Ralph Yarro III
Encyclopedia
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.
Yarro is Founder/CEO and chairman of ThinkAtomic, Inc. an early stage venture accelerator and incubator of High Tech and Applied Sciences Companies. ThinkAtomic’s portfolio is always evolving and creating companies like SurfRecon, Voonami, and Xymbiot. He also operates VenturQuest, a venture lending and capital organization. It has funded high tech ventures like: Alta Robbins, Content Watch, ClearPlay
, Data Discovery and Gem4x.
From 1995 to 2004 he worked directly with Ray Noorda as part of the Noorda family companies, ultimately serving as president and CEO of The Canopy Group, Inc. He supported and/or served as Chairman, Board member, or Trustee of many of these companies, including: Altiris
, Angel Partners, Arcanvs, Center/7, Caldera
, Cogito, ClearStone, Cerberian, DeviceLogics
, Direct Pointe, Digital Harbor
, Data Crystal, Expressware, Embedix, Fat Pipe, Geolux, Helius, iArchive, Janus Logix, Keylabs, Learning Optics, Lineo
, Linux Networx, Luxul, Maxstream, MTI, Mediphis, MyFamily.com
, Net Schools, Nombas, North Face Learning, Perimeter Labs, Planet Earth Tools, Profit Pro, Power Innovations, Smart Bomb, Surf China, Traxess, Troll Tech, ViaWest, Vintela, Vinca, Vultus, WrenchHead, Willows, and many more. His SCO holdings amount to about 5.621 million shares, or about 31.4% of SCO's common stock.
Yarro holds a BA in political science from Brigham Young University
.
The Canopy Group (now run by William Mustard) countersued, claiming that Yarro had misappropriated
$20,000,000.00 by "a series of self-dealing and wasteful transactions." On March 8, 2005, the day before initial hearings, the suit was settled. The private settlement resulted in Yarro gaining all of The Canopy Group's shares in The SCO Group, that Yarro, Mott, and Christensen would be paid an undisclosed sum of money, and that they had ceased to hold any interest in Canopy and had resigned from all positions there.
Jr. held a ceremonial signing of House Concurrent Resolution 3, which urged the U.S. Congress to pass stricter anti-Internet pornography
legislation.
The CP80 foundation, a long time Internet pornography foe, was directly involved with the legislation. Its Internet pornography solution is part of the resolution.
In April 2004, Yarro has been pushing for extending the legislation making ISPs responsible for content on open wireless access ports. The plan is to give tax incentives to ISPs who co-operate and volunteer as "community-protectors". It has not been made clear who exactly sets the standards and who stands to benefit from deployment of approved technical filtering and a rating system. According to the Deseret News Article, Utah ISP representatives, such as XMission
owner Pete Ashdown
, are opposed to restricting their operations while their out of state competitors aren't restricted. In the same article, Ashdown also questioned why local ISPs should be singled out when other local businesses, such as local hotels, can freely show porn on adult channels.
spring of 2004.
S.B. 239 has been applied retroactively by SCO's attorneys to the Santa Cruz - IBM Monterey agreement in the SCO vs IBM case. The same bill has also been cited as by SCO's attorneys in the SCO vs Novell litigation.
(R
, Utah), and for the election of Christopher Cannon (R
, Utah). On one occasion, six separate contributions from six different people sharing the last name "Yarro" (First names: Ralph, Jackie, Riley, Tanner, Noah, Sydney) to Senator Orrin Hatch were made on August 30, 2006. On March 9, 2007, Yarro contributed to Mitt Romney
's presidential campaign. After Romney dropped out Yarro contributed to John McCain
's presidential campaign.
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...
Previously, he was CEO of The Canopy Group, Inc.
Canopy Group
The Canopy Group is an investment firm founded by Ray Noorda, headquartered in Lindon, Utah. It serves as the parent company of various technology companies. One of its most well-known members was the SCO Group...
Yarro is Founder/CEO and chairman of ThinkAtomic, Inc. an early stage venture accelerator and incubator of High Tech and Applied Sciences Companies. ThinkAtomic’s portfolio is always evolving and creating companies like SurfRecon, Voonami, and Xymbiot. He also operates VenturQuest, a venture lending and capital organization. It has funded high tech ventures like: Alta Robbins, Content Watch, ClearPlay
ClearPlay
ClearPlay is an advanced parental control DVD player that allows content filtering of ordinary DVD films, purchased or rented. ClearPlay is the technology that automatically and seamlessly skips over or mutes undesirable content such as profanity, graphic violence, drug and adult-oriented content,...
, Data Discovery and Gem4x.
From 1995 to 2004 he worked directly with Ray Noorda as part of the Noorda family companies, ultimately serving as president and CEO of The Canopy Group, Inc. He supported and/or served as Chairman, Board member, or Trustee of many of these companies, including: 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...
, Angel Partners, Arcanvs, Center/7, Caldera
Caldera (company)
Caldera was a US-based software company founded in 1994 to develop Linux- and DOS-based operating system products.- Caldera :Caldera, Inc...
, Cogito, ClearStone, Cerberian, DeviceLogics
DeviceLogics
DeviceLogics is a startup company in Lindon, Utah, United States of America, founded in 2002. Bryan Sparks co-founded DeviceLogics, and acquired DR-DOS from the Canopy Group, a Utah technology venture group...
, Direct Pointe, Digital Harbor
Norkom
Norkom Technologies provides financial crime and compliance software to the global financial services industry. Founded in 1998.A selection of Norkom clients include HSBC, Crédit Agricole, Standard Chartered Bank, AXA, Banco Santander, ANZ, and Bank of Montreal.Norkom is headquartered in Dublin,...
