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SUSE's ex-CEO ousted after greenlighting "risky deals"
New details uncovered about the abrupt departure of the Linux company's CEO earlier this year.
December 01, 2023
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On March 22nd of this year, the CEO of SUSE (Melissa di Donato) was unexpectedly announced to no longer be working for the Linux company -- effective that very day.

At the time, it seemed likely (but unconfirmed) that di Donato was fired from her position simply based on her less than stellar performance in the role.

  • She oversaw the IPO of SUSE on the German Stock Exchange, which had results which were "not great" at first.  Then it got worse.
  • As time went on, di Donato oversaw SUSE as it lost close to half of the company's valuation (eventually leading the majority shareholders to seek a de-listing of the company).
  • The CEO was so desperate for positive press, that SUSE paid multiple companies to give her fake awards.  Seriously.  That actually happened.

In the days following di Donato's ousting, confidential sources suggested to The Lunduke Journal that there was more to the story -- that there were significant, non-public reasons for her "immediate departure".  More than simply poor performance and cringe-worthy, self-awards.

Thanks to new reporting from Reuters, we might be gaining new insight into what those reasons might be.

Apparently, under di Donato, the SUSE Board felt it was necessary to create a new "Deal Desk" to research and authorize any sizable corporate deal -- to ensure that it was not a "high risk" deal for SUSE.  Even going so far as to issue a warning, to shareholders, about such potentially risky existing deals.

When a corporate Board establishes a new system to review "risky" deals made under specific leadership... that is a pretty strong indicator that "risky" deals were being made.

Where there's smoke... there's fire.

From the Reuters article:

"SUSE may enter into high-risk or commercially inappropriate deals if it does not exercise effective control over the Sales organization," it said in the report. The company noted that "'Commercial governance' is a newly identified risk this year" and a heatmap in the report ranked the risk as "possible" and its impact on the business as "high".

A warning to shareholders -- along with assurances the the company would be protected from future risky deals by the new "Deals Desk" -- was issued on January 19th.  The SUSE CEO was ousted, without notice, on March 22nd.

So what, exactly, happened in the 63 days between those two events?

It turns out... big, risky deals.  And those new deals did not get reviewed by that "Deal Desk".

"According to four documents reviewed by Reuters and two of the people with knowledge of the situation, Di Donato greenlighted the commercial terms of a roughly $1.4 million sale to South African utility Eskom in late January, bypassing the deal desk's scrutiny in order to speed the process, less than two weeks after SUSE told investors the desk would help to improve controls."

Reuters obtained internal SUSE emails that appear to corroborate this:

"On January 30,  after commercial terms of the Eskom deal had been agreed, a senior SUSE executive said in an email to other company officials that the terms had not been submitted to the deal desk.

 

In late February, an executive told colleagues in an email that the sale had not been scrutinized by the deal desk."

Then, a few weeks later, di Donato was -- without warning -- no longer the CEO of SUSE.  The departure was so abrupt and unplanned... that SUSE was left without a CEO over a month and a half.

At this point, things appear to be in damage control mode for SUSE -- with shareholders voting in November to de-list the company from the stock exchange and take SUSE private.  SUSE no longer being a publicly traded company will significantly reduce the requirements on what sort of information gets reported publicly... including, potentially, about specific, risky deals.

As for Melissa di Donato, she appears to have lawyered up.  When Reuters reached out to di Donato for comment... those comments were handled entirely by her attorneys.

What all of this means for the future of the world's longest running Linux company remains to be seen.

The Lunduke Journal has reached out to sources at SUSE for confirmation regarding some details of this report.

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September 08, 2025
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Lunduke Journal hit 9 million views in August
And still not taking a single penny from Big Tech.

Thanks to all of you, August was a truly spectacular month for The Lunduke Journal.

After everything was tallied up — audio podcast downloads, video views, and article views — all of you viewed (or listened to) my work over 9 million times last month.

I’m not sure if that’s a record or not — I’ll need to go over some of the past stats to be sure — but it definitely makes me smile.

It means that the real Tech News — the stories that most Tech Journalists refuse to tell — is getting out there. In a big way. No matter how much Big Tech wants some of these stories to go away.

Stats for August

Here’s some Lunduke Journal stats (because stats are fun):

  • 238 shows, so far, in 2025 (Jan 1st → Sep 8th, nearly one show per day).

