Hacker News Reader

Comment by raheemm | Hacker News Reader

I look forward to learning the other side of this fiasco.

Chandra also forwarded an internal email from one of his shareholders. My favorite part of the email: “We still acknowledge that Arrington and TechCrunch bring some value to your business endeavor…If he agrees to our terms, we would have Arrington assume the role of visionary/evangelist/marketing head and Fusion Garage would acquire the rights to use the Crunchpad brand and name. Personally, I don’t think the name is all that important but you seem to be somewhat attached to the name.”

I just don't see how you could possibly spin that. It's clearly out of the blue & they're clearly trying to push TechCrunch out.

Something's sketchy. Wouldn't the TechCrunch lawyer have referred to a contract covering their partnership arrangement? The letter by the lawyer is pure scare tactics. It does not point to any specific violation of a written contract anywhere. Was there even a Letter of Intent signed by TechCrunch and these folks? If not, that's just amateur hour over there.

Yeah, is this how getting hardware built works?

You raise a very good question. Was there a legally binding contract/agreement between both parties, or was it done "on a handshake" without really having a solid legal backing?

It does mention breach of contract several times. but not what contract... perhaps they're trying to imply a contract/rely on oral contract?

does anyone know if there's precedent showing how a court would react to the publication of letters and emails concerning a legal rift and running up to proceedings - will courts look favourably on that at all?

Yeah a few people on the blog are wondering the same thing. But I don't see how that would make Fusion Garage look good. Unless you think they're both making it up for PR.

Given that Michael Arrington was a lawyer it would surprise me a lot if they don't have any contracts.

that's just amateur hour over there

Maybe not for FG, but I think we can comfortably characterize TC as being amateur in the hardware arena. Has Arrington ever run a business whose product end users paid for?

Agreed. I keep having to remind myself there's two sides to every story (and the only side we've heard so far has a widely read blog to use as a mouthpiece).

Still, Fusion Garage has a lot of explaining to do.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com