Bonum Certa Men Certa

SCO, Stephen Norris, the Bush Family, and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Saud

George Walker Bush



Summary: A deeper investigation of the forces at play and routes of funding for SCO

BACK IN July, SCO was found in the midst of a major scandal which might not relate to its litigation against Linux but might as well do. We wrote about this in:



An investigative report from from Capital Madrid has just unraveled some more details and Groklaw has the translation.

If you are interested in the Pelican Equity litigation against Darl McBride and the gang, here's an article in Capital Madrid, a Spanish financial newsletter, that provides some background on the parties. If you don't read Spanish, you can use Google Translate. Here's the English translation.

The article particularly focuses on Robert Brazell's accomplishments, because one of his businesses is in the news in the Spanish language press, and it mentions that Steven Norris is "a friend of the Bushes and of Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Saud" ("amigo de los Bush y del príncipe saudí Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Saud").


It is worth remembering that Bill Gates is also a mate ("amigo") of Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Saud. We wrote about the role of Norris in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. And on goes Groklaw:

I always remember at the beginning of the saga a SCO executive, Chris Sontag, saying we shouldn't be surprised if the government submitted an amicus brief in the SCO v. IBM case. That implied to me that they expected an appeal, at least, at which point they thought the government would support them, allegedly because of concerns about terrorists using Linux. If you recall, one of SCO's allegations in its complaint is that IBM had violated export regulations. Mozilla actually inquired about that issue in connection with Firefox, by the way, and it seems SCO's dreams were misplaced. It received a letter stating Firefox does not violate export regulations, which likely will impact the IBM case. Of course, SCO executives have said a lot of things, so maybe that hope of an amicus brief was more a dream than not, and the administration has since changed, but then again, who knows? My job is just to let you know everything I find, and others can do the rest.


There's that connection again between "terrorists" and Free software. The previous post refuted this FUD which had come from CBS/CNET/ZDNet. Several weeks ago we showed that Microsoft is still trying to compare Free software to terrorism when in fact, the only real "terrorist" here (by definition) is Microsoft [1, 2, 3]. Jim Allchin, Microsoft's President of Platforms & Services Division at one time, was quoted as saying: "I'm an American; I believe in the American way, I worry if the government encourages open source, and I don't think we've done enough education of policymakers to understand the threat."

As market forces show, there is nothing more capitalist than robust Free software which is sold commercially, as opposed to a monoculture where people are forced to buy one particular brand and nothing else. As SJVN puts it after Red Hat's fantastic results, GNU/Linux is heading upward while Microsoft's income has been down sharply for two consecutive quarters (with more of the same likely to come).

Take Red Hat for example. In Red Hat's latest quarter, which ended on August 31st, the company reported higher than expected revenue and profits. "Profits minus one-time expenses and including a 4-cent per share tax benefit hit $39.4 million, or 20 cents per share, up more than 30 percent from 2008."

It's not just Red Hat though. Novell recently reported a much more typical quarter for a tech. company in 2009. That is to say Novell also had a poor quarter. Except for their Linux lines -- that was a different story. There, Novell saw its Linux revenue go up 22% from the same quarter last year.

Microsoft? Oh, they're still worth billions and billions, but "Microsoft revenue declined 17% and net income declined 29% year over year in the company's fiscal 2009 fourth quarter due to continued weakness in global sales of PCs and hardware servers." Funny, that didn't seem to bother the Linux companies.


In another new post from Groklaw, insight is offered into the cleaning up that SCO's new Trustee ought to make.

Here's what the Chapter 11 Trustee has been doing:
9. The Trustee has been diligently reviewing the Debtors' pending litigation and business operations and prospects. Indeed, the Trustee's recent appointment has not allowed for sufficient opportunity to review and evaluate fees incurred and sought in these cases. Moreover, the Trustee is evaluating the retainers received by professionals and any unused retainers available to certain professionals. The Trustee interposes this Reservation of Rights to request additional time to review and evaluate the reasonableness of the Fee Applications that have been filed. Absent a more fulsome review of the Fee Applications, the Trustee is unable to take a position on the reasonableness of the fees requested by the Fee Applications.

10. Accordingly, the Trustee files this Reservation of Rights to reserve all rights to object to interim and final allowance of the Fee Applications, if any, until the Trustee has completed the review process. Any failure by the Trustee to have filed or to file an Objection with respect to a Monthly or Interim Fee Application shall not serve as a waiver to the Trustee's right to object to the reasonableness of any Professional's fees on a final basis.


With closer inspection (by an outsider) of what SCO has been doing, more dirty secrets are likely to come out.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
 
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux 'Articles' From Linux-Hostile LLMs
It is almost always negative things and nobody can be held responsible for it except the charlatans prompting the LLMs
Links 05/04/2025: Fentanylware (TikTok) "Sale Looks Highly Imminent" (US), Stock Market Drowning in Panic
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/04/2025: Moving Plants, No to Smartwatches, RAID Hygiene
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 04, 2025
Techrights Has Dealt With More Potent SLAPPs Than Violent Microsofters Begging to Hide What They Did to Women
I became accustomed to SLAPPs
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025
Microsoft's Trouble in Africa and Asia
A new all-time high for GNU/Linux
Brett Wilson LLP Reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The saddest thing in all this is that law firms can maintain high standards shall they wish to
Links 03/04/2025: Tariff Pains and C.D.C. Cuts
Links for the day
StatCounter: Microsoft is Masking a Disaster, It's Way Behind DeepSeek Already and Interest in LLMs Has Waned
it turns out the money "raised" for "Open" "AI" may not even exist at all
Links 03/04/2025: SoftBank Money for Microsoft "Open" "AI" Probably Doesn't Even Exist, Wikimedia Foundation Blasts LLM Nuisance While Microsoft Admits Demand Has Shrunk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/04/2025: Patch Panel and Pictures
Links for the day
Islamic Republic of Iran: GNU/Linux at All-time High This Month, Windows Falls to 12%
Vista 10 is up this month despite being "end of life" (EoL) soon
Indonesia: All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux
What's noteworthy right now is the growth of GNU/Linux
statCounter Says GNU/Linux Usage is Up Again (Internationally)
some preliminary April data
Only on April 1st Can the Free Software Foundation Associate With Microsoft's Open Source Initiative (OSI)
We saw some pranks that day linking the FSF to Microsoft (e.g. "endorsing" Windows)
Confirmed in the Mainstream Media: A Lot of Microsoft "Workloads" Were Just LLM Slop (Helping to Fake Growth for Years, as Microsoft Had Paid "Open" "AI" to Become a "Client") and Demand is Rapidly Waning, Datacentres Canceled and/or Shut Down
Anything to facilitate further accounting fraud
Taiwan's Media Covers Closure of Microsoft's "AI" Lab, It's Time to Talk About the Gradual Death of Windows and Implosion of the "AI" Bubble
Earlier this week we showed that mostly Asian media had the 'nerve' to mention Microsoft silently shutting down its 'AI' lab
IBM Gets Rid of Kelly Chambliss as Mass Layoffs Reported in IBM Consulting, IBM Loses Key Contracts/Graft
IBM Consulting has been in disarray lately
More Gains for GNU/Linux, Based on Web Surveys
the Steam site shows rapid growth for "Linux" this month
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles, Not Even Written by Humans
Why aren't Web sites more vocal about this problem?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Links 03/04/2025: Apple Fined Over Secret Surveillance, "Elegant Writer For A More Civilized Age"
Links for the day