  • Over 9 million views (or listens) during the last month (August) alone.

  • 131,817 free subscribers (not including audio podcast feeds).

  • 4,488 new free subscribers on the primary platforms.

  • $0.00 (zero) taken from any corporation (no sponsorships, no ad campaigns… not a penny).

9 Million “views”. In one month. Hot diggity!

You better believe I’ll be keeping a close eye on the stats this month to see if we get close to 10 Million. Because 10 Million is a nice, big round number.

And big, round numbers are fun.

No Sales in September

One other thing I wanted to mention: I’m hoping to do away with sales and discounts on Lunduke Journal subscriptions. Which means no sales during this month (September).

My hope is that, with the rapidly growing size of The Lunduke Journal’s audience, enough new subscriptions and donations will continue to roll in to keep this publication afloat… without sales. Because, let’s be honest, sales are kind of annoying, right?

The Lunduke Journal is unique in taking zero money from any company (while giving away nearly everything for free). Most Tech News outlets struggle to keep the lights on even with running paid ads (and paid articles) nearly non-stop.

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Once again, a huge thank you for every subscription and donation.

Truly, The Lunduke Journal would not be possible without all of you.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have another show to record… which is probably going to make another Tech company very grumpy.

I love my job.

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Fired Microsoft Employee Encouraged Corporate Sabotage
Leaked screenshots from a Microsoft whistleblower reveals efforts, by a "Worker Intifada" organizer, to disrupt Microsoft business and send spam propaganda email to thousands.

This last week, members of the Microsoft “Worker Intifada” claimed that some of their members were fired by Microsoft in an attempt to silence the speech of pro-Palestinian employees.

Thanks to an internal Microsoft whistleblower, we have gained additional insight into the real reasons at least one of the “Intifada” organizers was fired.

Including mass emailing thousands of Microsoft employees with anti-Microsoft messages, and building internal, corporate websites dedicated to disrupting company business. Over the course of months.

And, of course, we’ve got screenshots.

The Microsoft “Intifada”

The Microsoft’s “Worker Intifada” held a press conference, on August 28th, at the office of CAIR — a response to a Microsoft’s Media briefing held 2 days earlier.

The topic of both press events being the “Intifada” actions of the previous week — including vandalism, breaking and entering, and public demonstrations against Jewish people (with chants of “Go away, Jews!”).

A key topic being the firing of 4 Microsoft employees related to the “Intifada”.

One of those fired employees is Nisreen Jaradat, seen here speaking at the press conference at CAIR on August 28th:

 

Thanks to leaked Microsoft material, we can get a glimpse into the anti-Microsoft activity of Nisreen Jaradat… going back several months.

Anti-Microsoft Microsoft Employee

Nisreen created an internal website — on the Microsoft corporate Intranet — entitled “PledgeForPalestine”.

 

On that website, Nisreen encourages employees to take a pledge declaring that employees will “not support genocide”, specifically demanding that Microsoft no longer interact with Israel in any way.

It should be noted that, as of just a few days ago, this website was up within Microsoft.

Nisreen’s website also includes a list of ways where employees could sabotage internal corporate work.

 

Nisreen encouraged employees to:

  1. Refuse to work on support tickets that involve Israel (and sabotage any tickets worked on by others).

  2. Refuse to work with other employees on tasks which may involve Israel — or any Israeli Microsoft employees or customers.

In July, Nisreen sent internal Microsoft Teams messages to thousands of employees encouraging them to sign that anti-Israel and anti-Microsoft pledge.

 

But this wasn’t the first time Nisreen spammed Microsoft employees with pro-Palestinian propaganda.

Back in May of this year, Nisreen sent an email to over 8,000 Microsoft employees entitled “You can’t get rid of us.”

 

Within that email, she declared that her employers have “shown their true face, brutalizing, detaining, firing, pepper spraying, threatening and insulting workers and former workers protesting.”

Surprise, She Got Fired

Protesting your bosses and accusing them of “genocide” while encouraging thousands of other employees, in spam emails, to sabotage corporate work?

Now, think what you will about Microsoft… but I can’t imagine any company not firing someone who takes those actions internally.

In fact, I would suggest that it is wild that Microsoft put up with the actions of this “Intifada” organizer for so many months.


If you would like to be a Tech whistleblower — or would like to support the work of The Lunduke Journal — head to Lunduke.com. All of the information is there.

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