Slashdot Mirror
Baystar Confirms Microsoft Behind SCO Investment
Bruce Perens writes "Business Week has confirmed that Microsoft arranged the Baystar investment in SCO. A managing partner of Baystar says the call wasn't from Gates or Ballmer. But it wouldn't have to be, would it? Obviously, there's more investigation to do." Reader skreuzer writes "Yahoo Finance is reporting that SCO announced that the company's board of directors has authorized management, in its discretion, to purchase up to 1.5 million shares of SCO's common stock over the next 24 months. SCO has approximately 14.4 million shares of common stock issued and outstanding. Any repurchased shares will be held as treasury stock and will be available for general corporate purposes." Newsforge (which is also part of OSDN) is also following the story.
Golly gee, I wonder what they're trying to hide? Anyone?
A managing partner of Baystar says the call wasn't from Gates or Ballmer. But it wouldn't have to be, would it?
Nope, it would not have to be a "tip-top" person, just has to be a Principal or someone with delegated authority from a company officer to be valid. This is not anything uncommon at all.
Yahoo Finance is reporting that SCO announced that the company's board of directors has authorized management, in its discretion, to purchase up to 1.5 million shares of SCO's common stock over the next 24 months. SCO has approximately 14.4 million shares of common stock issued and outstanding. Any repurchased shares will be held as treasury stock and will be available for general corporate purposes.
This is nothing new, odd, illegal, unethical or strange either. It is a common business practice of publicly traded firms.
Now, the underlying story is where the problem sits, not with the scenery.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Anyone still denying that FUD isn't an instituted marketing practice of Microsoft, even after being convicted of monopolist practices, can now bow their head in shame.
Business Week is in no way a Linux Zealot and even they confirm that Microsoft enjoys competing on a level far removed from technical innovation.
What was to happen at the end of these shenanigans? Once the lawsuit is over, where does SCO expect to get it's money? It's not like Microsoft will continue to invest in them once this crap is over.
And does this come out of the MS advertising budget? Any advertising against our competitors is good PR? There is no way MS could re-coup anything from this other than FUD points. Where's the incentive to profit?
...but rumours abound on Wall Street, that Lucifer, LLC, may secretly be behind the entire arrangement. "We can't confirm it", said one source who wished to remain very anonymous, "but we know that with soul trading trending upward, it can only be that Lucifer, LLC is on a buying streak." He continued, cautiously, "It seems, though, that the souls Lucifer is getting aren't of the highest quality."
Ironically, a spokesperson for Lucifer, LLC, could be reached, and did indeed comment. "Oh, yes, we're snatching up all the souls we can. There's only two companies in this space right now, and being half of them, we're trying to beat out Heavenly Productions, LP. If they hadn't sunk so much capital into, and gotten so much great PR from that new movie, we might have been able to grab several more souls during the deal. We're betting, though, that soon enough, there will be promises that need to be kept, and then executives of 'certain companies' will be ready to sign their souls over."
When pressed, the spokesperson would divulge nothing further about the companies, except that one of them was in a desert\, and the other in a dreary woodland area. "All I can say is that it doesn't seem to bother these execs, since they seem to have chosen areas much like our [Patent Pending] HELL world."
Heavenly LP, privately held, had no comments. Lucifer LLC was up slightly on the day.
libertarianswag.com
if only microsoft would invest that time and money into their security initiative.
Is there any potential for a counter-suit here? This really seems like unfair behavior on Microsoft's stifle competition via a proxy corporation who'll do their dirty work for them. I hope someone can mount a counter-suit on behalf of the Linux community, and somehow defeat the MSFT legal juggernaut.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
"LIAR! LIAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" -- Carol Kane, The Princess Bride
While I understand that this isn't illegal as such, isn't it an SEC violation?
El riesgo vive siempre!
(Have you watched their stock making a run at zero over the course of the week?)
The Flatlander
The evil empire will stop at nothing until it achieves world domination. But, unlike SCO, the do not want to get their hands dirty - they want to appear as the benevolent kingdom...But would stop at nothing to hire professional (or in SCO's case - unprofessional) hit men to rid the world of the evil competition...
Oh well, move along - nothing to see here..
But at least we didnt have to wait until 3:56 PM for our SCO fix..
= Grow a brain...
it just didn't add up that darl would make all that fuss without some sort of corporate backbone. now we know
it's all a corporate powerplay. ms and sco need to get over themselves and get back to the task at hand. computing.
For a split second, I read that title as if one of those fammous trolls came true.
;)
Oh well, one can only hope
With Bush in office, you don't have to worry about the communists keeping microsoft from making money.
Mr. Goldfarb is trying to look like an honest man while distancing himself and Baystar from MS and SCO. He readily admits that "senior executives" from MS phoned him but won't name names. He's scared. Leaked documents and an unmanagable conspiracy of silence are forcing him to admit to snippets of truth which paint him and the firm in the best possible light.
Trolling is a art,
Microsoft bailed out Apple, and now they are keeping SCO afloat!
Darl is the kind of guy who would buy hot coffee at McDonald's, spill it on himself, and sue saying it was McDonald's fault.
I don't understand. SCO, crappy dying company, takes millions-to-one shot on a huge payoff (or was praying for IBM to settle). Retarded but plausible. But why would Microsoft want to back such a chancy scheme? Bad publicity when the case fails must more than make up for the FUD they've managed to spread.
#define struct union
It seems obvious that SCO's announcement to buy back shares is just another way to raise their stock. But I doubt that many potential investors will trust this announcement - it is very unspecific with such a two year time span. At least during the version trading hour today, the stock didn't exactly jump too high up.
I hope they finally get nailed on this one. I knew that insider trading would never stick because 1) they sold off a bunch of stock, but the price has only gone up so it wasn't a "sell before it drops" ploy ala Martha Stewart. 2) It was easy enough to say they were low on cash and sold the stock to get equity. Now this whole scandle seems a lot more viable. Let the witch hunt begin!
SCO.com uses Linux
There is a common misconception out there that stock price directly affects a company... it does not.
If I purchase a milliion shares of SCO on the open market, SCO does not see a PENNY of that money. The only time SCO sees money from the sale of stock is when SCO issues NEW stock into the market.
So.. if the stock price goes up, it's good for a company, in that they can issue more stock, and get more capital without giving away such a large piece of the pie.
