[LINK] eisa-OzEmail deal approved

[Peter Bowditch]

Bernard quotes the SMH:

> As well, the company's founder and deputy chairman, Mr Johnson Wang -
> who has been described as Australia's Bill Gates - has had one of his
> companies fined for selling fake computer chips, has been the victim of
> a $2.5 million robbery, is being sued by Microsoft for alleged unpaid
> bills, and has had his house burned down by an arsonist. 

The robbery was a classic. A truck (including its driver) containing 
10,000 Pentium processors was hijacked on its way from the airport to 
Edge's factory. If I remember correctly, the chips were IBM-branded 
P166s. Nobody at the time was still making 166mhz computers, let 
alone 10,000 of them. Evidence of the actual existence of the chips 
consisted of an invoice and some customs documentation. Also, while 
theft is sometimes taken seriously by the courts, kidnapping is always 
taken seriously. This means that anyone wanting to steal 10,000 
obsolete computer chips would probably not take the driver as well.

Then there's the matter of knowing which truck to hijack. I am reminded 
of another theft from a computer assembler in Sydney where the thieves 
broke into the warehouse to steal some disk drives. The lucky thieves 
just happened to cut a hole exactly next to a pile of palletted drives and 
were able to drive the forklift right up to them.

I was working for a computer wholesaler at the times of both robberies, 
and the attitude there could best be described as "amused scepticism".

None of the above should be construed as a suggestion that Edge, KTX, 
Mr Wang or any person, corporation or entity associated with any or all 
of them committed any fraudulent, dishonest or criminal act. Bad luck 
can happen to anyone.

........................................................
Peter Bowditch peterb@ratbags.com
See the nuts on the 'net at "Quintessence of the Loon" 
http://www.ratbags.com/loon