Image Gallery: IT Hall Of Shame
Look back at ten of the most infamous and notorious tech industry frauds, flops, and foibles from individuals to products, ideas to entire companies.
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Microsoft introduced the widely-hyped successor to Windows XP in January 2007, and things quickly went downhill from there. Consumers complained about a lack of driver support and intrusive security measures, and businesses shunned the new OS on concerns about incompatibility with older applications. Microsoft hurried Windows 7 out the door in October 2009 in hopes the market would forget about Vista as soon as possible.
Proposed by former president Bill Clinton in 1993, the Clipper chip program would have seen the introduction of an encryption chip developed by the National Security Agency into all devices used for public communications, including phones and computers. The idea was that the decryption software would be stored by a third party, but made available to government agencies for "lawful purposes." The Clipper chip, however, was out to pasture by 1996 following outcries by privacy advocates and private industry.
Under CEO Darl McBride, SCO filed lawsuits claiming ownership over Unix and, by extension, Linux. SCO said it inherited the rights to Unix/Linux through its purchase of The Santa Cruz Operation, and it forged ahead with a "bet the company strategy" that saw it take on heavyweights like IBM, Novell, and end users at DaimlerChrysler and Autozone. But a judge in 2007 ruled that Novell owned the copyrights to Unix. SCO filed for bankruptcy that same year, and McBride was terminated in 2009.
IBM placed Robert W. Moffat on leave following his arrest in October on a securities fraud charge stemming from his involvement in what authorities called the largest hedge fund insider trading scheme in Wall Street history. In March, Moffat pled guilty to leaking insider information to one of the Galleon-led ring's participants. Moffat oversaw IBM's $19 billion Systems and Technology group. His duties were assumed by IBM veteran Rodney Adkins.
The U.K. government's attempt to move to electronic health records in the mid-2000s got bogged down amid contractor conflicts and technology incompatibilities. Britain's government at one point warned that that the NHS's National Programme for IT would end up costing more than $55 billion--a whopping $26 billion over budget. The project continues to limp along.
On Jan. 7, 2009, Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju admitted falsifying the company's cash position by as much as $1 billion while overstating quarterly earnings and revenue by up to 28%. Raju tendered his resignation and has since been arrested and jailed. India's Satyam, since acquired by Tech Mahindra, is now dealing with fallout from investors and others who claim they were misled about the company's financial situation.
Henry Blodget was the poster boy for the dot.com meltdown. The former Merrill Lynch stock analyst was barred from Wall Street after it came to light that he publicly touted some stocks while privately trashing them in internal e-mails to colleagues. Blodget now publishes the tech blog The Business Insider.
One of the first Personal Digital Assistants, the Newton was introduced by Apple in 1993. Unfortunately for the device, and for then Apple CEO John Sculley, it was released prematurely. Newton's shaky handwriting technology was the butt of endless late-night jokes, and its poor performance was a major factor in Sculley's dismissal in 1995. In the ultimate kiss of death, Apple savior Steve Jobs once called the Newton and like devices "junk."
Sanjay Kumar stepped down from his positions as chairman and CEO of Computer Associates in April 2004 in the wake of a securities scandal at the software maker. Kumar ultimately pled guilty to accounting fraud charges, and is currently serving a 12-year sentence at a federal correctional center for his role in the book-cooking scheme.
Operating from a nondescript industrial park near Miami, Psystar in 2008 launched a line of low-cost Mac clones that set the blogosphere abuzz. The only problem was that the company did not have a license to sell the machines, and it was promptly sued by Apple. Psystar effectively ceased operations in December 2009.
Operating from a nondescript industrial park near Miami, Psystar in 2008 launched a line of low-cost Mac clones that set the blogosphere abuzz. The only problem was that the company did not have a license to sell the machines, and it was promptly sued by Apple. Psystar effectively ceased operations in December 2009.
Microsoft introduced the widely-hyped successor to Windows XP in January 2007, and things quickly went downhill from there. Consumers complained about a lack of driver support and intrusive security measures, and businesses shunned the new OS on concerns about incompatibility with older applications. Microsoft hurried Windows 7 out the door in October 2009 in hopes the market would forget about Vista as soon as possible.
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