However, microsoft buying a million shares of SCO would not by itself fund sco at all.... unless they bought those shares FROM SCO, which it doesn't sound like they are doing.
It has been long speculated on here that Microsoft was bankrolling SCO. Now with proof, lets hope that this MS/SCO FUD about the Linux source is seen for what it is by the corporations and most of all the courts.
Like I said before.
"Can there be a Klein bottle that is an efficient and effective beer pitcher?"
Paul Allen is an investor of Vulcan Capital, and they invest in Baystar. There's your connection.
So, Microsoft doesn't harbor some deep respect for intellectual property, nor does it have any geek-to-geek respect for a fellow hacker like Linux. It's all about sleaze, sleaze, sleaze.
.. I get the same 'nefarious ties' feeling that I do reading about one of Scientology's front groups, eg Narconon etc.
(Score:-1, Flamebait)
by Gannoc (210256) on Thursday March 11, @10:59AM (#8532136)
With Bush in office, you don't have to worry about the communists keeping microsoft from making money.
This isn't flamebait, it is bitter, pessimistic political commentary. I have plenty of Karma to burn...
A SCO article. So almost all the replies will be lame SCO/Linux jokes.
check out this article
SCO sues GOD
A friend will come and bail you out of jail, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "damn that was fun!"
They claim it's a good deal for them to invest in
themselves, but is it normal for a company with
seriously dwindling revenue streams to "invest" in
their own stocks? No! So waht purpose could this serve?
They can buy stocks at low market value now and later
sell to a "private investor" at highly inflated prices
with the "investor" saying it's a good deal based upon
Deutche Bank's long term prediction of $45 value and
thus re-fund the SCOG legal war chest.
People who commit crimes don't expect to get caught, or they wouldn't do it.
Companies that want to appear ethical do not commit unethical acts expecting to get caught.
Do you think 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows would blast Bush ads expecting it to be found out that Theresa Heinz backs them? They should have used another outlet. Things like this happen all the time.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
There is gathering evidence that wearing it may be the right thing to do after all
Take a seat and watch the trailer of the upcoming movie starring famous M$,SCO,Groklaw and others on:
:-)
www.bravegnuworld.org
Sums it up pretty nice
Someone linked to this on Groklaw a few days ago. Anyone who's played Steve Jackson's "Illuminati" will get a kick out of it: SCO/Illuminati
(Im really just procrastinating - I have an essay on how opium was used to incorporate china into Western economic and political domination due today that I dont want to finish!)
spend money here
SCO painted their stock with quite a few shares starting at 3:55 PM yesterday. Call up a chart on SCO and look very carefully at the last few minutes. The line continues on it's downward pace then all of a sudden *bang* shoots up a few points.
THAT my friends is desparation! To explain their obvious fooling around they came up with some sort of stock buyback scheme today hoping that no one will notice their tinkering.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
I remember a while back a chain email for Microsoft promising me a free SCO license for my reply and every email I could forward. Seemed a little strange at the time.
SCO! SCO! SCO!
yikes almighty. no wonder the rest of the wwworld is distancing itself from US? besides all the greed/fear/ego based murdering/stealing, we also appear to be stupid?
so now it's va.gov.mob.fud? ticker symbull vapr?
But why would microsoft recommending SCO be a useful thing to baystar? Microsoft supposedly has no financial dealing with baystar so there's not "favor" to be granted here. And Microsoft obviously had a vested interest in giving the advice and I'm sure baystar was smart enough to see through that--so the advice would have no tangible use.
KEY point: The most benign explanation is that they were merely bringing it to baystars attention and presumbaly did so to many other companies. The key test is then: did they or did they not call hundreds of other speculative investment houses in hopes of convincing one with this long shot advice?
If they did not do so with many other companies then why did they think they had any standing to cold call baystar and give tainted advice? If they just called baystar alone then its very fishy. they must have promised other tangibles. Such as investing in companies baystar recommended back or promising cash influxes and supprt for the lawsuit.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Google language tools and Babel Fish both say:
"sofort"
Of course, this is probably 100% WRONG!
The ability to run Linux without Linux!
/linux directory.
(http://www.sco.com/products/lkp/faq.html)
Linux Kernel Personality FAQ
For UnixWare 7
What is the Linux Kernel Personality?
The Linux Kernel Personality (LKP) is a feature of the UnixWare 7 operating system which enables the installation and the direct, native execution of Linux(R) applications. The primary attributes of LKP are:
Exploit the power and scalability of the UnixWare kernel to run Llinux applications. the Linux Kernel Personality contains most of the RPMs required to execute native Linus applications, but it does not include a Linux kernel.
Applications compatibility: Linux applications install and run without modification. UnixWare 7 customers now have a powerful tool to assist in the migration from Linux to UnixWare.
UnixWare 7 feature availability: Linux applications can benefit from the features and options available for UnixWare including a journaling file system, RAID support, and increased scalability, security and reliability.
Versatility: Users can dynamically choose either environment, Linux or UnixWare 7 or mix both, as needed.
Didn't SCO suspend its Linux product line?
Yes. The Linux products were suspended due to intellectual property issues associated with Linux. The LkP feature doesn't contain a Linux kernel, and therefore to the best of our knowledge, there should be no infringement issues. If the prior statement were proven inaccurate, SCO would take appropriate steps. In the meantime, the LKP feature is available to assist customer migration from Linux.
Why is The SCO Group(R) doing this?
SCO recognizes that many customers want to migrate away from Linux, but can't afford to disrupt their day to day operations, nor can they afford the engineering resources to port and test the Linux applications in a UnixWare environment. The Linux Kernel Personality addresses all of these concerns. Native Linux applications runs unchanged on UnixWare, which provides the following benefits to the customer:
Customers can asses using UnixWare in their environment without making costly application program changes.
Customers who want to migrate to UnixWare, but some of the source code for critical applications they need to continue to run is no longer available.
Customers are considering migration to UnixWare but are concerned about the risk of changing both the operating system and the application at the same time.
Does LKP emulate a Linux application environment, much like lxrun?
No, LKP is not a Linux environment emulator. An LKP installation includes the Linux application environment running on a UnixWare kernel. Unlike the LxRun environment, LKP doesn't contain an emulation layer.
How can I install Linux applications? Do I have all the tools?
