Technology cowboyism: Fail
The embattled SCO Group Inc. is proposing to auction off its core products and use proceeds to continue its controversial lawsuits over the alleged violations of its copyrights in Linux open-source software.
The Lindon company has filed a new reorganization plan with the federal court in Delaware where it sought bankruptcy protection from creditors after an adverse ruling in the Linux litigation.
If approved by a bankruptcy judge, the plan could mean SCO's server software and mobile products lines are owned by other parties while SCO itself remained largely to pursue the lawsuits under the leadership of CEO Darl McBride.
"One goal of this approach is to separate the legal defense of its intellectual property from its core product business," McBride said in a letter to customers, partners and shareholders.
Jeff Hunsaker, president and COO of The SCO Group, said the litigation had been distracting to the company's efforts to market its products.
Nevertheless, on March 6th 2003 The SCO Group filed a $1 billion lawsuit in the United States against IBM for allegedly “devaluing” its version of the UNIX operating system. The damages were later increased to $3b and subsequently further revised to $5b.
It's garbage time now for SCO. Those of you who follow basketball know exactly what I mean. This is when the winning team, Linux, and its chief champions in the SCO lawsuits. Novell and IBM, can send in the reserves from the end of the bench. SCO's lawsuits are smashed to bits.
As the clock ever so slowly winds down, SCO is now dumping what was once its heart, its Unix OpenServer and UnixWare business, and its newer mobile software, to continue its forlorn lawsuits. SCO has filed a new reorganization plan with the federal bankruptcy court in Delaware on January 8th.
It's amazing that after losing pretty much every aspect of this campaign from the very beginning, that folks at SCO still think it's worth pursuing.
The Lindon company has filed a new reorganization plan with the federal court in Delaware where it sought bankruptcy protection from creditors after an adverse ruling in the Linux litigation. If approved by a bankruptcy judge, the plan could mean SCO's server software and mobile products lines are owned by other parties while SCO itself remained largely to pursue the lawsuits under the leadership of CEO Darl McBride.
Please. The company is “distracted” because its leadership is focused on the wrong thing. Like a Slashdot post on the news suggested, SCO should “know when to fold ‘em.” Let it go, and get on with business.
If SCO’s assets are not sold, SCO will continue to sell OpenServer and its mobile products in what Hunsaker called a “bootstrap plan.” This would require SCO to reduce operating costs and increase pricing for certain products.
SCO was originally due to file its Chapter 11 reorganization plan at the end of 2008, but the company requested an extension, asking for a deadline of Jan. 16. Hunsaker attributed this to SCO needing a few extra days to work through the disclosure statements and reorganization plan.
The company has been embroiled in litigation for almost five years. It has sued IBM, AutoZone and Novell and been sued by Red Hat. In August, SCO lost its legal case against Novell and ended up facing a potentially $40 million summary judgment. SCO has appealed the ruling and sought bankruptcy protection. SCO has considerably cut down on the amount owed to Novell since filing bankruptcy, and claims it will win on appeal.
Lindon, Utah-based The SCO Group, the Unix software provider which has been battling the Linux operating system community and such companies as IBM and Novell over source code, said Monday that it has filed a formal Reorganization Plan and plans to conduct a public auction of the firm's last remaining product operations to fund the company.
Seeking to stave off final defeat, SCO has brought a (fourth) new reorganization plan to bankruptcy court. The company has proposed an asset sale to raise funds for paying off the rest of its debts and implementing a new business plan.
Novell and Sun Microsystems are the two big open source players on the list, and I've made the point before that these companies' market capitalizations are barely above the amount of cash they have which could definitely make them acquisition targets. They could be bought simply to shut parts of them down. However, I agree with ChannelInsider's rebuttal that Microsoft has a pronounced vested interest in keeping Novell around, if for no other reason than to slow down Red Hat's growth. That could be a big factor in any attempt to acquire Novell.