Ralph Yarro III
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Ralph J. Yarro III is currently chairman of the board and the largest shareholder in The SCO Group, Inc. Previously, he was CEO of The Canopy Group, Inc.. His holdings amount to about 5.8 million shares of SCO (Nasdaq SCOX) based on SEC filings.
Yarro appears to be one of the driving forces behind the lawsuit that SCO brought against IBM (see additional reference). Yarro was at least partially responsible for hiring Darl McBride to run The SCO Group, Inc. His SCO bio lists as prior experience employment by the Noorda Family Trust as a graphic artist.
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[edit] Yarro case
In 2004-2005, Yarro was involved in a lawsuit, known as the Yarro case. 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 Council), by the founders Raymond and Lewena Noorda. Yarro, Mott, and Christensen sued Canopy for USD$100,000,000, claiming they were "illegally ousted"[1] by a group led by Val Noorda Kreidel, Raymond Noorda's only daughter.
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 abruptly settled[2]. It was disclosed that the negotiated settlement would result in Yarro gaining all of The Canopy Group's shares in The SCO Group, and that Yarro, Mott, and Christensen would be paid an undisclosed sum of money. The actual settlement is sealed, so that only the principals know the full details, though a joint statement was issued[3].
Shortly afterward, Val Noorda Kreidel committed suicide.[4][5]. She was the second person connected with the case to commit suicide.[6].
[edit] Clean internet
Yarro now (2006) spends most of his time fighting Internet porn 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 Huntsman 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 longtime Internet pornography foe, was directly involved with the legislation. Its Internet pornography solution is part of the resolution.
Yarro was quick to laud the signing
[edit] Yarro's Law
Starting in 2003, Yarro has sponsored a state bill (S.B. 239)[7] making intellectual property laws stricter. Known alternatively as "Yarro's Law," or "the unfair competition law" S.B 239 has cleared the Utah legislature approval in the spring of 2004. Yarro, then, has taken credit[8] for getting the bill passed.
S.B. 239 has been applied retroactively[9] 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.[10]
[edit] Political contributions
Yarro has contributed money for the election committee of Senator Orrin Hatch (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.
