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Fingerprint authentication to unlock my iPhone, oh yes!

BB

So it's costing Apple $135M for this? Or is that in addition to the stock purchase?

Either way, I hope this turns out better for the creaters of AuthenTec than it did for Janet and Jim Baker, who were the brains behind Siri. Thanks, Mr. Moren, for mentioning Apple's purchase of Siri, in this article. Because it caused me to connect some dots. Whatever Apple ultimately paid for Siri will surely have been a fraction of what the Bakers deserved. Apple got Siri after the parent company (Dragon Systems) was plundered by thieves. For those who want some truly sad and interesting reading, check out the recent NY Times article on the Bakers:
http://www.nytimes.c...&pagewanted=all

This post has been edited by TeaEarleGreyHot: 27 July 2012 - 07:31 AM

Biometric technology is nothing new but this is the future of signing in to your iPhone etc.

Of course, if the Siri team works on it, next time you login to your iPhone it will conclude you are Jack the Ripper and Interpol will be at your doorstep in two minutes and will take you off to the slammer. And they will confiscate your iPhone, too.

AuthenTec CEO, Ness Monsa, was heard to say, during negotiations with Apple, "I need about treefitty."

Apple buys security company AuthenTec Inc for about $350 million.

AuthenTec CEO, Ness Monsa, was heard to say, during negotiations with Apple, "I need about treefitty."

Whoops, sorry for the double post.

TeaEarleGreyHot, on 27 July 2012 - 07:29 AM, said:

Great article. I'm not sure if the Bakers were "plundered by thieves", they made a bad decision and paid for it. It looks like Goldman may have some liability for not doing its do diligence and hiding some facts it dug up in the past, but the Bakers signed off on the deal without Goldmans approval. The real crook is the Belgian company Lernout & Hauspie.

"Mr. Berzofsky, too, testified in his deposition that the Goldman Four did a “great job.”

Even though Dragon lost everything?

“Yes,” Mr. Berzofsky said. He was given several opportunities to clarify. And then he was asked one more time — the fact that the Bakers and Dragon’s shareholders lost everything doesn’t affect your opinion?

“Correct,” Mr. Berzofsky responded. “We guided them to a completed transaction.”"

This is why in my experience you have to become smarter than the so-called "experts" and perform your own due diligence yourself. How hard would it have been to get a list of L&H "customers" and call them to find out what was really going on? Bottom line is that in my experience you have to be your own expert and do your own due diligence. Then as a check you could use someone like Goldman, but only as a check on your own work. Don't want to become a Goldman "muppet" with all that money on the line.

Showman, on 27 July 2012 - 10:39 AM, said:

Yes, it seems the Bakers made a couple mistakes, one was selling the company as a stock trade rather than cash deal, and the other was choosing the wrong buyers. But I don't think that excuses the Belgian company for robbing them of their IP and business. I also think the Bakers chose a the wrong company to seek advice from--they were mere peanuts to Goldman, and they should have got a second opinion on the hiring of GS. But that doesn't excuse GS for taking their $5M and giving them none of the promised advice in return. "Closing the sale" was not the goal, at least as far as the Bakers were concerned. It's just a very sad story about good people who got put through the meat grinder. The IP went out with the bankruptcy proceeds of the Belgians, and that's how the Bakers lost control of their company and the inventions and discoveries they'd been nurturing for 20 years. Very sad. And now Apple has the IP and the world is getting it in the form of Siri.

GS, the idea that they are still in business just, just well pi$$e$ me off! That these arrogant crooks/thieves fatherless robber barons did not all end up locked away for the rest of their lives is unfathomable! Oh, I know that things aren't fair, but at some point one of these types has got to be made an example off, just one of them must pay!

Showman, on 27 July 2012 - 10:39 AM, said:

Everyone should read this, a great example of how honest, hardworking and trusting people are taken advantage of by the greed that has taken over society, be it big business, politicians you name it, people do not care about their fellow man, it is just dog eat dog, sad.