Bonum Certa Men Certa

Stephen Norris: Why SCO? And Why Now?

Further to our previous short coverage [1, 2] of the SCO-Stephen Norris affairs, consider the following new article.

But aside from that, I analyze it like this: Who benefits from this move? Aside from the privacy elements, whereby the SCO ship sinks in a private pond with no worry about piercing the corporate veil, since there is money in this plan to pay Novell and others, there is the avoidance of any antitrust worries Microsoft might conceivably face from airing of linen. But I think it's more about holding on to business. The military is switching to Linux. That's a huge loss to Microsoft, of course, but it's also a huge loss to companies that supply services and proprietary software applications to the military. Some folks might not like that the switch to Linux is happening. It will be worse for them if other government agencies and entities decide to follow the DOD's lead.

What to do? What to do? Maybe at least slow down the process by putting Linux under a legal cloud of uncertainty, at a minimum, at least for several more years, and/or under a financial burden, at best, should they prevail?

[...]

If Microsoft is behind the deal, though, I do think it raises legitimate antitrust concerns. Whether anyone will care, since it's all cloaked in IP claims, is another story. If I were Novell or IBM or any creditor, I'd very much want some proof that Stephen Norris Capital Partners really has $100 Milllion. I'd want the court to make them escrow it.


“Why would Stephen Norris invest (it later turned out to be a takeover)? Is it the infamy of Darl McBride that he wishes to inherit?”It may be too early to find compelling connections between Stephen Norris's investment and Microsoft. There is no court evidence as strong as was obtained to establish the connection between Microsoft and BayStar, which invested heavily in SCO.

Going by another train of thought and practicing simple logic, we must ask ourselves, why? And why now? When investigating the BBC's (and Microsoft's) motives with the Windows XP-only iPlayer we found ourselves asking similar questions. Who would benefit? Who is whose employer and what about employment history, affiliations, and obligations? The more we explored, the move evidence we found. There are too many questions the BBC is unable to answer.

Going back on topic, there is little or no reason for Stephen Norris to chuck so much money at a company which is worth so little, has too little to show in court, and owns money to quite a few parties which it had attacked. Why would Stephen Norris invest (it later turned out to be a takeover)? Is it the infamy of Darl McBride that he wishes to inherit? Even the Microsoft-affiliated Motley Fool asks some similar questions.

Assuming that the legal system hasn't gone entirely bonkers yet, the investment also sets Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) up to follow its lawsuit against SCO to its logical conclusion, after the IBM suit fizzles out. If I were Red Hat, I'd send Stephen Norris a thank-you note. Seriously, guys -- what were you thinking?


I will probably publish an article about this on Monday, but we lack concrete evidence that can even insinuate that Stephen Norris spoke to Microsoft (indirectly or indirectly). This seems like a BayStar 2.0 no matter how you look at it. We have counted at least 3 generations of legal attacks (by proxy) on Linux. Might this be another ingredient of this attack vector?

Recent Techrights' Posts

[Video] IBM Shakes Hands of Prince Mohammed bin Salman
handshake of loyalty
The SLAPPs From Microsofters Distract From Serious Copyright Infringement by Microsoft and Apparent Business Crimes
Aside from other issues, such as strangling women
 
Trolls With LLM Slop Are Disrupting Communications About Mass Layoffs at IBM
LLM slop to drown out the signal
Gemini Links 17/05/2025: Happier on Gemini and Manipulating Reddit
Links for the day
ComEd and Microsoft: A Mess of Spaghetti Held Together By Circus Clowns
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 16, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, May 16, 2025
Links 16/05/2025: Microsoft Sacks Pregnant Women, People Fired on Their Birthday; Adobe Censorship Failing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 16/05/2025: "Repairing Our Way out of Commodity Fetishism" and Pre-librebooted Computers
Links for the day
The Microsofters Have Just Shared Privileged Trial Data With Microsoft
There are serious ramifications for liability accountability as Microsoft salaries sponsor these SLAPPs
Enshittification is Everywhere: You Pay More, the Services Get Worse
"Enshittification" is a term coined by an online friend; I increasingly use this term to describe what's happening even outside the realm of technology (which it was adopted to describe)
Microsoft Reduces Office Space Ahead of More Waves of Mass Layoffs
"The Gerstnerisation of Microsoft"
Anti-Linux FUD Produced by Microsoft LLMs to Blame "Linux" for Microsoft's Own Failures
We call out some of the worst culprits
Gemini Links 16/05/2025: Hoking GPS, Grabovac, and Tanana
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 15, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 15, 2025
Microsoft WARN Notices Proliferate in the United States
From what we've seen, this wave was more than 3% (a lot more) and the next wave/s will be even bigger (possible as imminent as weeks from now), based on insider leaks
Links 15/05/2025: Google Betrays Publishers Again, Openwashing by Sysdig
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Still Respected by Many in the Libre Graphics Community
Richard Stallman and Professor Moglen never harmed anyone
If You Read Techrights, Then You Probably Want to Read Tux Machines as Well
That site is more active than this one
Gemini Links 15/05/2025: Forced Music in Publicly Accessible Space and ~silv is Online
Links for the day
Links 15/05/2025: KOSA Censorship (USA Becomes More Like KSA) and More National Cuts
Links for the day
Bing Might Shut Down - Just Like Skype Did - Some Time in the Coming Months/Years (Parts of It Already Shut Down)
they try to bring the losses under control
Your Real Ally Would Not Defend the Company of SLAPP and Strangling of Women
who's left to tell us what's true?
Breakdown of Microsoft Layoffs Shows It's About Cost, Not Performance or Hype (Like "AI")
MSN (Microsoft) reposted this with some unnecessary spin
The Lawyers Working for the Serial Strangler From Microsoft on SLAPPing Techrights Have Apparently Lost Their Voice
the moment we mentioned that their media lawyer is leaving they went all quiet in social control media
At IBM, Relocation Can be a Trick or a Trap (IBM Gets Rid of Staff Under the Guise of "Relo")
IBM is not being honest with employees
Microsoft Rumours: This Week's Scale of Layoffs "Higher Than Reported" and More Coming Soon ("A Lot More Severe" Than May's)
The "3%" figure is false
Slopwatch: Sloppy Brian, Brittany Slop, and General Observations
Creative people don't need slop; there's just nothing good about it, slop appeals to lazy people careless about quality
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Beyond Mass Layoffs at Microsoft: Entire Units Shut Down for Good
And it's far from over
Links 15/05/2025: Crikvenica, Analog Computer, and Slop 'Hallucinations'
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 14, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 14, 2025