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Novell Sued Microsoft Through Caldera?

Posted by michael on from the puppeteer dept.

cheesedog writes "The intrigue increases: According to this article in the Salt Lake Tribune, the secret terms of the sale of DR-DOS to Caldera included the provision that Caldera would have to sue Microsoft (for Novell by proxy) over the OS and that they would have to do so without revealing Novell's hand in it. Did Novell indirectly create a monster? Caldera's 300 million winnings against Microsoft are now being used to fund lawsuits against Linux (and Novell)."

5 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. He said she said. by Alan+Hicks · · Score: 5, Informative

    Linux Weekly News had an article about this several days ago, and it's been talked about on Groklaw. Basically Caldera claims that there was an unwritten, oral contract between Novell and Canopy that said they would sue MS on behalf of Novell, and not reveal Novell's hand in it.

    Of course Novell responds in the negative. Canopy is using a rather interesting attack here though. Many of the people working with Canopy now worked for Novell back when this suppossed oral contract took place. They claim no one at Novell knows about it because all those people who once worked for Novell have moved on. This of course puts them in the spot of saying "We know everything because we were there and you people running Novell now have no idea what you're talking about. Our guys worked for Novell back then, and they know what was said."

    Novell's defense is simple. Show me a written contract.

    --
    Slackware, what else when it must be secure, stable, and easy?
  2. Re:Caldera and Novell are the same company.. by grendelkhan · · Score: 5, Informative

    They are both owned by the Canopy Group

    No, the Canopy Group and Novell were both founded by Ray Noorda, the Canopy Group being the company he started after being booted out of Novell.

    --
    Wu-Tang Name: Half-Cut Skeleton Get your own Wu-Na
  3. Re:Jackson not exactly a bastian of impartiality by stevesliva · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is not the same Judge Jackson, not the same court, not the same state, and not the same finding. It is, however, the same nation, so by all means let us distrust judge Norman Jackson because judge Thomas Penfield Jackson talked to the press too much.

    --
    Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
  4. Good point... by acariquara · · Score: 5, Informative
    From fool.com

    Knowledgeable IP litigators have told me they think SCO has less than a 10% chance of prevailing in its cases, and even then, the courts' remedies would likely be a rewrite of the offending Linux code, not a cash windfall for SCO. BayStar Capital can afford to bet against the odds and lose. SCO cannot.
    also SCO stock has an analyst rate of 5.0, strong sell. Actually it cannot be bigger than 5.0, so that can be loosely translated as jump ship.

    Is it the end though? I doubt...

    --
    Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
  5. The court decided "He said" by Len · · Score: 5, Informative

    The decision of the Utah Court of Appeals, which was also reported on Groklaw, says that there was a secret agreement that Canopy would sue Microsoft. Novell and Canopy were simply fighting over which of them should pay the cost of Canopy's suit against Microsoft.