It’s been interesting to watch the fuss over Qinetiq’s privatisation and whether the small investor should have been let in on it or net or whether it was sold too cheap a few years ago when the Carlyle group stepped in. There’s been an almost equal amount of fuss about whether Sir John Chisholm should have been allowed to make so much money – something like £26 million I think.
Something from my distant memories tells me that this is his second chance at hitting the big time. I can’t be sure, but I’m reasonably certain that back when Sir John was plain John and was running CAP Scientific Limited, he was approached by IBM who wanted an operating system for their upcoming personal computer. He turned them down … and the rest is history. So why begrudge the guy a second go at making his fortune?
Well, I guess the short and rather uncharitable answer is… \’because I\’d rather he made it at IBM\’s expense than the UK taxpayer\’s…\’. But as I still have IBM shares and a chunk of IBM pension, maybe I\’m being short-sighted ;^)
You\’re thinking of Alex d\’Agapeyev and CAP-CPP. He developed a micro-computer operating system called \”microsoft\” and had a \”Microsoft Ltd\” subsidiary of CAP-CPP Ltd. (CAP-CPP was the principal investor in CAP Scientific) This \”Microsoft\” pre-dated the PC and nearly made CAP-CPP bankrupt.