The struggle for control of a Utah investment company started by former Novell Inc. executive Ray Noorda has hit the board of Tustin-based MTI Technology Corp.
Since March 10, MTI has lost a third of its nine-member board,all three directors have ties to Lindon, Utah-based Canopy Group Inc., the investment company started by former Novell chief executive Noorda.
Canopy is MTI’s biggest shareholder with 42% of the company. MTI sells data managment software from EMC Corp., which also is an investor.
Two of the MTI directors resigned on March 10. The third, Valerie Noorda Kreidel, Noorda’s daughter, shot herself on March 17, according to the Orange County Coroner.
Kreidel lived in Huntington Beach. Her funeral was Wednesday in Westminster.
MTI is “saddened by what happened,” said Chief Executive Thomas P. Raimondi. The company plans to keep its board at six members for now, he said.
“There’s no urgency to replace the members,” Raimondi said. “If we do so, it will be done so in orderly manner.”
The apparent suicide came days after a settlement of a bitter legal battle between Noorda’s family and former Canopy executives. They include Ralph Yarro and Darcy Mott, the two MTI directors who resigned a day before the settlement was reached.
Yarro served as Canopy’s chief executive until he was ousted in December. Mott was chief financial officer until then.
Their ouster was part of a battle for control of Canopy that pitted family versus the firm’s managers.
Noorda, one of Utah’s richest men valued at $500 million, is 80 and has Alzheimer’s.
The battle was the subject of a March 10 Wall Street Journal story and has been chronicled by the Daily Herald newspaper in Provo.
The ouster of Yarro, who once worked at Novell, and other executives prompted lawsuits between them and the Noorda family.
Yarro sued, charging that Noorda’s vote to fire him wasn’t understood by the ailing founder.
The Noorda family, led by Kreidel, took issue with stock options and bonuses awarded to Yarro and other Canopy executives.
The resignations of Yarro and Mott from MTI’s board were part of the settlment with the Noorda family.
Under the terms of the pact, Yarro, Mott and former corporate counsel Brent Christensen had to sever their ties to companies Canopy had invested in.
Yarro, Mott and Christensen got cash and Canopy’s 33% stake in SCO Group Inc., a Lindon maker of server software. Yarro is SCO’s chairman.
Kreidel, who left behind a husband, four daughters and a son, was elected an MTI director in 1994. She had worked as an analyst for Canopy.
Yarro was elected a director in 2000. Mott joined MTI’s board in 2002.
