The Canopy Group is an investment firm founded by Ray Noorda, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. It serves as the parent company of various technology companies. One of its most well-known members is the SCO Group. The company's much-criticized litigation has forced Canopy to try to downplay its links to other owned entities, most obviously by removing its list of daughter companies from its website.

On or about December 9, 2004, CEO Ralph Yarro , CFO Darcy Mott and corporate counsel Brent Christensen were removed from the company by Noorda and other shareholders, and now stand accused, in essence, of having defrauded the company of many millions of dollars. Yarro and the other executives sued for wrongful temination, and Canopy countersued the three men. On March 8, 2005, the day before initial hearings were scheduled to begin, both parties negotiated a setlement out of court, ending the litigation. Further details can be found on the Groklaw website originally established to follow the SCO-Linux controversies.

Two suicides in the Yarro case

Val Noorda Kreidel, the daughter of Canopy Group founder Ray Noorda, commited suicide March 17, 2005 according to Orange County supervising deputy coroner Cullen Ellingburgh. "The settlement transferred Canopy's 32% position in the infamous SCO Group and an undisclosed amount of money to former Canopy CEO Ralph Yarro. It is the second suicide in the Yarro case. Canopy IT director Robert Penrose also shot himself to death in December a few days after Ms. Kriedel ousted Canopy's incumbent management and replaced CEO Ralph Yarro." [1]

"Kreidel's suicide, which occurred within days of a settlement on March 11 of a bitter legal battle between her family and three former Canopy executives challenging their firings in December, has Canopy observers within the close-knit high-tech community reeling. Her apparent suicide is the second one in the Canopy saga. On Dec. 23, Canopy IT director Robert Penrose also shot himself to death after Kreidel is believed to have engineered the ouster of longtime Canopy CEO Ralph Yarro and two other executives, former CFO Darcy Mott and former corporate counsel Brent Christensen, and installed new management led by current Canopy CEO Bill Mustard. " [2]

List of companies owned

Taken from TuxRocks.com.

• Altiris [3]
• AvenueMe [4]
• AxiomPress (subsidiary of Geolux ) [5]
• Center7 [6]
• Cerberian [7]
• ClearstoneHealth (subsidiary of Geolux ) [8]
• Cogito [9]
• Communitect [10]
• Data Crystal [11]
• DeviceLogics [12]
• DigitalHarbor [13]
• DirectPointe [14]
• Fatpipe [15]
• Geolux [16]
• GMMI/Ridgeline [17]
• Helius [18]
• Homepipeline [19]
• iArchives [20]
• Industrial Training Zone (subsidiary of Geolux ) [21]
• Januslogix [22]
• Learning Optics (subsidiary of Geolux ) [23]
• Linux Networx [24]
• Luxul [25]
• MaxStream [26]
• Mi-Co [27]
• MTI [28]
• MyFamily.com [29]
• North Face Learning [30]
• Perimeter Labs [31]
• Planetearthtools [32]
• Power Inovations [33]
• SCO Group [34]
• Smart Chip Technologies [35]
• SurfChina [36]
• Trolltech [37]
• Tuglet [38]
• Viawest [39]
• Vultus [40]
• Wrenchead [41]

External links

• Canopy Group website