October 30, 1988

CHILLING EFFECT: I will tell you as much as I can about the status of the X/Open-Bob Ackerman story. As you may remember, X/Open announced Sept. 20 that Ackerman, then chief marketing officer for the international UNIX software consortium, was leaving. No further comment was made by X/Open. Last week, I asked for calls to confirm what happened, or where Ackerman was. People called, including Ackerman. But he got my answering machine, and couldn’t be reached by press time at his Mill Valley consulting company, The Ackerman Group.

X/Open, however, was more willing to talk than when the split first took place. Geoff Morris, president and CEO of X/Open, called from England to say this and only this: “We experienced a number of operational problems in X/Open during August. They were dealt with at the time. An operational review uncovered a number of discrepancies. During the clearing up of those problems, Robert Ackerman resigned by mutual agreement. We’ve got a continuing operational review, which is ongoing now.

“What I don’t want to do is speculate about the outcome of this review. It would be completely wrong to do such a thing. I would like to dispel very strongly any sense or feeling that any information was withheld from either the shareholders or the board of directors. As far as I’m concerned, the most proper and firm management steps were taken to protect all of X/Open’s assets. Any speculation that they’ve lost anything as a result of this would be improper at this particular point in time.

“All I can convey to you is that X/Open has this matter well under control, and everybody’s interests are being taken care of in this issue. The matter is still under review, and will be for some time to come.”
I asked Morris if there would be any litigation as the result of the “operational review.” He said, “It would be quite improper for me to comment on that question, but I can say to you that it certainly is X/Open’s policy with respect to all personnel issues of this particular nature (that is, when someone is mutually terminated) that all options are left open until resolution.”
“Accept my assurance that I’m safeguarding everybody’s situation in this; there’s no cover-up here at all. The shareholders and board of directors are fully informed. There will not be any loss of assets as a result of this. All appropriate actions are being taken and will be taken. We are an open company. This matter… will be resolved very, very properly. We’re not covering anything up.”

Morris believes that when it’s resolved, X/Open will go public with its findings.

A LONG STRETCH? A friend called with potential news (euphemism for “rumor”) that Texas Instruments may try to buy LSI Logic. “It’s a long stretch,” he says, “but I’m hearing it from very reliable people.”

Dialing around town yielded slim, but interesting, results.

First, boilerplate responses from both companies involved. “We’re not going to comment on rumors, as a matter of company policy,” said Bruce Entin, vice president of corporate communications for LSI Logic of Milpitas.

And from a TI corporate spokeswoman, “It is TI policy not to comment in any way on the subject of acquisitions, mergers or divestitures.”

Industry watcher Jerry Hutcheson of VLSI Research in San Jose thinks the buyout unlikely. “Of all the companies I can think of that need each other the least, it’s them,” he said. “They have overlapping capabilities, they’re both well-run companies, doing well, have good ties into Europe and Japan and the rest of the world. If they were to try a joint venture or something, that might make some sense. An out-and-out acquisition just doesn’t seem right to me.”

But Jennifer Johnson, senior analyst for International Data Corp., was intrigued. “It makes sense — LSI is very undervalued now, it’s a prime target for a takeover,” she says. “Sales were flat this past quarter and that helped to bring its stock price down. But LSI has a lot of potential, (it’s ‘in’) with the best companies, and it produces the Mips (Computer Systems’ RISC) chip, so it’s possible that Digital Equipment will go to (LSI) for it. And TI is a competitor (who) needs manufacturing space.”

NOT THE BIG MO (AS IN $): Speaking of chips, latest intelligence on the graphics chip for the Next Computer System is that it’ll be done by San Jose-based VLSI Technology Inc. Supposedly it will replace the Fujitsu graphics chip that’s on board now, because, again supposedly, funder H. Ross Perot wants to keep Japanese chips out of the machine wherever possible. My source says it’s not a big money deal for VLSI, but more for the prestige of it all. Since it’s replacing a chip, I guess that doesn’t stop Next from also using Motorola’s upcoming 32-bit custom graphics processor that’s now in development.

SPY STRIKES AGAIN: The Steve Jobs/John Sculley story surfaced in a most amusing place last week: Spy magazine’s November cover story titled “Feuds!”

Writer Lynn Hirschberg described the Steve-’n'-John story as the “Oedipal feud,” a “parent-child fight for supremacy.” But considering that it was Steve who brought John into computerdom, Hirschberg did not tell us who is which.