Ed Kramer And Dragon*Con... Together No More

[filkertom]

For those who've been wondering when, or if, Dragon*Con would ever separate itself from its controversial co-founder, Ed Kramer... done and done.

Now Kramer can go to, bluntly, whatever merciful oblivion may have him, and the rest of us can get on with the damn con.

This entry was originally posted at http://filkertom.dreamwidth.org/1630188.html.

Comments

[bayushisan]

Good for them. Maybe I can finally get there sometime now, and feel better about doing so.

[alverant]

For those of us who are out of date in the who's who of fandom, can someone please explain what the big deal is? I'm extra curious because the type of language Tom has for Kramer is usually reserved for right wing talking heads and other human monsters.

[scifantasy]

Kramer's an accused child molester who has been delaying his trial for more than ten years...likely due in no small part to how much money his shares of the D*C parent corporation, of which he owned 34%, have been generating.

[alverant]

Thanks. And I thought DucKon had problems with egos and personality conflicts. At least none of them are accused criminals. What's Kramer's plan, to delay the trial for so long that everyone forgets what happened?

[shockwave77598]

It has worked for ten years. Why change a working model?

I'm all for innocent until proven guilty. But I don't believe that assumption of innocence is as strong for people who deliberately avoid going to court by needing a tank of air for this and a mental truss for that. His doing everything under the sun to stave off his trial makes him appear guilty as a cat in the goldfish bowl. And while not enough to justify what happened to him (the police and inmates beat the shit out of him), I'd say the suspicion -- amplified by his avoidance tactics -- are enough to ban him from places where many "targets of opportunity" can be found. Like conventions...

[shockwave77598]

About time.

though Kramer did have one positive effect -- he taught us all that the way to get away with a crime was to simple be "too sick to go to court."

[randwolf]

The amount of money involved was probably some years income from Dragoncon. So his name is off the convention, but chances are they're still paying him.

(Edited to remove some weasel words.)

[bonzoid]

Not so much. In a "cash out" merger, the minority shareholder who is cashed out either accepts the merger and gets paid immediately or dissents and then disputes the amount of the cash out. Either way, the defunct company pays the money into the court or to the minority shareholder. That money is gone.

If the surviving company has credit, they could certainly borrow to make the payment but either way they money is gone.

[randwolf]

So paying Kramer, say, five years of his Dragoncon revenue to cash him out is different from keeping on the board for another five years, how? That's a lot of money to pay to get him to go away. And it's more than enough for him to keep on dragging out his case in court.

All of this falls if the money is substantially less than I am guessing. But, really, why would Kramer cash out for less?

[bonzoid]

That's correct, sort of.

In a cash out merger, the minority shareholder is paid based on his or her ownership portion of the company.

It's not something the minority shareholder can stop, at least under Georgia law. However, Kramer *is* removed - it's a done deal, he is out, has no more shareholder rights or connections to the surviving company.

But, yes, Kramer got a lump sum. Obviously not as big a lump as he wished.

This fact seems to be lost or has been suppressed by a great many people. It seems that emotionally people are much happier that he's gone even if he got a lump sum. They feel that they can now attend the convention with their moral conscience equipment giving them the big thumbs up.

except, maybe not

[desert_dragon42]

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/kramer-will-no-longer-profit-from-dragon-con-conve/nYgsd/

McNeill Stokes, who has represented Kramer in lawsuits against DragonCon/ACE, called the merger a “discriminatory squeeze-out” and said the cash offered for Kramer’s shares was “grossly inadequate.”
Stokes said he expects a legal challenge.