We thought Transmeta was back on track after
settling that patent lawsuit with Intel and scoring a $7.5M
investment from AMD, but it looks like the company's investors aren't as convinced -- they've filed a lawsuit accusing Transmeta of mismanagement and have offered to buy the whole company outright. Led by investment firm Riley Investments, which owns nearly seven percent of Transmeta, the lawsuit claims that Transmeta executives have been giving themselves huge unwarranted bonuses while failing to manage the company effectively -- the latest example being the general counsel getting a $10M bonus while the company posted a profit of just $44,000. That's definitely pretty sketchy, but even worse is Riley's plan if it does manage to take over: killing off Transmeta's manufacturing operations and turning the company into a patent troll. Either way, we should find out which drain Transmeta's going down rather soon -- we'll keep you updated.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
bdkennedy1 @ Feb 4th 2008 3:46PM
I can do you guys one better. I didn't even know they were still in business.
John @ Feb 4th 2008 3:53PM
I think this lawsuit is basically a formality, because when people in the company make more money than the company itself, it's kind of hard to say with a straight face that nothing is being done wrong.
Still, if they manage to fight this off, I'd say that their counsel really earned that $10m bonus.
steve ballmer @ Feb 4th 2008 3:55PM
That was a pretty agregious example, sounds like a bunch of criminals to me!
tom @ Feb 4th 2008 3:59PM
I can double or even triple their profit in 3 days, hire me!
andy @ Feb 4th 2008 4:04PM
So engadget's ever evolving "patent troll" definition now includes:
an entity who developed and manufactured products protected by patents which were ripped off by bigger entities putting the entity out of business
Figuring out who the 'trolls' are gets more difficult every day. I thought it connoted something at first, but I've come to realize that "patent troll" is synonomous with "patent holder" except when applied to a company of which the writer is a fanboy.
Anthony @ Feb 4th 2008 6:53PM
I agree.
Transmeta were the first to really show off their power saving devices- long before "green" was en vogue. I hope they stick around, but certainly don't want them to keep from being rewarded for their prior efforts just because AMD wants to use things it didn't come up with.
Also, I'm so sick of that dancing woman trying to sell me a refi & I'm so glad I now just have Engadget as a widget unless I want to comment...
OddManOut @ Feb 4th 2008 4:41PM
I thought they had ARLEADY gotten out of the fab biz. A shame too. My Fujitsu P1120 has an 800mhz Crusoe in it and I really like that little machine (now that I've 'downgraded' it to Win2K as it was originally released in Japan). It's about the same size as an EEE pc, but it's equipt with a touch screen and is totally fanless...which I'm guessing is a result of having a Crusoe as opposed to a Celeron-M (though it does get pretty hot).
Even if the investment group buys them out, I think this is a bad time to leave the fabing business if your game if Cool running/ULV/mobile chips. That segment is heating up (no pun intended) there are profits to be made, and Transmeta already has a history and (aparently) a presence in that circle...
adrian @ Feb 4th 2008 7:10PM
I always thought Transmeta had potential. I liked their power saving ideas, but it seems as though management has been pissing the company away, while lining their own pockets. What a shame.
Ed @ Feb 4th 2008 7:27PM
10 million dollar BONUS with practically no profit? That's just ridiculous. I think salaries like that are insane when the company is not doing well, but bonuses ABOVE salaries raises the bar.
LondonConsultant @ Feb 4th 2008 9:45PM
Two comments on this article:
1. You don't mention that Transmeta's general counsel was paid $10 million because he negotiated a £250 million settlement from Intel.
2. "profit of just $44,000"? Transmeta made $44,000 revenue in its third quarter. Revenue means total sales, not profit.