Yes, you can install Linux applications. Linux libraries and system tools, including the rpm installer, the shell utilities, and the configuration files, are provided in UnixWare 7. The UnixWare 7 installation loads the entire (former) Caldera OpenLinux Server system, with the exception of the Linux kernel.
How is Linux compatibility provided?
LKP is a standard feature ofUnixWare 7. LKP and the necessary OpenLinux RPMs are part of the basic media kit.
Do I get a full Linux distribution with UnixWare 7?
LKP does not provide a Linux kernel. With the exception of the Linux kernel, however, the entire Linux distribution is installed in a
Is the use of Linux applications transparent?
Yes. Linux ELF binaries are treated as first class executable programs. The Linux process coexists with other UNIX processes and shares the system equally. You run with Linux shells and desktops and use familiar Linux tools and utilities. The system keeps track of your environment for you, so that Linux and UNIX functions and utilities do not collide.
How can I access the Linux environment from UnixWare 7?
Run
What's cool about this is that any involvement with Microsoft, no matter how compelling
it may seem in the beginning, is the kiss of death for the other company that gets involved
in a "deal" with Microsoft. They can't help it. Win-Lose is the only outcome that's acceptable to M$.
How this works out to Linux users is unknown, but SCO's fate is sealed:
Ignominy, disgrace, failure, collapse.
"So, SCO's claims against IBM (and the rest of the world) have turned out to be legit?"
:)
"No... I just saved a sh!tload of money by switching to Geico!"
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
"backbone" say you, troll?
So Darl Vader *isn't* the spineless bastard he's been made out to be?
me confused.
1. SCO Group must buy back shares from certain investors because of their stock price and the looming failure to file the PIPE registration.
2. This is an excellent way for Canopy to liquidate its holdings in SCO Group.
The average investor won't make a dime, and will likely be left holding the bag on this one.
The call wasn't directly from Gates or Ballmer?
So what?! That's like saying a Sgt in the Marines actions in Iraq weren't directly ordered by Bush or Cheney. It's what we call in the military the chain of command or maybe the commander's intent. In other words, the commander lets his troops know what he wants done and how much freedom they have accomplishing this goal.
I believe Gates and Ballmer knew what was going on.
This guy is way out there
Watch the trailer of the upcoming movie starring famous M$,SCO,Groklaw and others on: www.bravegnuworld.org Sums it up pretty nicely :-)
Want me to sue your ass for slander of title!?
STFU!
They got them much needed *cash* (over $80 million) from different sources so that SCO could stay alive longer and continue its fights against Linux.
No, it's correct.
also possible: unverzuglich
I think it is more of a preemptive reaction to the SEC investigation rumours. So that later they could say that they genuinely believed in this, otherwise why would they plan to buy 1.5 million shares.
buy hot coffee at McDonald's
I think you are misinformed about that lawsuit.
McDonald's knew people were burning themselves, and they continued to heat their coffee to extremes just short of boiling.
They provided a "to go" cup that would collapse from the pressure if you tried to lift the cup full of coffee with your hand.
To mitigate that they provided an equally flimsy lid that would support the shape of the cup.
It was the kind of lid where you peel some of it back to be able to sip the coffee.
The woman that was burned did this while seated in her automobile. The lid collapsed and fell off the cup when she peeled it back. Then the cup collapsed in her hand. Then the near boiling coffee spilled out onto her lap, and gave her second degree burns on her labia and genital area.
The executives at McDonalds knew this was happening and didn't change their policies on the serving of coffee.
mefus
In Open Society, GPL Software frees YOU!
Mr. Goldfarb is trying to look like an honest man while distancing himself and Baystar from MS and SCO.
Ascribing motivations. Somebody wants something. The somebody is always powerful, and the motivation is always malevolent.
He readily admits that "senior executives" from MS phoned him but won't name names.
Withholding information equals concealment. It could, in fact, simply be for privacy reasons, but the paranoiac assumes that something is being hidden.
He's scared.
Projection. Self-explanatory.
Leaked documents and an unmanagable conspiracy of silence are forcing him to admit to snippets of truth which paint him and the firm in the best possible light. Persistent belief in conspiracy. Essentially, there is a conspiracy unless proven otherwise; and evidence to the contrary would just serve as further proof of evidence planted for the cover-up, wouldn't it?
If MS backs SCO (and knowing them, they'll buy it out), this is what we can expect to see about two years later:
* Welcome to Microsoft UNIX System VI, running the Windows XP Kernel *
exchange-pos: ls
exchange-pos does not recognize that command
exchange-pos has segfaulted. Core dump in progress.
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
Good day,
Apart from the fact that SCO seems to have any case at all, the SCO situation brings up a potential situation where IP infringement really occured. Perhaps it even occured in their case as well but we'll never know for sure because of all the BS they created.
What would happen if a company that doesn't release its code in the open source domain, gets parts of its source added to an open source project. For example, by an open source oriented employee? A number of reactions from the company would be possible, mostly to try to limit the damages to its business model.
Such reactions could include:
-Getting the infringing code removed and hope it hasn't spread everywhere; and/or
-Suing the project, the employee, any user for damages; and/or
-Taking it and moving on
I imagine that option 2 would attract a lot of ire from the slashdot crowd.
Here, we have a clear case of Microsoft eliminating competition by having it bought out for them. If they tried, they'd be subject to an investigation, but getting it bought by a controlled third-party avoids this.
Personally, I think this should be considered grounds for hold-out States to challange the current settlement and demand tougher penalties. It would be hard for a judge to deem this takeover as innocent.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Microsoft is desperate. They want to "attack Linux at all costs and on all fronts". Their own FUD schemes have not been working well. So they got desperate and pulled this SCO stunt. For a while it seemed to be working. But in the end it may backfire in a big way.
It would be interesting to find a shareholder of baystar that opposes the SCO investment, and get them to sue baystar for an investment that is a conflict of interest and not in the best interest of that fund.
baystar is making investments based on outside concerns and not the fidicuciary interests of their shareholders.
thank you BOTH
OK, am I missing something or is this a non-story?
(Yes, I think that something slimy is actually happening...though evidence of it would be good!)
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
SCO had done enough merits in slashdot to win its own specific (i.e. no caldera, when they had that name not were so deep in the dark side) logo, section, faq entry, exceptions in slash code and even users-optional tagline pack.
