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Canopy Group
The Canopy Group is an American investment and property management firm founded by Ray Noorda in 1995 through the Noorda Family Trust. It is headquartered in Lindon, Utah. At various times it has consisted of, or been known as, Canopy Technologies, Canopy Properties, and Canopy Ventures.
The Canopy Group served as the parent company of various start-up technology companies. It was one of the first venture capital firms in the Utah area and, investing in over a hundred such companies, became a pioneer in the Utah high-technology space. One of the most well-known companies it invested in was The SCO Group. Canopy divested itself of SCO in 2005 with the settlement of the Yarro case.
In 2011, Canopy's technology venture arm was purchased by Signal Peak Ventures. Today, Canopy provides real estate and rental space to high-tech companies.
As its chief executive during the 1980s and early 1990s, Ray Noorda had taken the software company Novell to a dominant position in the network operating system space and in so doing became a personal computer industry pioneer. As a result, Noorda had a reported worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The origins of the Canopy Group date to 1992, when Noorda created NFT Ventures as an arm of the Noorda Family Trust. NFT Ventures invested in a number of firms and helped to guide them. Through NFT Ventures and other means, Noorda had invested in several dozen start-up firms overall by 1995. In part, Noorda was interested in the venture capital business as a way to increase the funds that he could donate to Noorda Family Trust charities, but he was also interested in making his home state of Utah a place where entrepreneurs could thrive.
Noorda retired from Novell in 1994. In 1995, The Canopy Group was founded as a venture capital firm. (Some sources place the founding of the Canopy Group as having happened in 1992, but this may be a reference to the predecessor origins.) Venture capitalists were relatively uncommon at the time in Utah, for reasons both geographic and cultural.
Some of Noorda's investments were in technologies or strategies that he thought Novell should be involved in but was not, or were in companies whose products supported Novell's products or vice versa. These companies included Coresoft Technologies, KeyLabs Inc., Vinca Corp., and Helius Inc. Another early Canopy Group investment was Nombas, which unlike the others was located in the eastern portion of the country. In addition the ups and downs of Novell's fortunes led to executives or projects departing it and new companies being formed, some of which Canopy funded.
Subsequently the Canopy Group shifted its Novell-specific focus to one that was more geared towards open source software and network infrastructure projects in general. Noorda had an early interest in the potential of Linux and Canopy financed Caldera, Inc. starting in 1995. He subsequently financed several other Linux-related companies as well, such as Lineo and Linux Networx. Noorda and Canopy would still maintain an interest in some Novell affairs, however: in March 1998 the group's webpage indicated that the Novell Family Trust's 7.37 percent of Novell shares would be voted to withhold approval from most of the Novell board of directors running for re-election.
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Canopy Group
The Canopy Group is an American investment and property management firm founded by Ray Noorda in 1995 through the Noorda Family Trust. It is headquartered in Lindon, Utah. At various times it has consisted of, or been known as, Canopy Technologies, Canopy Properties, and Canopy Ventures.
The Canopy Group served as the parent company of various start-up technology companies. It was one of the first venture capital firms in the Utah area and, investing in over a hundred such companies, became a pioneer in the Utah high-technology space. One of the most well-known companies it invested in was The SCO Group. Canopy divested itself of SCO in 2005 with the settlement of the Yarro case.
In 2011, Canopy's technology venture arm was purchased by Signal Peak Ventures. Today, Canopy provides real estate and rental space to high-tech companies.
As its chief executive during the 1980s and early 1990s, Ray Noorda had taken the software company Novell to a dominant position in the network operating system space and in so doing became a personal computer industry pioneer. As a result, Noorda had a reported worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The origins of the Canopy Group date to 1992, when Noorda created NFT Ventures as an arm of the Noorda Family Trust. NFT Ventures invested in a number of firms and helped to guide them. Through NFT Ventures and other means, Noorda had invested in several dozen start-up firms overall by 1995. In part, Noorda was interested in the venture capital business as a way to increase the funds that he could donate to Noorda Family Trust charities, but he was also interested in making his home state of Utah a place where entrepreneurs could thrive.
Noorda retired from Novell in 1994. In 1995, The Canopy Group was founded as a venture capital firm. (Some sources place the founding of the Canopy Group as having happened in 1992, but this may be a reference to the predecessor origins.) Venture capitalists were relatively uncommon at the time in Utah, for reasons both geographic and cultural.
Some of Noorda's investments were in technologies or strategies that he thought Novell should be involved in but was not, or were in companies whose products supported Novell's products or vice versa. These companies included Coresoft Technologies, KeyLabs Inc., Vinca Corp., and Helius Inc. Another early Canopy Group investment was Nombas, which unlike the others was located in the eastern portion of the country. In addition the ups and downs of Novell's fortunes led to executives or projects departing it and new companies being formed, some of which Canopy funded.
Subsequently the Canopy Group shifted its Novell-specific focus to one that was more geared towards open source software and network infrastructure projects in general. Noorda had an early interest in the potential of Linux and Canopy financed Caldera, Inc. starting in 1995. He subsequently financed several other Linux-related companies as well, such as Lineo and Linux Networx. Noorda and Canopy would still maintain an interest in some Novell affairs, however: in March 1998 the group's webpage indicated that the Novell Family Trust's 7.37 percent of Novell shares would be voted to withhold approval from most of the Novell board of directors running for re-election.