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Stephen L. Norris

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This article is about the private equity investor. For the British politician, see Steven Norris.

Stephen L. Norris is one of the co-founders of The Carlyle Group, an American private equity firm, and previously the Chairman of Gulf Capital Partners.[citation needed] He is a former member of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, who was appointed by President George H. W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate in 1990.[citation needed] In July 2014, it was announced he had joined the Florida-based company Global Digital Solutions.[1]

Education

Norris received a BS (1972) and a JD (1975) from the University of Alabama.[2] He received an LLM from New York University (1976).[2]

Career

Marriott

Norris's early career was spent at Marriott Corporation, where as a tax and mergers and acquisitions specialist[3] he became a corporate vice president.[4] He was a principal strategist and advisor for Marriott's public and private financings, limited partnerships, acquisitions, and divestitures from 1981 to mid-1987.[2]

Carlyle Group

In October 1987, Norris co-founded The Carlyle Group with four other Washington DC executives: David M. Rubenstein, William E. Conway, Jr., Daniel A. D'Aniello, and Greg Rosenbaum.[4]

From 1992–1995 Norris also served as one of the five board members of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board.[2]

Norris left the Carlyle Group in 1995, with the intention to form his own boutique investment organization.[5]

SCO Group assets and Unix/Xinuos

The interest of Stephen Norris Capital Partners in the SCO Group started in February 2008, when it put forward a $100 million reorganization and debt financing plan for the failing company, which it would then take private.[6][7][6] There was also an unnamed Middle East partner in the proposed deal; the Associated Press reported that Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia was involved.[8]

After a few months of due diligence investigation of SCO's operations, finances, and legal situation,[9] Stephen Norris Capital Partners considered a different course of action, instead proposing to purchase SCO assets outright.[10][11] Norris appeared on stage at the SCO Tec Forum 2008 company developer and partner conference in Las Vegas in October 2008, where possible acquisition and investments plans were shown to attendees.[12]

Neither of those plans went forward,[13] and instead in June 2009 a new proposal emerged from a combination of Gulf Capital Partners, of which Stephen Norris was an investor, and MerchantBridge, a London-based, Middle East-focused private equity group, to create an entity called UnXis, which would then buy SCO's software business assets for $2.4 million.[14][15] At that point the SCO Group had fewer than 70 employees left.[15]

That plan, too, did not move forward. In April 2010, SCO's mobility software assets were sold to its former CEO, Darl McBride, for $100,000.[16] In September 2010 the SCO Group put up the remainder of its non-lawsuit assets for public auction.[17] Thus in February 2011, another proposal was made, this time for $600,000, with this iteration of UnXis being backed by Norris, MerchantBridge, and Gerson Global Advisors.[13]

Some industry analysts were unsure of why Norris and his partners were wanting to acquire the SCO Unix software assets in the first place. In 2008 Ryan Paul of Ars Technica noted that "UnixWare, SCO's flagship product, hasn't seen a new release in four years."[7] Veteran technology journalist Maureen O'Gara, who earlier during the SCO–Linux disputes had been accused of engaging in pro-SCO actions,[18] in 2011 called UnXis an "odd venture" which had "been offering to buy SCO since mid-2009 for reasons that aren't patently obvious to anybody."[19] In any case, the bankruptcy court approved this proposal, as the only other bid submitted was for $18.[20]

In July 2009, Norris joined the Board of Xinuos.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ "SCO Group plans to go private with $100 million investment". Deseret Morning News. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
  2. ^ a b c d "Form S-1". Securities and Exchange Commission. Global Digital Solutions. September 17, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  3. ^ Briody, Dan (2003). The Iron Triangle. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 51–59. ISBN 978-0-471-46969-8.
  4. ^ a b Vise, David A. (October 4, 1987). "Area Merchant Banking Firm Formed". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
  5. ^ Mintz, John (January 8, 1995). "Founder Going Beyond The Carlyle Group". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Flowers, John (February 14, 2008). "SCO Gets Up to $100 Million Financing". The Wall Street Journal.
  7. ^ a b Paul, Ryan (February 15, 2008). "Private equity firm pours $100 million into SCO money pit". Ars Technica.
  8. ^ "Software company SCO gets help from Norris and a Middle East investor, hopes to go private". International Herald Tribune. Associated Press. February 15, 2008.
  9. ^ Leong, Grace (April 3, 2008). "SCO negotiating new Ch. 11 plan". Daily Herald. Provo, Utah.
  10. ^ Paul, Ryan (April 3, 2008). "Bankruptcy trustee skeptical as SCO punts on reorg plan". Ars Technica.
  11. ^ Church, Steven (April 3, 2008). "Insolvent SCO scraps its reorganization plan". Deseret News. Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on April 7, 2008.
  12. ^ "SCO Tec Forum 2008". The SCO Group. Retrieved December 21, 2019. See keynote presentation, slide 39ff.
  13. ^ a b Harvey, Tom (February 14, 2011). "Utah's SCO in deal to sell Unix operating system". The Salt Lake Tribune.
  14. ^ Paul, Ryan (June 23, 2009). "SCO wants to keep waging legal war after $2.4M asset sale". Ars Technica.
  15. ^ a b Leong, Grace (August 26, 2009). "SCO to resume fight with Novell, IBM". Daily Herald. Provo, Utah. p. B4 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Jones, Pamela (April 7, 2010). "Darl Buys (Not Licenses) SCO's Mobility Assets for $100,000 - Updated 4Xs". Groklaw.
  17. ^ Jackson, Joab (September 16, 2010). "SCO puts Unix assets up for auction". InfoWorld.
  18. ^ McCullagh, Declan (May 10, 2005). "Groklaw privacy spat ends Linux Business News column". CNET.
  19. ^ O'Gara, Maureen (March 13, 2011). "Bankruptcy Court Says SCO Can Sell Its OS Assets". SYS-CON Media.
  20. ^ Harvey, Tom (March 8, 2011). "Judge approves sale of SCO's Unix system". The Salt Lake Tribune.

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