Even when they lose their lawsuit (that seems less inminent than when all of this started) and the company is closed, buried and sold even the chairs and the pencils of it, still will be for years news about sco and their directors here (i.e. Darl McBride raped in prison, or even die in poverty, from the remember-when-we-roared dept.).
Anyway, this story is more about Microsoft than about SCO, but well, Microsoft had the merits since the start of Slashdot and if there was nothing done about them yet, maybe never will.
"But why would Microsoft want to back such a chancy scheme? Bad publicity when the case fails must more than make up for the FUD they've managed to spread."
Because they face no real consequences? They've never had to pay any reasonable penalty for their behavior. Giving away free copies of MS products?!? That's a marketing expense, for cryin' out loud! "Allowing" hardware resellers to add something to the desktop? Oooooh! The pain! Make it stop!
So what, exactly, does MS have to lose with even such a bizarre scheme as this?
According to the Newsforge article, Baystar specifically confirms that Vulcan does not invest in Baystar.
Of course, the same article indicates that Baystar refuses to staight that there are some MS or MS people investing in BayStar.
Small businesses create most jobs (A Small Business Administration study found that nearly 77 percent of the 6.9 million jobs created from 1990 to 1995 were created by small businesses).
Open source software lowers capital barriers to market entry.
Proprietary software vendors will not create jobs for Americans:
So the OSS community should bring out its own heavy artillery, and just RELENTLESSLY hammer home the point that, ON THE WHOLE, OSS expedites job creation, MSFT et al. do not.
That is a message that will RESONATE, and hence make it politically untenable to allow MSFT et al. to practice such underhandedness with impunity...
IMHO :-)
Frank Ruscica 3/6/04; 3:40:29 PM
Frank, the problem is, that argument doesn't wash completely. Look at Greg Reinacker. He created a new company around Microsoft technology. And he's getting paid for it.
Most people don't understand how Linux creates jobs when it's given away for free.
Especially when they are getting fired from their jobs cause WalMart wants their products for less than it costs them to produce them.
Robert Scoble 3/6/04; 3:53:10 PM
Robert,
I lost you there...
Let's follow the money: if a small company uses LAMP technologies, the money it saves will go toward growing the business -- and hence, will generate jobs (that's how Linux creates jobs when it's given away for free). If the company buys licenses from a BigCo, the above-cited Reuters article tells us the money will not generate jobs for Americans.
My takeaway, then, is: whenever a small company can substitute OSS for proprietary software, the American job market benefits.
If Greg Reinacker is building atop MSFT technology for which no OSS substitute exists, he does not embody a true counterargument.
If he is building atop MSFT technology for which an OSS substitute does exist, he is hurting the U.S. job market...
Where Wal-Mart fits into this, I have no idea...
Frank Ruscica 3/6/04; 7:18:54 PM
Frank: that's a good theory. But, if a company can't afford Windows licenses, don't you think it's likely to offshore its labor too?
Microsoft money does create jobs. 5000 in the past year alone (mine was among them).
Also, the argument is that you can get the same done with open source software that you can with stuff you pay for. Really? I didn't know that GIMP is as good as Photoshop. I don't know any print shop that accepts files from an open-source version of Illustrator. There's tons of things that you simply can't do with open source. Also, if you're a small company you probably can't afford a Linux geek to be on staff. When I helped run a camera store, I surely couldn't afford a geek on staff.
Most of the cost of software is NOT in the acquisition of it. If it were, your argument might have some merit.
Robert Scoble 3/7/04; 3:04:23 AM
Robert,
You wrote:
>Also, the argument is that you can get the
>same done with open source software that you
>can with stuff you pay for.
Incorrect. I wrote:
"My takeaway, then, is: whenever a small company can substitute OSS for proprietary software, the American job market benefits."
Also, to be clear, by 'substitute' I implicitly mean(t): replace at You wrote:
>if a company can't afford Windows licenses,
>don't you think it's likely to offshore its
>labor too?
From the standpoint of making a data-driven determination, of course all we have to go on here is historical precedent. But the log
They can't. The typical Slashdotter is intelligent in a geek sense (knows a lot of obscure technical things), but not an exceptionally good critical thinker. Most are politically naive, and don't understand that a false claim remains false whether you see it on one, ten, or 1000 websites.
Why the stock buyback...
Once there are significant amounts of short sellers vs the float, the stock price becomes essentially manipulated by the short sellers. IE, the very action chases away buyers, which forces the stock down, which causes the market makers to start selling and lowering the price to attract buyers to the shares that the shorts are selling etc etc, until the stock price is run into the ground...
One way to short circuit that kind of activity, is to create some sort of floor in the price. A company can do this, by becoming a buyer of thier own stock at a given price. By providing buying action, the shorts are not rewarded, they stop selling the stock, and the behavior of the stock normalizes.
There is no gaurantee this will work. Though it generally works most of the time, but it can be a war of attrition. Similar things happen with national banks and the currency market. And sometimes the banks lose after spending BILLIONS attempting to keep it from happening (Argentina, Mexico, Thailand, just to name a few).
The above poster is totally correct. Here is a link to the PDF file from Baystar's own website. On page 3 of this there is a chart showing the top ten investors in Baystar. Number one on this chart is Vulcan Ventures which has 1.8 billion dollars invested in Baystar!!!!
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
They announce a stock repurchase plan just as their stocks begins to tumble. This might prop up their stock price, but not for long, and it won't do anything either to deter an SEC investigation or, in the bigger picture, hold up the house of cards that is the SCO lawsuit.
E.g.: Hey Baystar, go invest in this loser trog company to fight our battles, and when we need to do some investment banking transaction or investment, we'll make sure you can get a sweet part of the deal with a really big commission.
Or, Steve and Bill said they'd put alot of money in your hedge funds if you work on this little problem of ours.
Nothing written of course.
it doesn't take too much imagination to think of plenty of reasons.
Canopy owns part of TrollTech, but the employees own much of it too.
If Canopy goes out of business, the TrollTech shares from Canopy would be given to the liquidators of Canopy, if I've understood it. For TrollTech, it would be a change of ownership, not a bankruptcy.
He says Microsoft didn't put any money into BayStar or the SCO investment. A Microsoft spokesman says that the company has no "direct or indirect" financial relations with BayStar, but declined to comment when asked whether execs called BayStar to suggest investing in SCO.
