Canopy Group
Encyclopedia
The Canopy Group is an investment firm founded by Ray Noorda, headquartered in Lindon, Utah
Lindon, Utah
Lindon is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 10,070 at the 2010 census.The western sculptor Grant Speed resides in Lindon.-Geography:...

. It serves as the parent company of various technology companies. One of its most well-known members was the SCO Group
SCO Group
TSG Group, Inc. is a software company formerly called The SCO Group, Caldera Systems, and Caldera International. After acquiring the Santa Cruz Operation's Server Software and Services divisions, as well as UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, the company changed its focus to UNIX...

. Canopy divested itself of SCO in 2005 with the settlement of the Yarro case.

The Yarro case

On December 17, 2004, Noorda and other shareholders ousted CEO Ralph Yarro III
Ralph Yarro III
Ralph J. Yarro III is chairman of the board and the largest shareholder in The SCO Group, Inc. Previously, he was CEO of The Canopy Group, Inc....

, CFO Darcy Mott, and corporate counsel Brent Christensen, accusing them of having defrauded the company of many millions of dollars. Yarro and the other executives sued for wrongful termination and Canopy countersued the three men. On March 8, 2005, the day before initial hearings were scheduled to begin, both parties negotiated a settlement out of court, ending the litigation. In a joint press release by the parties, Canopy agreed to relinquish ownership of all its shares in the SCO Group
SCO Group
TSG Group, Inc. is a software company formerly called The SCO Group, Caldera Systems, and Caldera International. After acquiring the Santa Cruz Operation's Server Software and Services divisions, as well as UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, the company changed its focus to UNIX...

, transferring them to Yarro along with an undisclosed sum of money. In exchange, Canopy would regain all its shares controlled by SCO, thereby severing ties between the two companies.

Canopy Group Management

Following Yarro's removal from the Canopy Group, Canopy subsequently appointed John Noorda and Andy Noorda, Ray Noorda's sons, to the Canopy Board of Directors. Following these appointments, John and Andy Noorda assumed control of the Canopy Group and they subsequently hired Ron Heinz of Canopy portfolio company Helius, a provider of Satellite Internet technology, as managing director. Prior to his stint at Helius, Heinz was formerly the head of North American Sales for Novell
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...

, Inc. and was responsible for building several of the Canopy Group's profitable ventures.

Following these changes, The Canopy Group has revitalized its portfolio and is again actively investing in Utah high technology companies and development.

List of companies Canopy has investments in



The Canopy Group also at one point, owned a 5.7% stake in Trolltech
Trolltech
Qt Development Frameworks is an Oslo, Norway-based software company best known for its Qt toolkit and application framework. Qt Development Frameworks is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nokia Corporation...

, the company which developed Qt
Qt (toolkit)
Qt is a cross-platform application framework that is widely used for developing application software with a graphical user interface , and also used for developing non-GUI programs such as command-line tools and consoles for servers...

. After a round of investments, they withdrew these investments. Canopy also divested itself of interests in Altiris
Altiris
Altiris Inc. is a subsidiary of Symantec specializing in service-oriented management software which allows organizations to manage IT assets. They also provide software for web services, security, and systems management products. Established in 1998, Altiris is headquartered in Lindon, Utah, United...

in 2005.
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