IP: another view of history and reality fascinating -- Old friends complicate Buffett'sforay into telecom

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Rick News" <rick () cello net>
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 19:34:53 -0400
To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: RE: fascinating -- Old friends complicate Buffett'sforay into
telecom  

I don't understand. Is this supposed to be fiction based on fact or pure
fiction?

UUNET was using MFS to carry internet traffic on MFS's virtual Ethernet
product as early as 1992. MFS was certainly aware of UUNET and the
internet as a large consumer of bandwidth early on.

I have a record of a meeting in January 1994 where we discussed MFS
investing in UUNET.
I think we discussed them buying us out as early as 1993; Certainly well
before this mystical 1995 meeting.

As I remember it,  Jim Crowe had to convince Walter Scott why he wanted
to spend $2 billion on UUNET.
Scott is a smart guy, but Crowe is the only telecom guy I ever met who
"got" the internet. He certainly didn't need Scott to teach him.

I don't understand the part about Microsoft owing 14.7% of UUNET being
relevant. I owned more than that and I also don't remember asking Gate's
permission to sell the company. Microsoft was not in a position to force
or stop a sale. (I think I could have stopped it, but I don't think
anyone else could have.)

I doubt very much that Gates told Crowe he'd only sell if he kept
Sidgmore. No one wanted Sidgmore to leave. It was not something that was
contemplated at any time. Frankly, I doubt Gates and Crowe discussed it,
but I have no first hand information on their confirmations (unlike all
of the other items I am correcting)

When WorldCom bought MFS Scott, Crowe and Sidgmore were already very
wealthy (Scott measured in billions. Sidgmore and Crowe on the order of
$100 million). I doubt very much if the WorldCom purchase made a
significant financial difference in their effective wealth - certainly
not enough to influence any decisions or create large "favors"

I can't comment on the rest as I wasn't there, but it's clear that
everything up to and including the WorldCom acquisition of MFS is pure
fiction. I have to assume the rest is also. (Except for the part about
Crowe hating Ebbers - but then he was just five years ahead of most
people wasn't he?)

Somehow conspiracy theories never stand up to scrutiny - even the juicy
ones.

My opinion of USAToday as a "news" source remains as low as ever.

Rick Adams
UUNET Board Chairman at time of MFS merger

P.s. how did the conspiracy theorist miss the fact that Scott is on
Berkshire Hathaway's Board of Directors?


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