Okay, so Microsoft didn't actually put any money into it, they simply called Baystar and told them investing would be a good idea? That's a pretty thin rope to hang someone by.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
It's all a conspiracy! By the aliens!
Microsoft will buy SCO
It all makes sense now. Microsoft is going to buy SCO if they win the lawsuit. By purchasing SCO they will suddenly get rights to the IP in Linux and can either sell it or shut it down and they have the money and legal department to do it.
OMG. It is so clear. GO Microsoft. I am surprised I never saw this before.
I know, I know: OSS == jobs... I wrote the subject header in two installments, and at first I wasn't trying to shorthand via code syntax...
You do not fight the wind, you learn to sail.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Help me understand this....
You manage a fund that has $400 million available for investment. Microsoft does not put any money in your fund. Senior executives from Microsoft call you up and say "Please put $50 million into this company called SCO."
I'm sorry, but why did the fund's managers do what they did? It doesn't add up. You do not just invest 1/8 of your available capital because some guy calls you up and says, "hey, please do this."
"The market alone cannot provide sufficient constraints on corporation's penchant to cause harm." -- Joel Bakan
See lilmissmolly0, before she is buried under a flood of stock manipulator noise:
http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?b
This one sort of tells the story - there was an ask of $9,000.00 on SCOX yesterday close and a bid of $0.01 - definitely interesting times for the SCOX management.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SCOX&t=5d&l=on&
I am very easy to get along with, but I don't have time to waste being nice to people who are being stupid. -Theo
all of the other major companies investing (janus, Warburg, Putnam, wellington, citadel) are just brokerage houses and are not going to be activist partners just passive investors. Thus microsoft and its senior advisor paul allen are in the driver's seat at this company
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Didn't the US Army just give cease and desist
orders to MS for giving out free Office suites
to the men and women in service?
Talking about a violation of ethics no matter how you label it.
his /etc/fstab probably is (like mine):
/mnt/windows vfat user,noexec,noauto 1 1
...
/dev/hdb1
...
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
This is a repost from the Yahoo SCOX board. Apparently, there is a clause in the PIPE deal agreement that says SCO cannot buyback shares, but they can buyback employee shares.
So, unless we are about to see another SEC document modifying the PIPE deal, then this 1.5 million announcement is either BS to prop the stock price or SCO is about to reward a bunch of insiders:
Restrictions on the A1 Pfd
by: thwackamole 03/11/04 11:49 am
Msg: 108276 of 108282
Going along with a previous poster's comments, it appears (to me) that the indenture on the A1 preferred stock prohibits them from buying back shares in excess of those issued for employee stock options.
Otherwise they could ship all of BayStar's money to Canopy.
So this buyback is basically a non-event.
So long as any shares of Series A-1 Preferred Stock are outstanding, the Corporation shall not take any of the following corporate actions (whether by merger, consolidation or otherwise) without first obtaining the approval (by vote or written consent, as provided by the DGCL) of the Majority Holders:
(v) redeem, repurchase or otherwise acquire, or declare or pay any cash dividend or distribution on, any Junior Securities. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Corporation shall, without the prior approval of the Majority Holders, be entitled to repurchase Junior Securities from employees of the Corporation in connection with employee compensation plans approved by the
Corporation's Board of Directors;
I doubt it's Paul Allen.
If (and I stress if) the senior management in question was Paul Allen, he should be going to jail. Wall Street does not take pump and dump schemes lightly and that's exactly what this is; except in this case SCO is the proxy, rather than the principle in a zero-sum game.
MS political contributions aside, the SEC is the least likely federal agencies to bend to political pressure because their credibility is what keeps the market in check. Pissing them off is not a good move. It wouldn't have been Paul Allen, his lawyers couldn't possibly be that stupid.
From the Newsgorge article:
This will allow SCO to repurchase its shares from time to time in accordance with the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission on the open market, in block trades and in privately negotiated transactions, depending on market conditions and other factors, the company said.
Does this mean SCO can buy the stock options from McBride and others without having to go through the publicly traded market? Would this be a way for the execs and other higher-ups to hide their dumping of stock? In a private trade, couldn't SCO pay *more* than market value if they wanted to?
. 62,400 repetitions make one truth -- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Maybe some intesting stuff in the text of that Baystar report, but this isn't it. Lemme cut & paste from the heading above the graph you cite: "Top Ten Investors All PIPES since 1995." Now I'll go back to reading the pdf, to see if there's anything of real interest there...
Baystar, a wolf in sheeps clothing.
Actually I am f***ing sick of hearing about SCO.
Seems like a foolish move by M$ actually - they just make the whole thing seem even more farcical.
Still though, I don't know much about the U.S except that money talks so who know, maybe the future IS bright for the lowly SCO, and their pack..
If I "suggest" to someone that they invest in something that I have no finantial interest in (SCO), that "suggestion" does not create a finantial interest. At this time.
I speculate that M$ "suggested" to BayStar that sometime in the future, perhaps, maybe, the software giant might possibly make some kind of investment in BayStar, of course totally unrelated to any investments BayStar might have made in SCO, hint-hint-wink-wink...
What's funny is that a few months ago when all us paranoid tin-foil hat folks where saying M$ had their fingers all over this, people said "go back in your basement, way too much illuminati, blaw, blaw, blaw..."
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
If Microsoft invested $50 million in SCO, that would make sense. $50 million can buy tham a lot of anti-Linux FUD. But what does Baystar gain? When SCO loses their absurd lawsuits and disappears, so does Baystar's 50 million.
The article confirms unamed executives approched them, and did not confirm they were acting on behalf of the company.
Just the facts please
is that they are saying that the ONLY way IBM could get their work on AIX to work in Linux was by copying UNIX code (theirs) into Linux.
However, surely we have here the case where IBM/FSF can say "SCO have said that the only way to port stuff is to copy - they must have copied Linux code into their UNIXWare product!".
Or something like that, anyhow.
Anyone think that maybe Microsoft has 42,000+ linux machines somewhere they needed to license?
TruePunk | Games
Microsoft is just hoping to bring back XENIX and open up a can o' whoop-ass on Linux.
It's the operating system used on the South Park Anal Probes. But dont worry its Open Sores and FreeWear
Any moderators care to go back to my old posts and mod them up, since I was right? I kept getting "conspiracy theory nutjob" responses.... I KNEW I was right.
