In a news release, Sequoia announces that its sale from Smartmatic to a management owned investment group now “creates 100% American-owned and independent company.”
“The investment group, led by Sequoia President & CEO Jack Blaine and company Chief Financial Officer Peter McManemy, purchased Sequoia from former parent company Smartmatic Corporation for an undisclosed sum. As with most transactions involving two private entities, the specific terms of the sale are not being disclosed. However, this transaction does include investment by the management team, a small loan and an earn-out. This scenario provides an excellent financial structure for Sequoia to leverage and completely eliminates Smartmatic’s ownership, control and operational rights of any kind in Sequoia,” according to the release.
“On December 22, 2006, Smartmatic Corporation announced the company’s intention to sell Sequoia Voting Systems. At that time, Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica stated, ‘Sequoia’s customer base has grown substantially and its revenues have increased four-fold. However, given the current climate of the United States marketplace with so much public debate over foreign ownership of firms in an area that is viewed as critical U.S. infrastructure – election technology – we feel it is in both companies’ best interests to move forward as separate entities with separate ownership. As part of this process, we plan to sell our Sequoia Voting Systems ownership.'”
2. U.S. VOTING TECHNOLOGY LEADER SEQUOIA VOTING SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES NEW CORPORATE OWNERSHIP
Source:
1. www.smartmatic.com/smartmatic-announces-the-sale-of-its-subsidiary-sequoia-
2. www.sequoiavote.com/pressText.php?pressIn=41
1. Why did “Smartmatic and its lawyers” work to “encourage” this arrangement?
2. If Sequoia did eliminate the malicious code, which company or other independent entity certifies that the source code had really changed?
3. Does the announced structure of this deal appear to be a way for the Smartmatic corporation to avoid CFIUS review, while ensuring that its software remains in the “100 percent American” Sequoia systems?
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