Re:Prototype Hardware from Lockheed Martin Surveillance Project
by jacquesm on Saturday August 24, 2013 @03:08AM
(#6267977)
If genuine this amounts to purchasing stolen goods, buyer beware. Not that at $10M I think there'll be any takers.
As always there is likely another side to this story and if you're a US buyer of this batch of stuff you're probably going to be dealing with that aspect of the sale.
The way I read this is: founder got screwed, founder uses ebay to put the pressure on his former employer to see if he can get compensation by threatening to expose the crown jewels of the company which he developed.
On another level, this story is just like any other minority shareholder dispute and founders should definitely take a warning from this.
It is relatively easy to screw a minority shareholder, even a founder, if everybody else colludes. This can happen and it does happen, hell, it happened to me. If you're technically savvy but not business savvy you might as well settle for a fat salary in many cases, unless there is ample paperwork to document your position and sufficient trust between you and your partners.
I wouldn't touch this auction with a 10' pole, but there might be someone out there that takes the bait and thinks that this is peanuts for the goods from a counter-intelligence perspective.
To create a competing product based on this data would be a very stupid move and at that price I think you could do a lot better by doing it again with today's tech.
Essentially he is saying: my 10% of the company is worth 10 million dollars (or more) and that alone might be an indication of the kind of thing that lies at the heart of the conflict.
I hope the poster finds a way to fund his lawsuit in a less controversial way, if only because he's selling some of the evidence that he'll need in order to win it and because he's opening himself up to a substantial counter-claim and actively helps the opposition with an own goal.
If the poster of the ebay auction reads this: retract this auction, get a lawyer, if possible on a contingency basis but at least for a few hours (which you should be able to afford out of pocket) to research the legality of your position. If a lawyer will sign off on this action in writing then go for it. But I doubt that will happen. Hint: a minor shareholder does not have the right to pre-emptively strike at the company based on the outcome of a lawsuit that still has to be fought. It is very well possible that when the dust settles that you'll own the assets of the company but until then this stuff is company property and you as a shareholder are acting against the interests of that company and probably against the terms of your employment contract. That's a (very) bad spot to be in and it may very well annul any and all rights that you still have or cause the tide to turn against you from having the moral high-ground to becoming the defendant.
As always there is likely another side to this story and if you're a US buyer of this batch of stuff you're probably going to be dealing with that aspect of the sale.
The way I read this is: founder got screwed, founder uses ebay to put the pressure on his former employer to see if he can get compensation by threatening to expose the crown jewels of the company which he developed.
On another level, this story is just like any other minority shareholder dispute and founders should definitely take a warning from this.
It is relatively easy to screw a minority shareholder, even a founder, if everybody else colludes. This can happen and it does happen, hell, it happened to me. If you're technically savvy but not business savvy you might as well settle for a fat salary in many cases, unless there is ample paperwork to document your position and sufficient trust between you and your partners.
I wouldn't touch this auction with a 10' pole, but there might be someone out there that takes the bait and thinks that this is peanuts for the goods from a counter-intelligence perspective.
To create a competing product based on this data would be a very stupid move and at that price I think you could do a lot better by doing it again with today's tech.
Essentially he is saying: my 10% of the company is worth 10 million dollars (or more) and that alone might be an indication of the kind of thing that lies at the heart of the conflict.
I hope the poster finds a way to fund his lawsuit in a less controversial way, if only because he's selling some of the evidence that he'll need in order to win it and because he's opening himself up to a substantial counter-claim and actively helps the opposition with an own goal.
If the poster of the ebay auction reads this: retract this auction, get a lawyer, if possible on a contingency basis but at least for a few hours (which you should be able to afford out of pocket) to research the legality of your position. If a lawyer will sign off on this action in writing then go for it. But I doubt that will happen. Hint: a minor shareholder does not have the right to pre-emptively strike at the company based on the outcome of a lawsuit that still has to be fought. It is very well possible that when the dust settles that you'll own the assets of the company but until then this stuff is company property and you as a shareholder are acting against the interests of that company and probably against the terms of your employment contract. That's a (very) bad spot to be in and it may very well annul any and all rights that you still have or cause the tide to turn against you from having the moral high-ground to becoming the defendant.