SCO didn't have the money to fight IBM, only 4-5 companys in the world do...
l8,
AC
1) Try to revoke licenses of AIX, Dynix, etc.
2) Scare other companies out of contributing to Linux (Sun, HP, etc.)
3) Spread FUD about Linux amongst users.
To you it's evil corporate behaviour. To Microsoft, it's marketing. They fscked with all the competing servers at once.
WWJD? JWRTFM.
Just to be clear, my reply was intended to the "Holy smoking gun" post, wherein the poster misunderstood the chart. That said, I'll bet there'll be plenty of smoking guns to go around (but watch out for Darl's, one as ill as he shouldn't be issued a firearms permit) before this whole sordid affair is over.
"Destroy Linux, and the only current threat to the Microsoft monopoly is gone" is untrue. Try BSD, it's great, and free.
But BSD is dying.
Those are the burns where the skin blackens and peels back from the bone.
I'd say she deserved a break that day.
- jon
Ganymede, a GPL'ed metadirectory for UNIX
BayStart operator: Hello, BayStart Capital, How my I direct your call?
Caller: Yeah. Dis is Mario. I wanna talk to da boss. Now!
Baystar operator: One minute please.
Goldfahnder: Hello. Goldfahnder here.
Caller: Is dis da Boss o' BayStart?
Goldfahnder: Excuse me?
Caller: Are you da Boss of BaySta?
Goldfahnder: Oh. Yes, my name is Lawrence Goldfahnder and I am the managing director of BayStart Capital. What can I do for you?
Caller: Yeah. Dis is Mario, I'm a friend of Bill, see. And Bill told me that youze guys gotta send some money over to SCO. Got that?
Goldfahnder: What? Who is this?
Caller: I told you already, Mario... A friend of Bill's. Ya don't get it, do ya? Bill says that you gotta give money to SCO.. or else! Got that? Or do I gotta come over and stick your head down the toilet an' clean your ears?
Goldfahnder (somewhat surprized): Ahm, erm. Are you suggesting that we should invest some money in SCO?
Caller: Yeah. Jez, for a smart guy like you, you sure are dumb. You could call it investment.. or whatever. Just send over money... a lotta money... now.
Goldfahnder (shakily): Yes, Mr. Mario. I'll see that it gets done, right away.
Caller: That's more like it. You do that, and don't make me come over and visit you... click.
---- It won't be as bad as you fear or as good as you hope, but it will take twice as long as you plan.
When Linux is toast, MS buys all the patents, then sets the price so high, nobody will be able to afford using it. They can then harrass the other Nix's out of business. This will only work if there is a friendly administration/DoJ in office, and it appears that might end with the Nov elections.
I'm a little freaked out that the conspiracy theories we came up with at the beginning of this whole thing might actually be true.
I picked up this little tidbit from Thwackamole on the SCO Yahoo Forum
So long as any shares of Series A-1 Preferred Stock are outstanding, the Corporation shall not take any of the following corporate actions (whether by merger, consolidation or otherwise) without first obtaining the approval (by vote or written consent, as provided by the DGCL) of the Majority Holders:
(v) redeem, repurchase or otherwise acquire, or declare or pay any cash dividend or distribution on, any Junior Securities. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Corporation shall, without the prior approval of the Majority Holders, be entitled to repurchase Junior Securities from employees of the Corporation in connection with employee compensation plans approved by the
Corporation's Board of Directors.
What the heck does that mean? basically without a majority vote they can't buyback stock from anyone except employee's..
Hmm that would be people like the CEO and other senior executives??
To put it another way they just gave executives a 13 million dollar payday.
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
That won't happen during Bush administration, for sure.
Gee, then we just have to wait 9 months, and hope our fears about voting-machine fraud are overrated...
"My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."
This is it. I'm installing Linux.
There's just this much evil you can tolerate being a part of. If I was a Microsoft employee, I'd be organising a mass-quit list.
I hope this is never forgotten.
Now if Longhorn were based around Unix as OS X is, then Microsoft could stand to gain from the brutal slaughter of Linux. Microsoft would obviously be the migration path for Unix on x86 short of IBM or some other vendor making a new big push into the x86 Unix space.
But as it is, the only possible advantage to Microsoft is the FUD factor which has the potential to put off migrations to Linux while Microsoft finishes up Longhorn.
"Top Ten Investors All PIPES since 1995"
And Microsoft gets its money from grease, so what's the problem?
how much longer will the DoJ turn a blind eye to this, this has to violate the settlement on some level?
1. Fight against Microsoft (antitrust trial)
1.a. Profit
2. Fight for Microsoft (SCO)
2.a. Profit
3. Fight against Microsoft (countersuit?)
3.a. Profit
If you actually read the PDF, you will see that you (and Wired, for that matter) are jumping to conclusions. The chart showing Vulcan Ventures (and Microsoft, for that matter) is a chart of data from PlacementTracker showing the overall number of PIPE deals. The vast majority of which have nothing to do with Baystar. This paper is Baystar's way of convincing people that PIPE transactions are a good thing.
None of which is to say that Vulcan and/or Microsoft don't invest through Baystar -- just that this PDF says nothing about it.
-Steve
Democracy is a poor substitute for liberty.
The "fact" that Microsoft is so aggressively attacking Linux should be a huge sign of how much Microsoft has determine Linux its biggest threat. Good signs for Linux's capabilities. Not so good for the community and consumers until this all subsides.
mods say informative, but patently false. Read what it says above the page 3 chart please...
That explains, at least a little bit, how SCO can afford the cash to have all of these lawsuits going on at the same time. Lawyers don't work for free and their base salary isnt based on their performance either.
Read this:
"Lawrence Goldfarb, managing partner of BayStar, says that senior executives at the software giant had telephoned him about two months before the investment. "
Doesn't it sound like he's trying to explain away telephone call logs between Baystar and Microsoft?
Next the money....
oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
Who made the phone call?
Here are a few directors to choose from...
A buyback occours only when the company feels that the share prices are too low.
Another sound reason is if the management wishes to exercise more control over voting shares as management controls all of the votes of company owned stock.
Granted, what you mention is close to the only reason ever mentioned in the press or in non-business courses, but it is nowhere near an exhaustive list.
