Getting a grip on greed
Cringely takes a look at a shady settlement, Microsoft’s CRM play, and XNS
AMBER NOW HAS our vacation all planned out. “We’re going to snorkel one day, go hiking the next, and try surfing. I also have restaurants lined up for every night,” she said.
Greed is good, isn’t it?
Speaking of wanting it all, a spy reports that the individual entrusted with handling the estate of NorthPoint Communications might not be so trustworthy. The California bankruptcy court entrusted the estate of NorthPoint Communications to E. Lynn Schoenmann, a U.S. Trustee. As such, it is Schoenmann’s fiduciary duty to maximize the value of NorthPoint’s estate for creditors and shareholders. By accepting Verizon’s paltry $175 million settlement offer behind closed doors (a settlement as part of NorthPoint’s suit against Verizon for breach of contract, misrepresentation, and fraud), Schoenmann will collect $5.25 million. However, creditors are left with only 20 cents on the dollar and shareholders empty-handed.
The thing is, from the beginning the trustee espoused the strength of the case — through the media and personally to shareholders — and stated NorthPoint’s lawsuit was valued in the range of $4 billion.
Not-so-down market
Although Microsoft’s forthcoming CRM solution is positioned as a down-market offering, when it ships in December it will come with two connectors to SAP via bundled BizTalk technology. It will also coincide with an initiative rebranding all of Microsoft’s business applications and will be followed by an ASP-based version of the CRM offering targeted directly against Salesforce.com. Also on tap are third-party offerings that bundle a low-cost computer telephony feature and a partner relationship management app.
With Office and Sharepoint built into a fresh application that has no code from either Great Plains or Navision, two relatively recent Microsoft acquisitions, there is nothing “down market” about this application push into the enterprise.
A booster shot for XNS
The fledgling XNS identity management protocol is about to get a major shot in the arm when both Visa International and Gemplus reveal their plans for using this protocol through an alliance with OneName, which developed XNS and markets an XNS server. All three companies are founding members of XNS.org, but Visa and Gemplus have yet to reveal their plans for using the technology to manage digital identities.
“MAYBE WE SHOULD rent sea kayaks on one day, too,” Amber mused. Sounds like fun, but I prefer to leave some time unscheduled. “Maybe we can each do our own thing on some days,” I suggested.
