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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.

4 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. Begging to be bought out by SeanTobin · · Score: 5, Interesting
    SCO is just begging to be bought out now. Take a look at this gem from the end of the news.com.com article:
    SCO also announced its board has approved a revised shareholder rights plan designed to make a hostile takeover harder, though no such attempts are under way, McBride said.

    "Where the share prices are at now, we are concerned about somebody who would be opportunistic. What's to keep IBM or somebody else from coming in and taking (SCO) out at a much lower price than the claims you have on the table?" he asked.
    Ahh... the joys of watching scumbag companies dangle in the wind. I almost feel sorry for their shareholders.
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    1. Re:Begging to be bought out by UnknowingFool · · Score: 5, Interesting
      IBM could just buy SCO and put it out of everyone else's misery, and save money doing it. Plus, they could get the satisfaction of firing Darl McBride.

      That would be the quick and easy solution. I think IBM wants it to be painful for SCO. If IBM wins on its counterclaims of infringement, it could own SCO outright. With its portfolio of patents and copyrights and heavy purse strings, IBM could bankrupt SCO through legal battles and settlement claims. As the major creditor, IBM then owns SCO.

      It could then do worse then just to fire Darl. As the owner of SCO, it then has access to all SCO's files. If it finds any legal wrongdoing on Darl's or any other exec's part, it could pursue legal action against them for fraud, perjury, damage to the company, etc. They could then go after all of the money he's gotten so far. This would send a clearer message to anyone who might think about pulling another stunt like this.

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  2. The worst part is... by DownWithTheMan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They still believe they can win and are in the right... I live in Provo UT (student at BYU; yes yes I know crazy mormons blah blah blah, i totally agree)... Anyways I go to the same church ward as Ralph Yarro (Chairman of the Board of SCO, and CEO of Canopy Group)... Every Sunday I love to slam Ralphie with questions about what's going on on the SCO Titanic... He tells me over and over that they (SCO) have the moral highground and are in the right... He also says that in his heart of hearts he believes they will win the lawsuite against IBM... And after a win against IBM, he thinks the lawsuites like the ones against Chysler and AutoZone, will all just start to drop in... Whatever crack that guy's smokin'... I want some...

  3. Re:Question by chihowa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    66.35.250.150 (resolved to slashdot.org) scanned me for open proxies after I posted. It then poked around on my webserver for a bit.

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