No, this is not a statement on the merits of the decision, it is a statement of basic Finance.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Considering that Baystar only gave them that $50 mil in exchange for 2.5+ million shares and some pretty nasty strings attached, I'd think that they'd be in some real trouble trying to buy back over half the shares with that money- Baystar'd be pissed off at the least and would probably try to get out at the first opportunity.
The buyback's insane, just like about everything else that they've done over the past year plus.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Read your recent headlines. Especially about the
free samples of windows office 2003 that Micro$$$$$
is handing out to army brass and high ranking GSA
civilians. This is a violation of the Hatch Act
and could be prosecuted against the recepients of
those 'gifts'. Is it micro$$$$$$$ hope that their
'benefactors' will now go light on them in regulation and purchasing decisions lest micro$$$$$
denounce those civil 'servants' for having
characters just like them?
It is also known that micro$$$$$$ was a
major investor in Caldera. Paul Allen, Gates
major corporate investing partner in micro$$$$$$$$
corp also owned controlling interest in Caldera
and never sold it all. But he did profit
mightily of manipulating the stocks downfall
by excersizing options and selling and selling
short into the bear market that caused Caldera
stock to fall over 98 percent. He and not
Martha Stewart should be in jail for stock
manipulation. Don't believe me! Look at the
record of Quicken.com and their notes about the
internal insider trading amongst major players
in that corporation.
But in our society if you steal
a nickle you go to jail for 30 years...look at
California's three strikes prisoners who got
life for stealing a piece of pizza. However if
you steal billions and millions you get off
scott free. Look at our president. He probably and at least allegedly stole
the federal presidential election with a little help from his brother
the Florida Gov and a bussed in mob to strongarm
the Dade County election board into not counting
the votes that well could have elected Gore. Look
also at VP Cheney. He is probably stealing Iraq right
now right under the noses of the world using
Halliburton Corp as the means to do it. And then
there is the case of Barrick Gold and Bush senior
and Brian Mulrooney the ex Canadian PM and certain
relatively unknown members of the Suharto family
in a very large crooked scheme in Indonesia.....
Now we can safely call SCO execs liars. It also means that SCO execs may have been caught lying to the Feds, and as Martha discovered we all know what that means.
This may ultimately prove to be one of the more significant developments in this sordid case when it comes down to any criminal investigation.
Now the question remains: just who of these two latter parties is going down?
This sig no verb.
A company that invests in life sciences pouring fully one EIGHTH of their total managed fund into a FLOUNDERING software company?
That makes NO sense... after all, when SCO dies, so do those 50 million clams...
Unless....
There were some back door agreement that indemnifies BayStar against total loss of that capital... say, for example, another memo were leaked that blew the whistle on such an agreement between them and a certain Redmond corporation..
Darl is the kind of guy that would fu** a person in the ass, and not even have the god damned common courtesy to give him a reach around.
Keeping a sale secret isn't the point.
The point is having a guaranteed buyer for their stock when they get around to exercising their options. McBride is sitting on 600,000 options.
You think he's going to just ride those into the ground when the stock collapses?
This way he won't have to flog them on the open market.. he has a prearranged sale to the company ready to go when he needs it.
If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. --Red Adair
You manage a fund that has $400 million available for investment. A company that has over 30 BILLION dollars sitting in the bank and is not a current investor of yours calls up and says "Could you please put some money into this stock?" 1/8th of your available capital is peanuts compared to a company that could quadruple your available capital without blinking..
This is just an eye-on-the-pie thing. You show the potentially huge investor that you're receptive and think along the same lines as they do and hope that they scratch your back as well.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
Here's the confusion:
'A Microsoft spokesman says that the company has no "direct or indirect" financial relations with BayStar'
"The market alone cannot provide sufficient constraints on corporation's penchant to cause harm." -- Joel Bakan
Presumably the company suing the employee should be able to indicate what code was actually illegally copied.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
The Microsoft "representative" was an executive...and executives are empowered to make decisions for the company they are an executive of, no matter the time of day or whether or not they're in the office. Think about how many deals get made on golf courses, etc, and that'll give you an idea about when executives are able to conduct business.
Why do people condemn MS for supporting SCO? They're just looking out for their own interests. No one condemns people who donate to Linus' legal defense, or people who donate to the EFF or FSF. Whoever's right will prevail in the end. If you're so confident SCO will lose anyway, which is looking more likely every day, you should be happy MS is wasting their money on SCO.
STOP FEEDING THE TROLLS!!
Acts of massive stupidity are almost never covered by warranty. --me.
... but as far as I can see, Microsoft market share could increase if SCO won this case. If you look at it, Microsoft was in a win-win situation. They were attacking open source software through SCO, and pumping SCO full of money. If SCO won, then some users might switch back to Microsoft, thus increasing there market share, and no one would relieze that they helped to this. Now, if, from what I understand about the law, isn't it illegal for Microsoft to help SCO in this case because of how this could help M$ ?
This signature was left intentionally blank.
"Yahoo Finance is reporting that SCO announced that the company's board of directors has authorized management, in its discretion, to purchase up to 1.5 million shares of SCO's common stock over the next 24 months. SCO has approximately 14.4 million shares of common stock issued and outstanding. Any repurchased shares will be held as treasury stock and will be available for general corporate purposes."
If the company is buying back their own stock, they must believe in their case. How can they be dumping if they're buying back outstanding shares? Whether or not you agree with SCO, accusing them of misleading people to inflate their stock worth doesn't seem like their main game plan.
'nuff said.
Here is a chart of SCOX stock over the last 3 months. This makes me very happy, how 'bout you? :)
/.: why the hell am I here?
They had them put money into SCO in the chance that really do own rights to the linux code. If it pays off they will make billions. Its like playing the loto for them 50 mil is like buying a 1.00 powerball ticket for a chance at 200 mil. If any of us had the chance to go back and invest in MS or Apple we would do it. MS has a chance to go back and invest in Linux. Now I am not a MS fanboy or anything, I really dont hope that SCO wins. But in the end MS is good for the software market. Why? Because they make all us software developers work harder to make our software better. Years ago people were saying IE would rule the world. For a while it did. However after Netscape went opensourse it has became a much better program than IE. One day Linux will be there but its not, it will be there when my mother can use a linux box.
