Walker, by the way, made the many millions necessary to pay for things like this library from Walker Digital, a company that has acquired a reputation as a patent troll.
That "business" -- buying patents and then suing for their alleged violation -- is one of a number of things that has gotten Walker into court; another is that Walker Digital allegedly summarily fired 106 of 125 employees about two days before Thanksgiving in 2000. It settled claims from that for $275,000 (according to Wikipedia) for failing to provide 60 days notice as state law required. (That comes to about $2,600 for each employee fired or about $43 per day per employee for 60 days of lost work.) Many of the objects in Walker's library must have cost him far more than $275,000.
Walker and Walker Digital have created a number of intellectual products and business of their own in addition to the intellectual property they've bought and sued on. The one that catches my attention due to its wide advertising, is Priceline.com, which sells discounted tickets on the internet. Walker sold what was reported as 16% of his stock in it in September 2000 for about $240 million. His value in the company was at one time valued at about $9 billion. But in the Fall of 2000 the price plummeted, and it appears his stock buyers, and he as well, took a bath. The employee firings came after that $240 million sale. It may have been part of a larger restructuring of his business ventures.
In addition to his many other ventures, Walker led the way in automatic magazine subscription renewals via credit card with a company called Synapse, and coauthored a book in college called 1000 Ways to Win at Monopoly. He subsequently won a lawsuit with Parker Brothers over the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment