SCO Group files for bankruptcy protection
This posting has been updated with comment from legal foes, the Linux Foundation and The SCO Group as well as with SCO financial information.
Three and a half years after launching a high-profile legal attack on Linux, The SCO Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The Lindon, Utah-based company long has maintained that it had enough money to fight its costly lawsuits against IBM, Novell, Red Hat (which sued SCO proactively), AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler. But on Friday, a month after losing on a crucial legal ruling, the company admitted a grimmer picture.
"The Board of Directors of The SCO Group have unanimously determined that Chapter 11 reorganization is in the best long-term interest of SCO and its subsidiaries, as well as its customers, shareholders and employees," the company said in a statement. Added Chief Executive Darl McBride, "We want to assure our customers and partners that they can continue to rely on SCO products, support and services for their business-critical operations."
Chapter 11 protects a company's assets from creditors during a reorganization.
IBM didn't comment, but Novell said it is evaluating its options. "U.S. bankruptcy law automatically stays the court case. We're assessing our options for how to pursue our interests," Novell said. A court case was scheduled to begin Monday to determine how much SCO owed Novell as a result of last month's ruling, according to Groklaw, a site that's closely monitored the case.
All of SCO's court cases now are on hold, a company representative said.
SCO has a complicated history. It went public as Linux seller Caldera Systems, then acquired the Unix business from the Santa Cruz Operation and renamed itself The SCO Group. It then scrapped its Linux business and sued IBM and others, alleging that Big Blue violated its Unix contract by moving proprietary Unix technology into open-source Linux.However, the company's legal case was dealt a crushing blow in August, when the federal judge overseeing its case, Dale Kimball, concluded "that Novell is the owner of the Unix and UnixWare copyrights."
In the meantime, SCO has been trying to enliven its ever-shrinking business, selling its UnixWare software, and to expand into the mobile-device software market.
In June, SCO reported a loss of $1.1 million for the quarter ended April 30 on revenue of $6 million, a decline from $7.1 million in the year-earlier quarter. Legal costs that quarter totaled $1.1 million, a major decrease from $3.8 million the year before.
Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, couldn't resist a dig at The SCO Group.
"If they had built their business on Linux instead of trying to attack it, they might be enjoying success like Red Hat instead of filing for bankruptcy protection," he said in a statement. "It's always unfortunate for customers when a company fails like this. But anyone could have seen this coming when they went down the misguided litigious route they did."
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
IS
A
GOD!
AND HE/SHE/IT IS GREAT!
/P
When do the multitude of outrageously false statements by McBride & Co. catch up to them? It seems from the facts that shareholders have a great cause for suit. Even worse, false statements that inflate your stock price could constitute fraud.
MSFT: go ahead - try it... you're next ;)
/P
(shamelessly ripped off from The Dead Milkmen's "Stuart", from the album "Beelzebubba".)
You know what, Laura DiDio? I LIKE YOU! You're not like the other people, here, in the Lindon trailer park!
Oh, nonono, don't go get me wrong. They're fine people, they're good Americans. But they're content to sit back, fire up their Windows XP boxes and surf a little Internet on AOL, maybe chat a little on MSN. They're good, fine people, Stuart. But they don't know ... what the penguins are doing to our code! [http://...|http://...]
You know that Johnny Werzner kid - the kid who ports apps in the neighborhood? He's a fine kid. Some of the neighbors say he smokes crack, but I don't believe it. Anyway, for his 10th birthday, all he wanted was a Sourceforge page. "Dad, get me a Sourceforge account. I'll never ask for anything else as long as I live". So the guy breaks down and set him up with a Sourceforge page.
Anyway, 10:30, the other night, I go over next door, and there's the Werzner kid, looking up something on the 'net. I say, "What are you looking for?" He says "I'm looking for the source code to add to this new app."
I said, "Jumping Jesus on a Pogo Stick! Everybody knows the source code is proprietary! Under NDA! In a vault! Why the hell do you think they call it 'source code' anyway!?"
Now Laura, do you think a kid like that is going to know what the penguins are doing to the code!? I first became aware of this about ten years ago, the summer my oldest boy, Darl Jr. died. You know that trade show comes into town every year? Well this year IBM came through with a Demo called The Parser. The man said, "Keep your links, and dependencies, inside The Parser at all times!" But not Darl Jr - he was a DAAAREDEVIL, just like his old man! He was banging out code, saying "Hey everybody, Look at me! Look at me!" POW! He was decapitated! They found his head over by the Microsoft .NET concession! A few days after that, I open up the mail - and there's a pamphlet in there - from Pueblo, Colorado ! And it's addressed to Darl Jr. And it's entitled: "Do you know what the penguins are doing to our code!?"
Now, Laura! If you look at the soil around any large US city where there's a large underground kernel hacker population. Portland, Oregon - perfect example. Look at the soil around Portland, Stuart... You can't build on it; you can't grow anything in it. The government says it's due to poor farming. But I know what's really going on, Laura. I know it's the penguins! They're in it with the aliens! They're building landing strips for code-stealing Penguins! I swear to God!
You know what, Laura DiDio? I like you! You're not like the other people, here in the Lindon trailer park...
(only slightly modified from the original:
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2003-08-26-007-26-OP-BZ-LL-0002
)
Cheers!
/P
This isn't the last we've heard of this show since MS has more hands to stick up the buns of potential puppets...
*cough*ISO*cough*
"eComStation 2.0 RC2"
"This version of eComStation 2.0 is the second Release Candidate, no big changes or additions will be added before the GA version"
http://www.ecomstation.com/ecomstation20.phtml?url=nls/en/content/version2_rc2.html&title=eComStation%202.0%20RC2%20info
Party Until All The Ice Melts!
Because even your boss, monkey boy Ballmer can't show any evidence.
MS thought it could keep its hands clean and just fund SCO. Novell handed SCO its ass.
If MS wants to go down this same road they are welcome. The result of such a foolish move would be the total(or near enough) invalidation of all the BS patents that MS has.
Their rep is worse then Microsoft's, they have nothing of value to sell. They will likely be forced into chapter 7.
Hopefully, McBride and his cohorts end up in jail for everything they have done. Especially because he allowed the suit to be filed, even though he knew that SCO had no case before they filed it.
I guess he thought no one would notice that the contract explicitly stated that copyrights were not being transferred. He also apparently thought that no one would notice that no paperwork was ever filed to transfer the copyrights. Then of course is the hilarious episode where SCO asked Novell to transfer the copyrights a few years ago, yes the same ones that SCO claims were transfered in 1995.
This case is the most amusing courtroom show in history.
A realistic outcome for this is that Novell will buy them out using the claim to seize whatever remains of any Unix IP.
- Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of fellas
- by Mergatroid Mania September 16, 2007 1:15 PM PDT
- Serves then right.
- Reply to this comment
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- You Stole my TITLE!
- by umbrae September 17, 2007 6:53 AM PDT
- :)
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(52 Comments)Bunch of pompous *****.
Perfect.