TL;DR
- OSOM’s former Chief Privateness Officer has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the corporate, particularly concentrating on the actions of its founder and CEO, Jason Keats.
- The lawsuit, detailed in court docket information seen by Android Authority, asks the Delaware Court docket of Chancery to compel OSOM Merchandise, Inc. to grant the plaintiff entry to the corporate’s books and information.
- The previous CPO seeks these information to show that the corporate’s founder misused funds to pay for his racing passion and lavish life-style.
Again in 2017, a startup named Important launched the Important Cellphone, a tool that was celebrated for its design and long-term software program help however in any other case acquired blended evaluations and bought poorly. When Important shut down in early 2020, a lot of its former workers got here collectively to kind a brand new enterprise named OSOM Merchandise. After two product launches, it now seems that the corporate is in shambles, with a former government alleging that the founder has been misusing firm funds to pay for 2 Lamborghinis and his lavish life-style.
OSOM Merchandise rose from the ashes of Important in late 2020. Its founder and “Chief Hooligan,” Jason Keats, wished to construct one thing new with out the involvement (and related baggage) of Important’s earlier founder, Andy Rubin. The corporate employed a number of individuals who beforehand labored at Important, together with digital camera engineer Nick Franco, programmers Gary Anderson and Jean-Baptiste Théou, and advertising officer Wolfgang Muller.
OSOM, which the corporate says stands for “Out of Sight, Out of Thoughts,” acknowledged that certainly one of its targets was to create privacy-focused merchandise. To guide these efforts, the corporate employed Mary Stone Ross in early 2021 to be their “Chief Privateness Officer.”
In 2022, the corporate launched its first product: the Saga, an Android smartphone backed by the massive cryptocurrency and blockchain platform firm named Solana. It launched its second product, the OSOM Privateness Cable, in 2023 and seemingly held talks with Solana Cellular later that yr to create a successor to the Saga. Nonetheless, it appears that evidently not solely has the Solana Saga Two been canceled, however its whole smartphone enterprise could be over.
In a lawsuit docketed on Friday, August 30, 2024, within the Court docket of Chancery of the State of Delaware (C.A. No. 2024-0894-BWD), Mary Ross, who left the corporate in Could 2024 based on her LinkedIn, requested the court docket to compel OSOM Merchandise, Inc. to grant her entry to the corporate’s books and information. She filed this lawsuit in an try and show her many allegations of economic mismanagement by Jason Keats.
The allegations she highlights within the lawsuit, detailed in court docket information seen by Android Authority, are extremely damning if true. Shockingly, the lawsuit alleges, citing a number of conferences with the corporate’s Board and inner paperwork supplied by former CMO Muller, that Keats misused firm funds to buy two Lamborghinis, pay for his racing passion, pay for his racing accomplice’s wage, expense a number of first-class journey tickets, pay his mortgage, and extra. The go well with means that the corporate’s earlier Head of Finance might have resigned as a result of these practices and that the corporate’s substitute was introduced on board to course of funds for Keats’ private bills.
Allegedly, Keats tried to pivot the corporate in the direction of making an “AI-powered digital camera” as its subsequent product after the collapse of its smartphone plans. Earlier than this pivot, although, Keats allegedly tried to engineer a sale of OSOM Merchandise, Inc. to HP; the lawsuit claims that Keats stated HP would purchase OSOM for a sure sum, however the value stored dropping, and the deal by no means materialized. Based on the go well with, OSOM’s sources are allegedly depleted, and Keats has claimed the corporate now wants to boost further capital to proceed.
We reached out to Jason Keats for remark however didn’t hear again previous to the publication of this text. We additionally reached out to OSOM and acquired the next assertion:
“We’re conscious of the outlandish allegations by a former worker, and look ahead to disproving them in court docket.” – OSOM spokesperson.
If the allegations introduced up within the lawsuit are true, then it might counsel that OSOM as an organization is in main hassle. Not solely do the allegations counsel that its smartphone enterprise is over, however in addition they counsel the corporate is suffering from monetary troubles which can be the direct results of actions allegedly taken by its personal founder. Although OSOM says these allegations are “outlandish,” we’ll have to attend for the corporate’s official rebuttal in court docket to see its counter-evidence.
