cc: Malcolm Davies, Dan Drake, Greg Lutz, Ron McElhaney
As a selling shareholder in the S-3 offering of June 20th, 1989, I
remain personally liable until June 21, 1990 in shareholder suits
based upon inadequate disclosures in the prospectus.
Should the hardware lock suggestion go into effect and cause a
catastrophic drop in the stock price, shareholder suits are a virtual
certainty.
To those unaware of the nature of my current day-to-day
activities, and know of my personal involvement in the last
hardware lock episode, documented in ``The Autodesk File'' for
all to read, any claim that I had nothing to do with the decision to
re-lock the product would probably be given the same credibility
as Mr. Reagan's claim not to remember anything between 1981
and 1989.
Consequently, I would like a letter drafted and signed by you,
then notarised, that states the following:
John Walker was not consulted in any manner regarding
the decision to reimpose a hardware protection device on
domestic copies of AutoCAD.
John Walker did not participate in any form in the
deliberations prior to this decision, nor did he participate
in the decision itself.
John Walker was not informed of the decision to
reimpose a hardware protection device on domestic
copies of AutoCAD before 1:56 P.M. PST on Monday,
January 29, 1990, at the same time all other members of
the AutoCAD software development group were informed
of this decision.
In addition, John Walker has attended no senior
management, board of directors, or equivalent meetings
since June 1, 1989, and has not otherwise received the
information presented at those meetings, nor participated
in any decisions made there.
Capitulation
January 30, 1990
The decision to reintroduce the hardware lock was not made
without a great deal of time, thought, and heartache by
management. I was on the front line of the last firestorm and am
not anxious to hurl myself headlong into the snakepit again
without good reason. O.K., now that I've said that, the reality is
that this issue has, to say the least, attracted quite a lot of
attention. The good news is that it's refreshing to know that the
people at Autodesk still care extremely about the direction of the
Company. The bad news is that already a great amount of time,
thought and anguish are being given to one topic at a time when
we are under the greatest pressure that we've ever had to get out
an AutoCAD release. The hardware lock is not going to drive a
wedge through the Company and I'm not going to risk the release
of Version 11 through stubbornness. The lock will not go on
Release 11 and the Thursday meeting to debate the issue is
cancelled. Let's direct all of our energies to getting Release 11 out
on time. -- Alvar Green
--
| Gary Funck, Intrepid Technology, gary@xxxxxxxxxxxx, (650) 964-8135
|