, Data Crystal, Expressware, Embedix, Fat Pipe, Geolux, Helius, iArchive, Janus Logix, Keylabs, Learning Optics, Lineo
Lineo
Lineo was a thin client and embedded systems company spun out of Caldera Thin Clients, on 20 July 1999.Caldera Thin Clients, Inc., had been created as a subsidiary of Caldera, Inc., on 2 September 1998...
, Linux Networx, Luxul, Maxstream, MTI, Mediphis, MyFamily.com
MyFamily.com
Ancestry.com Inc., formerly The Generations Network, is a publicly traded Internet company based in Provo, Utah, USA. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical and historical record websites focused on the U.S...
, Net Schools, Nombas, North Face Learning, Perimeter Labs, Planet Earth Tools, Profit Pro, Power Innovations, Smart Bomb, Surf China, Traxess, Troll Tech, ViaWest, Vintela, Vinca, Vultus, WrenchHead, Willows, and many more. His SCO holdings amount to about 5.621 million shares, or about 31.4% of SCO's common stock.
Yarro holds a BA in political science from Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
.
SCO/Canopy lawsuit
In 2004-2005, Yarro was involved in a lawsuit. Yarro was fired for cause from his job as Director of the Canopy Group, along with two other Canopy executives, Darcy Mott (who had been the Chief Financial Officer) and Brent Christensen (who had been the corporate counsel), by the founders Raymond and Lewena Noorda. Yarro, Mott, and Christensen sued Canopy for USD$100,000,000, claiming they were "illegally ousted" by a group led by Val Noorda Kreidel, Raymond Noorda's daughter.The Canopy Group (now run by William Mustard) countersued, claiming that Yarro had misappropriated
Misappropriation
In law, misappropriation is the intentional, illegal use of the property or funds of another person for one's own use or other unauthorized purpose, particularly by a public official, a trustee of a trust, an executor or administrator of a dead person's estate or by any person with a responsibility...
$20,000,000.00 by "a series of self-dealing and wasteful transactions." On March 8, 2005, the day before initial hearings, the suit was settled. The private settlement resulted in Yarro gaining all of The Canopy Group's shares in The SCO Group, that Yarro, Mott, and Christensen would be paid an undisclosed sum of money, and that they had ceased to hold any interest in Canopy and had resigned from all positions there.
CP80
As of 2006, Yarro spends most of his time fighting Internet pornography with CP80. He is pushing for state legislation to move all mature content to a different port than the standard HTTP port 80. On March 13, 2007, Utah Gov. Jon HuntsmanJon Huntsman, Jr.
Jon Meade Huntsman, Jr. is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 16th Governor of Utah. He also served in the administrations of four United States presidents and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.Huntsman worked as a White House staff assistant for...
Jr. held a ceremonial signing of House Concurrent Resolution 3, which urged the U.S. Congress to pass stricter anti-Internet pornography
Internet pornography
Internet pornography is pornography that is distributed by means of various sectors of the Internet, primarily via websites, peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups...
legislation.
The CP80 foundation, a long time Internet pornography foe, was directly involved with the legislation. Its Internet pornography solution is part of the resolution.
In April 2004, Yarro has been pushing for extending the legislation making ISPs responsible for content on open wireless access ports. The plan is to give tax incentives to ISPs who co-operate and volunteer as "community-protectors". It has not been made clear who exactly sets the standards and who stands to benefit from deployment of approved technical filtering and a rating system. According to the Deseret News Article, Utah ISP representatives, such as XMission
XMission
XMission was the first and is one of the few remaining independent Internet Service Providers in Utah, United States, founded in late 1993 by Pete Ashdown. Starting in 2003, the company began providing free wireless in public libraries and some local businesses...
owner Pete Ashdown
Pete Ashdown
Peter Lynn "Pete" Ashdown is the founder and CEO of Utah's first independent and oldest Internet service provider, XMission. In 2006 he challenged and lost to incumbent U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, running as the Democratic candidate....
, are opposed to restricting their operations while their out of state competitors aren't restricted. In the same article, Ashdown also questioned why local ISPs should be singled out when other local businesses, such as local hotels, can freely show porn on adult channels.
Yarro's Law
Starting in 2003, Yarro was asked by local groups and professionals to help sponsor the development of a bill that would bring IP laws in the state of Utah current with those similar to California's. Attorneys and political experts were hired by Yarro to help develop the bill. A state bill (S.B. 239) making intellectual property laws stricter, titled "The Unfair Competition Law", S.B 239 cleared the Utah legislature approval in thespring of 2004.
S.B. 239 has been applied retroactively by SCO's attorneys to the Santa Cruz - IBM Monterey agreement in the SCO vs IBM case. The same bill has also been cited as by SCO's attorneys in the SCO vs Novell litigation.
Political contributions
Yarro has contributed money for the election committee of Senator Orrin HatchOrrin Hatch
Orrin Grant Hatch is the senior United States Senator for Utah and is a member of the Republican Party. Hatch served as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1993 to 2005...
(R
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, Utah), and for the election of Christopher Cannon (R
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, Utah). On one occasion, six separate contributions from six different people sharing the last name "Yarro" (First names: Ralph, Jackie, Riley, Tanner, Noah, Sydney) to Senator Orrin Hatch were made on August 30, 2006. On March 9, 2007, Yarro contributed to Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...
's presidential campaign. After Romney dropped out Yarro contributed to John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
's presidential campaign.