From: info@trolltech.com
To: Al Petrofsky <al@petrofsky.org>
Subject: Re: [Issue N52125]  Ralph Yarro's directorship of TrollTech
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:41:14 +0200

On Saturday, 17. Jul 2004 16:10 Al Petrofsky wrote:
> Dear Mr. Sund,
>
> Thank you for confirming that Ralph Yarro serves on TrollTech's board
> and that Trolltech does not own any shares of SCO Group or Canopy
> Group.
>
> I have one other simple question I forgot to ask: How many directors
> are on the board?
>
> You also wrote:
>
> > We would like to point out that Trolltech does not support The SCO
> > Group's current legal actions against IBM and others.
>
> I am glad to hear that Trolltech does not currently support SCO's
> actions.
>
> I am disappointed to hear that Trolltech's ownership currently does
> support Yarro's directorship.
>
> > As Trolltech is not a publicly listed company, we have a policy not
> > to disclose further details regarding ownership and the Board of
> > Directors.
>
> I understand that not being publicly listed allows you to have such a
> policy, but I don't see any reason to believe such a policy is
> necessarily wise.
>
> Earlier this year, Altiris, another corporation of which Canopy is a
> minority owner, removed Yarro from its board:
>
>   Gregory S. Butterfield has served as our President and Chief
>   Executive Officer since February 2000, as a director since May 2000
>   and as our Chairman of the Board since April 2004.
>
>     -- From Altiris's 2004-04-29 SEC form 10-K/A (which also gives a
>          list of all the directors, with Yarro not listed)
>
>
http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1139650/000119312504074136/d10ka.htm
>
>   Ralph J. Yarro, III, Chairman and Director
>
>     -- From Altiris's 2004-03-30 SEC form S-8
>
>
http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1139650/000119312504053769/ds8.htm
>
> As David Whelan reported in Forbes magazine:
>
>   All in all, Butterfield says, the SCO affiliation is "not positive"
>   and "a nuisance." So Butterfield is quietly trying what lots of
>   other people would love to do--get away from his family. He did a
>   stock offering that diluted Canopy's share in the company to 8% from
>   18%. Then in April Altiris dumped its chairman, Ralph Yarro, who
>   happens to be head of both Canopy and SCO, and another Canopy
>   director.
>
>   Butterfield insists he's managed to mollify customers who moan
>   about SCO.
>
>     -- http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2004/0621/064_print.html
>
> If Trolltech's ownership is unable to remove Yarro, then it might help
> alleviate concerns if you could answer the other questions I asked, or
> otherwise disclose more details about why, despite the ownership being
> powerless to effect this simple change, it does nevertheless have
> sufficient power to continue to steer the corporation in a direction
> other than the one Caldera took.
>
>
> Yours truly,
>
> Al Petrofsky
>

Dear Al Petrofsky,

Thank you for writing back to us. We very much appreciate your concerns,
but we are unfortunately unable to disclose further details regarding
ownership and the Board of Directors.

Thank you for your understanding and for your interest in Trolltech.

Sincerely,

Tonje Sund

--
Trolltech AS, Waldemar Thranes gate 98, NO-0175 Oslo, Norway