My point above is that Zenimax will claim that due to the issues surrounding the Oculus case Carmack failed the covenants required to collect his earn out.
EDIT - See updates to my comment, this is exactly right - Zenimax has stated that Carmack broke his covenants due to the battle vs. Oculus -=>
"ZeniMax’s stated basis for its failure to comply with the Convertible Promissory Note is a series of allegations regarding claimed violations of Mr. Carmack’s Employment Agreement and ZeniMax’s alleged intellectual property rights. Those allegations were recently put to trial in ZeniMax Media Inc. v. Oculus VR, LLC , Case No. 3:14-CV-01849-K (N.D. Tex.). Mr. Carmack was a Defendant in that case, and there was extensive testimony and evidence about the alleged conduct that ZeniMax now asserts as the basis for its current refusal to comply with its contracts."
I get that, but "- Carmack was enthralled with VR." and "two of Zenimax's board members are Cal Ripken, Jr. (hall of fame baseball player) and Robert S. Trump - brother to our current president." seem to have as much to do with this as what I had for lunch today. You're speculating in excruciating detail about Zenimax's legal strategy on the basis of...? I'm no lawyer, perhaps you are and have some greater insight into this that I'm missing.
The "fun facts" he listed re: the board members were just that - interesting tidbits (that I was personally intrigued to find out) but yes, not relevant to other aspects of the case.
The fact that "Carmack was enthralled with VR" is very much relevant to the story of why Carmack decided to spend so much effort (apparently using some Zenimax's resources according to the post) to work on technology that at the time wasn't immediately relevant to what Zenimax was doing.
My point above is that Zenimax will claim that due to the issues surrounding the Oculus case Carmack failed the covenants required to collect his earn out.
EDIT - See updates to my comment, this is exactly right - Zenimax has stated that Carmack broke his covenants due to the battle vs. Oculus -=>
"ZeniMax’s stated basis for its failure to comply with the Convertible Promissory Note is a series of allegations regarding claimed violations of Mr. Carmack’s Employment Agreement and ZeniMax’s alleged intellectual property rights. Those allegations were recently put to trial in ZeniMax Media Inc. v. Oculus VR, LLC , Case No. 3:14-CV-01849-K (N.D. Tex.). Mr. Carmack was a Defendant in that case, and there was extensive testimony and evidence about the alleged conduct that ZeniMax now asserts as the basis for its current refusal to comply with its contracts."
https://www.scribd.com/document/341420632/John-Carmack-vs-Ze...