This doesn't mean jack shit until I get Bill's head on a gold platter. Does anyone want to start a pool on how long it will take for the government to stop taking bribes from Microsoft and actually enforce laws that were put there for a reason. Microsoft is only holding the world back with their horrible software and even worse operating systems. THIS IS THE REASON LINUX ISN'T BIGGER YET!!!! It's pretty shitty when the only way they can get people to keep buying their software is to sue the people that don't. TELL THE TRUTH MICROSOFT, AND ENJOY THE ASS RAPINGS!
If carrots got you drunk, rabbits would be fucked up. - Comedian Mitch Hedberg R.I.P. 03/30/68-2/24/05
and the roses are red... Microsoft is behind SCO suit? oh! i can not believe it :P
Why i am wonder? why i should?
Damn it! redmond guys are the authors of all this mess... everybody know it.
I have seen two references to a contract provision
in finanacing of last year, that prohibits SCO from buying back stock unless it is employees stock that was accquired in some incentive plan (option).
Anyone know this as fact?
If true the announcement says more than it means, and provides a good way for insiders to bail.
Note, that in typical SCO style, they didn't do a stock buyback, they announced a stock buyback.
Microsoft is trying to turn ITSELF into Linux!
Hahahahaha!!!
Here's the board meeting where the MS execs struck upon the plan -
"OK, everyone knows Windows is a sinking boat, Right? So why not take all our money and pour it into the competition. While do that we have the GPL ruled unconstitutional, and BINGO - at the end of it all we are left sitting with all the marbles and the people who created it have NOTHING! MUAHAHA !!!"
Let's face it, the plan COULDN'T have come from Darl, he's just a lackey.
Darl is a stalking-horse, that's all.
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
More proof that the short term memory is the
first to go.
Just a few comments on the original memo and Baystar's statements. The easiest way for Microsoft and Baystar to claim they have "No Financial Relations" with a straight face is for Microsoft to have given a "Put" option to Baystar. I'm betting that this is what they've done. This means that Microsoft has agreed to buy Baystar's SCO shares at some time in the future for a guaranteed price (ie baystar "puts" the shares to Microsoft). The option exercise price would be set so that Baystar therefore cannot lose money if SCO tanks and in addition would be guaranteed a substantial return on its investment. Baystar probably gets to keep the shares itself if SCO wins and its share price leaps. In other words Baystar is in a "can't lose" position and is probably set to double its money no matter what happens to SCO. If SCO needs more money Microsoft will "introduce" more Venture Capital funds to SCO after providing the VC firm with said Put Option. No VC in his right mind is going to pass something like this up. As for SCO's long term strategy (Don't get riled at the term "Long Term") it was obvious from the last para of original memo. I interpret it as saying that they intend to buy up whatever Unix IP they can find on the open market and use it as a foundation for even more lawsuits. The idea is to make themselves the dog in the manger in that no one is going to have clear title to anything involving Unix or Linux. Their exit strategy as it says in the memo, is to then sell their IP portfolio to Microsoft, who will of course make licences available for a small fee, or appropriate the whole thing as Microsoft Linux. So if you have any Unix patents in the cupboard, go and sell them to SCO;)
Just because I'm Paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get me.
Oh, and I am a capital markets specialist!
First, it is remarkable that Goldfarb is saying this. It is also interesting what he is not saying. Like the old slashdot favourite of filling in the ??? before profit?
The stock hasn't had a real up week since December of 2003.
'Would you like to write a memo explaining why you can't find them?
OR
Would you like to write a resignation from your government position?'
- Ah the good ole' days - when only Clippy was annoying you all day with its stupid behavior, not whole national governments...
I don't remember where I saw this, but apparently there was an individual who sued "the devil" here in the U.S. Sued him for all the bad things the devil had made him do, all the people the devil had caused him to hurt - something along those lines.
The judge threw out the case because the court didn't know what address to send the devil's subpeona to.
I'd be surprised to learn that SCOX has 141 million dollars to repurchase shares. Of course if the price keeps droping, it will cost less, but not enough less to make any sense.
Interestingly, SCOX announced this repurchase and still closed down nearly 3%. That's got to be a first.
-- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
Of Enron vs. accounting regulations fame? Looks like he's still SEC chairman. The SEC under the current admin seems determined to let big corps do whatever they want.
See www.anti-slash.org. They've already gotten several reposts modded to +5 this week alone.
"Sufferin' succotash."
In A.D. 2003 ....
War was beginning.
Slashbot 1: What happen ?
Slashbot 2: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Slashbot 3: We get signal.
Slashbot 1: What !
Slashbot 3: Main screen turn on.
Slashbot 1: It's You !!
Overly Critical Guy: How are you gentlemen !!
Overly Critical Guy: All your base are belong to us.
Overly Critical Guy: You are on the way to destruction.
Slashbot 1: What you say !!
Overly Critical Guy: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Overly Critical Guy: HA HA HA HA
Slashbot 1: Take off every 'sig' !!
Slashbot 1: You know what you doing.
Slashbot 1: Move 'sig'.
Slashbot 1: For great justice.
Speaming of quid pro quo, one wonders how long this scheme has been in the works. Everyone was wondering why they really settled, but the terms of the agreement were kept secret.
If I recall the food chain correctly, Canopy ate SCO who ate Caldera. Seems like it's come full circle now.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
If SCO wins is because they showed the code that was infringed (ha,ha,ha).
Thus that code is removed, the individuals that "contributed" are banned from Linux development, and we continue happily ever after.
Or the Hurd finally becomes production grade.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Why would BayStar invest in a failing company like SCO unless they were aware of the fact that it would sharply increase in the future? If Micro$oft is behind this, and the SCO/IBM case is shown to be unsubstantiated, I hope that M$ will be torn apart by any justice system that can. This is not funny anymore. They have been accused of abusing their monopoly already (in California I think, or is it Florida???), and still it doesn't stop them. I truly think that a "fair" penalty would be to force the termination of all OEM contracts and ban them from OEM licensing for the next 10 years...What do you think?
When all is said and done, nothing changes...
With Bush in office, you don't have to worry about the communists keeping microsoft from making money.
This isn't flamebait, it is bitter, pessimistic political commentary. I have plenty of Karma to burn...
It does, however, show off your sick dualistic view on the world. The cold war has ended.
!capitalism != communism
Its kind of funny given that Novel and SCO were founded by the same person - Ray Noorda.
Get some culture, buddy.
Intellectuals! Liberals! Peacemongers! IDIOTS!!!