At 4:08 AM -0400 on 10/7/98, Enzo Michelangeli wrote:
But if the patents were held by Digicash Inc., what was the point of having Digicash BV?
Ah. But they weren't originally. Originally, the patents were held by David
Chaum, and licensed to DigiCash, BV. When they finally ran out of investors
in DigiCash BV, an investor group headed by Nicholas Negroponte said they'd
invest in a new company, domiciled in the US, but only if Chaum signed his
rights over to the US company.
Having just written that, it starts to make somewhat convoluted sense. Buy
the Dutch company from the shareholders for some small sum, pay most of the
"real" creditors, roll it up, making the investors and some of the
creditors (wanna bet they're software contractors?) take the hit for what's
left, and start the new company in the US with, technically, a clean
financial slate -- and control of the patent.
Curioser and curioser. Makes me wonder, though, whether after all this
financial prestidigitation they're going to have any room left for jello.
:-).
Cheers,
Bob Hettinga
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Robert A. Hettinga