SCO to buy back common stock

The SCO Group's board of directors has authorized the company to repurchase as many as 1.5 million shares of common stock--more than 10 percent of the 14.4 million shares of common stock outstanding. The Lindon, Utah-based company has seen its share price rise dramatically since it embarked in 2003 on an aggressive legal attack against Linux and an attempt to profit on the success of the open-source operating system. The stock has risen from $1.69 a year ago to $9.25 now, though it's dropped from a high of more than twice that in September.

"This action reflects our strong belief in the fundamental value of our intellectual property and core business," SCO Chairman Ralph Yarro, who also leads SCO investor Canopy Group, said in a statement. "We believe we will have sufficient capital resources to undertake this buyback program and continue to pursue our strategic initiatives."