This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In an apparent corporate coup, longtime Canopy Group chief executive Ralph Yarro and his chief financial officer, Darcy Mott, have been ousted from their positions with the technology incubator.
Secretaries at Canopy's Lindon headquarters confirmed that Yarro and Mott were no longer with the company, and that William Mustard, most recently a managing director at Smooth Engine, a New York-based consulting firm, had replaced Yarro as CEO. Mott's replacement has not yet been named.
Further questions were referred directly to Mustard, who did not immediately return several calls seeking comment.
Messages left at the home telephones of Yarro and Mott also went unanswered.
Sources within the Canopy corporate family reported that Mustard has been meeting this week with management of Canopy's numerous high-tech subsidiaries including Darl McBride, CEO of the controversial SCO Group.
Yarro is chairman and Mott and member of the board at SCO, which has gained infamy for its multi-billion-dollar federal lawsuit against IBM over rights to the Unix and Linux operating systems. SCO claims IBM, and others, have helped distribute proprietary Unix code within recent versions of the freely distributed Linux.
SCO spokesman Blake Stowell said today that he has no details of Yarro's and Mott's ouster, which apparently took place over the weekend, but that as far as he knew both men remained on SCO's board.
Coincidentally, SCO has scheduled a teleconference for 3 p.m. Mountain time to detail its fourth quarter and 2004 fiscal year earnings results.