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SCO Caps Legal Expenses At $31 Million

Posted by timothy on from the nice-prime-number-of-millions dept.

uniqueCondition points to a story on News.com, writing "With SCO's legal costs reaching $7.3 million in their most recent quarter, nearly half of the $15 million it has spent in the last five quarters, SCO can't afford this kind of litigation. They have therefore limited their payment to $31 million for the entire case and is giving their legal team a larger slice of any settlement SCO achieves. Under the current agreement, the firm's contingency payment is 20 percent of a settlement. Under the new agreement, that increases to a range of 20 to 33 percent." uniqueCondition links also to coverage at Techrepublic.com, InformationWeek and The Inquirer.

5 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. To bail or not to bail by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd say that their legal team would probably bail under this new contract (given that they probably don't expect to win), but then I read the "capped" number. 31 million dollars?!? Isn't that a bit like capping baseball players? i.e. They already make so much money that the cap doesn't matter in many ways other than principle.

    --
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  2. Re:Begging to be bought out by Trigun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I almost feel sorry for their shareholders.
    If they weren't comprised of the SCO board of directors, that is...

  3. source license revenue from where by alw53 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What I want to know is: who is paying them 660K in sco source licensing reveunue last quarter? Did Microsoft make another payment, did they recategorize other income into that program; what's the deal? It can't possibly be real income.

  4. SCO Lawyers by bucketoftruth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I kinda wish I was a SCO lawyer. They're making phat bank and they must know it's all going to fall apart in the end. They'll walk away with pockets full of cash and they won't be liable for anything I bet. (IANAL)

  5. The *Actual* FleeceMasters Here... by MooseByte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As someone pointed out over at groklaw, 31 million is almost exactly all SCO is now worth in reserves, assets, etc. Team Boise ain't exactly sacrificing much here.

    Everyone talks about SCO running a sleazy poorly executed shakedown (I agree), but I'm wondering if Boise and Crew have just shown us how to run a sleazy *brilliantly* executed shakedown - of SCO.

    And from reviewing all the filings, it's clear Boise et al weren't exactly working overtime with their best and brightest in putting the case together.

    Boise: "Hey look, it's a moron with tons of money. Let's string him along and see where it takes us."

    The would-be con men have been conned, and damn well I'd say.