Carver Bought Out (Boston Acoustic Society May 1978)
The following appeared in Boston Acoustic Society May 1978 on page 10
http://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/pdf/bass/BASS-06-08-7805.pdf
Carver Bought Out
"The President of Phase Linear Corporation, Donald E. Prewett, announced April 6 that an out-of-court settlement had been reached in a lawsuit between Phase Linear Corporation, Robert W. Carver, former President of the Company, and all other parties. As a part of this settlement, Phase Linear Corporation has purchased Carver's minority interest in the Company, Carver has resigned as a director, and Carver's employment with the Company has been terminated.
Steven M. Johnston, Phase Linear Vice President and one of the original founders of the Company, will devote additional time to expansion of the new product development program. Prewett stated that the Company will continue to concentrate its efforts on the design and manufacture of stereo equipment." -- Press Release
Behind the Press Release
While President, Carver came under increasing criticism from other financial backers of Phase Linear. Apparently, they felt he devoted too much company expense and time to his private consulting contracts. They also accused Carver of inordinately delaying the introduction of its Series II products by insisting on certain design criteria.
A showdown was in order. The Board of Directors demoted Carver to engineer and appointed an acting President, Donald Prewett. Carver reacted by suing Phase Linear and the rest is history. Phase Linear and Carver settled. The company purchased Carver's remaining interest for $1.2M. Rumor has it that Carver plans to start all over again by introducing a line of products within a few months. Meanwhile Phase Linear plans to introduce a new series of six speakers to complement the PLL III, $1350, plus a digital, rack-mountable preamp-tuner. I hope their new speaker series sounds better than their Model III. In spite of what Julian Hirsch said, the PL III is not hi-fi.
Alvin Foster (Massachusetts)
