Harold Hughes did not dis John Dowd directly

Lore of the Ramboids is that Rambus Inc. CEO, Harold Hughes, was disrespectful of shareholder John Dowd - telling him to buy Coca-Cola - at the 2006 annual shareholder meeting. Pyres have been erected for Hughes in effigy. Any Donkey has been none too polite on the topic and repeating the lore on more than one ocassion, most recently here.

sdhawgman, post #92817 on the IV Rambus board, posted "I'm not happy with HH either but this is a FALSE STATEMENT. HH said to go buy coke if you don't like options in a prepared statement before John Dowd even stood and spoke..."

Accuracy is important at Treowth. Any Donkey went to work and in short, sdhawgman appears to be correct - HH made his infamous "buy Coca-Cola" statement pre-JD (John Dowd).

Sources:

Edlee provided Any Donkey with a link to a transcript of the 2006 annual shareholder meeting hosted at Rambus.org.

Mr. Dowd told Any Donkey (HH) "phrased it as a general response to any and all that would question the ESO largesse."

Any Donkey e-mailed Nicole at Rambus.com and requested a link to the web cast. No response - but I note that it has only be a day.

Thus, Any Donkey apologizes to Harold Hughes for inaccurately blogging, posting and otherwise believing that Mr. Hughes directly disrespected John Dowd.

But Any Donkey - not buts. Period. I apologize Mr. Hughes, I apologize.

So, my opinion on stock options -- I guess I'd have to say, and I don't mean to be flip by this. I mean to be very very honest. Stock options will remain a part of running this company. I don't know how to run it without them. I do not know how to run it without them, but if you believe fervently that we shouldn't have them, sell the stock. Buy Coca-Cola. I don't know what you should buy, but sell the stock. We need stock options to run this company.

Ah ha! I guess we're really looking forward to the question and answer session, aren't we?