Ex-Groove exec loses initial bid to nix Microsoft deal

An ex-Groove Networks executive suffered a legal setback on Friday in his bid to block Microsoft's takeover of his former company.

A Delaware Chancery Court judge refused to grant Michael Matthews' request for a temporary restraining order blocking the deal, according to a statement released by Groove. Matthews is a principal investor in Groove and a former executive vice president who left the company in April 2002.

"Mr. Matthews' attempt to block the acquisition of Groove Networks by Microsoft by way of a temporary restraining order was denied this afternoon in Delaware Chancery Court by Chancellor William B. Chandler III," Groove said. "Groove Networks and Microsoft are proceeding toward closing of the transaction according to the terms of the merger agreement."

Matthews' suit, filed last week, seeks to block the deal under its present terms, according to reports by Bloomberg News and the Boston Business Journal. Matthews' suit charges that the deal is unfair to some employees who hold preferred and common stock, according to the reports.

Matthews, now chief marketing officer at Amdocs, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Groove said that Microsoft's acquisition, which was announced on March 10, has been approved by all of the company's major investors except for Matthews.

In a statement, Microsoft said it is not a party to Matthews' suit and that the two companies remain separate until the deal is officially closed.

"Microsoft and Groove remain committed to our shared vision for providing software and services that help individuals collaborate naturally and easily, both within and beyond organization boundaries," Microsoft said. "We look forward to adding Groove technologies to the line-up of Microsoft Office system servers, applications and services following the close of the acquisition."

[booboo1243]

Perfect match!. Groove is a huge, slow and bloated piece of fatware!

Purchasing Groove is a perfect match for Microsoft.

The Groove client is a huge, slow, bloated piece of FATWARE. It's no coincidence that Ozzie, the "father of Lotus Notes" created Groove. Groove is AS SLOW (or slower) than the FAT Notes Client.

A perfect match for Microsoft's increasingly-fat-and-slow software.

Just compare the speed and size of Microsoft's IE 6.0 SP2 vs. Firefox, or the latest "Office System 2003" vs. OpenOffice 2.0 and you'll see where this trend is going...

Only a year ago, 512MB was recommended, today, with Windows 2003 and MSIE + the MS anti-spyware, plus a firewall, plus an antivirus, plus a trojan scanner, plus Microsoft's SP2, plus "Office System" ... and you soon need a gigabyte of RAM.

Have you seen the size of Microsoft's DOT-NOT (I mean, .Net) runtime engine? and DirectX? it's a lunacy.

I can't stand this and have already installed both Linspire and JDS Linux. The day I choose to stick with one of those distros, it's byebye-time for Windows. I already do all my e-mail, web surfing, scanning, cd-burning and office work in Linux.

[booboo1243]

Perfect match!. Groove is a huge, slow and bloated piece of fatware!

Purchasing Groove is a perfect match for Microsoft.

The Groove client is a huge, slow, bloated piece of FATWARE. It's no coincidence that Ozzie, the "father of Lotus Notes" created Groove. Groove is AS SLOW (or slower) than the FAT Notes Client.

A perfect match for Microsoft's increasingly-fat-and-slow software.

Just compare the speed and size of Microsoft's IE 6.0 SP2 vs. Firefox, or the latest "Office System 2003" vs. OpenOffice 2.0 and you'll see where this trend is going...

Only a year ago, 512MB was recommended, today, with Windows 2003 and MSIE + the MS anti-spyware, plus a firewall, plus an antivirus, plus a trojan scanner, plus Microsoft's SP2, plus "Office System" ... and you soon need a gigabyte of RAM.

Have you seen the size of Microsoft's DOT-NOT (I mean, .Net) runtime engine? and DirectX? it's a lunacy.

I can't stand this and have already installed both Linspire and JDS Linux. The day I choose to stick with one of those distros, it's byebye-time for Windows. I already do all my e-mail, web surfing, scanning, cd-burning and office work in Linux.