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BayStar Cashes Out of SCO Stock

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the gotta-know-when-to-fold-'em dept.

Kurt Wall writes "According to Yahoo! Finance, BayStar, the company that funded SCO to the tune of $50,000,000, and then later changed the terms of the deal, has requested that SCO redeem the 20,000 shares of preferred stock issued in return for the funding. The reason? BayStar states that 'SCO has allegedly breached Sections 2(b)(v), 2(b)(viii) and 3(g) of the Exchange Agreement.' Naturally, SCO thinks it has done nothing of the sort."

10 of 524 comments (clear)

  1. Why they'd be doing this now? by Saven+Marek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Talk on the boards is that the breaches are due to SCO not revealing the entire story regarding their claimed 'ownership' of UNIX SysV. Notice SCO now states that UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

    In any case, looks like you live by the sword you die by the sword. It was after all Darl who stated "Contracts are what you use against parties you have relationships with". None of this using contracts to clarify just what each other's purposes are, and being a record of an agreement, they're to be used as weapons. SCO's breaches are what will come bite them on the ass, and nothing will save them with a contract that they can't hide way back in the muddying of time. $20million worth of redeemed stock is $20million SCO can't use against Linux, Customers, Ex Customers or whoever else has tried to be nice to them in the past.

    It's only a few hour's drive to Lindon from here. I wonder if I should go watch the fireworks.

    Shak's nude anime gallery

    1. Re:Why they'd be doing this now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      SCO announced that they are suing the Canopy Group for enticing them into destroying their UNIX and Linux businesses.

      Funny thing, is that it could happen.

  2. The timing is late by titaniam · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Did anyone notice that the stock was tanking BEFORE the press release? I guess they put out a negative release to justify the insider-trading fall.

  3. Re:Conspiracy Theory Dead by 0x0d0a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even if they were, they've been exposed and SCO is burning up rapidly and isn't likely to be able to stick it to Linux. There's little reason for anyone, including Microsoft, to keep money in SCO at this point.

    --
    May we never see th
  4. A shame really. by Picass0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If we don't go to court to test the legality of the GPL in the SCO case, it means it will happen later... perhaps against someone who doesn't have their head up their ass.

    Going to trial against SCO is a sure thing for IBM, and therefore good for Linux. IBM and Redhat would tear SCO a new one, and the GPL would have it's day in court against the mental midgits from Provo.

    If SCO goes bankrupt, this (I assume) goes in a legal round file somewhere. Then we can just wait for Microsoft to come at us directly with an army of lawyers that dwarfs IBM.

    1. Re:A shame really. by back_pages · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I'm thinking the same way.

      If you're a prize fighter, you want your first professional fight to be against some out-of-shape opponent who stands a slim chance of winning but wouldn't mind the paycheck. In a lot of ways, SCO was the ideal opponent. They talked up the hype, they were bringing the payday to the ring, and they had a very slim chance of defeating Linux (and more notably, Linux's trainers in the forms of IBM, etc.)

      So if this "fight" doesn't actually occur, it scares away other potential easy wins for Linux's professional debut in the courtroom. A prizefighter whose opponents cancel the fights doesn't get a chance at the title - he's still an unproven amateur.

    2. Re:A shame really. by Paladin128 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      • If SCO goes bankrupt, this (I assume) goes in a legal round file somewhere. Then we can just wait for Microsoft to come at us directly with an army of lawyers that dwarfs IBM.
      Not bloody likely. IBM is a bigger company with a much bigger patent portfolio and many more lawyers than Microsoft.

      --
      Lex orandi, lex credendi.
  5. Re:The future for SCO by FatRatBastard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    According to an article on The Street one analyst didn't think BayStar would have much of a chance of getting their money back but this would make it incredibly difficult for SCO to raise any more money (not that they had anyone beating down their door to loan them money lately). By publicly asking for redemption over a broken clause I see this as BayStar's big, giant "FUCK YOU" to SCO.

  6. Re:"Owner of the UNIX Operating System" by FatRatBastard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Funny that they are the ones announcing BayStar putting the pinch on them. Guess they want to put the "positive spin" on it, just like everything else...

    That, and I suspect that if any insiders dumped a bunch of stock today without announcing it would be eligable for a perp walk.

  7. Re:SCO ON SALE! by strictnein · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you say it dropped 10.56% and it was at 100 before; or, if it was at 20 and dropped 10.56%, they tell a lot more.

    Yeah, both stocks dropped 10.56%

    I don't think it really matters what the initial price was. A stock dropping that much is bad no matter what the initial price.

    You argument works a little bit better if the poster was saying how the stock dropped 5 points (not percent). If the stock was originally at 100 and it dropped 5 points that's not too big of deal. If a stock was at 10 and then dropped 5 points, it might very well be game over.

    --
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