A shocking news has been published on several italian newspapers, a couple of days ago. In an interview, a person named Federico Musto claimed to have been elected as the new CEO of Arduino, keeping the place that Massimo Banzi had hold until now. Federico Musto stated that the move has been done in an effort to give to Arduino new forces and new directions to fight the competitors that day by day begin to be more aggressives, eroding market shares. The Arduino will reinforce its presence in markets like USA, China, and Japan that have seen a little reduction of the penetration of Arduino in the last months. Massimo Banzi will have starting by now the role of evangelizer and front man that goes round the world to spread the Arduino word while Musto should care the Arduino business. In the same time, a new website has appeared on internet, Arduino.org, that lists older and newer Arduino boards. This site belongs to Arduino Srl, a company based in a little town near Ivrea, Turin.
So, that’s all? Absolutely no! Massimo Banzi, the day after, has denied every single word from Musto, saying that he spoke about Arduino with no title because the only company that holds the rights on the Arduino brand is Arduino SA, founded by Banzi and based in Switzerland. Moreover, Banzi claims that Arduino Srl was formerly known as Smart Projects Srl, the company that builds the Arduino boards, and that the company renamed in Arduino Srl without asking to Arduino SA the rights to use the Arduino name. Finally, Banzi states that the official site of the Arduino company is Arduino.cc.
The story isn’t finished yet. Musto claims the next day that his company Arduino Srl is the only one that has the rights to use the Arduino brand.
Now, the worst part of the whole history. Arduino Srl/Smart Projects Srl belongs to Gianluca Martino, one of the co-founders of Arduino. So, two (ex) friends and co-founders of one of the more beautiful italian tech companies of the last years are about to move the lawyers against each other. Banzi and Martino, two souls separated by frictions that look so incurable.We only have to wait for the next progress, with a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth.
