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SCO Shares Plunge, Canopy Management Change

bretberger writes "Shares in Utah's SCO Group went into a tailspin late Tuesday as news spread of both deepening losses and an apparent coup at the software company's corporate parent, the Canopy Group."

54 of 400 comments (clear)

  1. Good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Lots of good news before XMas. Best christmas present if you ask me. No software patents in EU, Microsoft fined and SCO stock down. What more can one ask?

  2. News? by neoform · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is this really news, who here actually thought SCO was gonna win? really though..

    --
    MABASPLOOM!
    1. Re:News? by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


      Yeah, exactly. And when Laura DiDio said: "The fate of SCO is one of the big question marks. New management at Canopy . . . may push [SCO] to try and settle." I was thinking "Settle for what? Not having IBM kick their collective asses into orbit around the sun?" I don't think they're in much of a position to try bargaining.

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    2. Re:News? by tdemark · · Score: 5, Funny

      IBM Laywer: I'm thinking of a number. I'll write it down on a piece of paper.
      SCO Lawyer: OK

      The IBM lawyer grabs a pen a scribbles on a sheet of paper, folds the paper in half, and slides it across the table. The SCO lawyer reaches, picks up the paper, unfolds it, and sees this:

      ----------------
      | |
      | _ |
      | / \ |
      | / \ |
      | | | |
      | | | |
      | \ / |
      | \_/ |
      | |
      |______________|

      IBM Laywer: Do we have an agreement?

      - Tony

    3. Re:News? by Otter · · Score: 4, Funny
      Nice ASCII illustration but you forgot the punchline:

      Burns: I'm going to write a figure on this piece of paper. It's not quite as large as the last one, but I think you'll find it fair. [draws a giant zero]

      Hutz: I think we should take it.

    4. Re:News? by bckrispi · · Score: 4, Informative

      Reading the article, It looks like the "cap" just means that $31 mil will be the most Boies & co. can charge when this fiasco is finished. This was in exchange for more lucrative terms should SCO win a settlement/be bought out. It doesn't mean "as soon as we spend $31 million, we're dropping the suit".

      --
      Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
    5. Re:News? by SoSueMe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Is this not the same Laura DiDio who has been so reviled by Slashdot in the past as being less than tech-savvy and a mouth-piece for corporations?

      Each of these claims have had some merit as well as critisism of the Yankee Group reports.

      Are they another firm that waits until the writing on the wall is written in neon and suddenly pipe up with a resounding "Me too!"

    6. Re:News? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      SCO Lawyer #1: Give me a moment to discuss this with my associate.

      SCO Lawyer #1: (aside to SCO Lawyer #2): dude he totally drew a vagina. We're gonna get PUSSY!

      SCO Lawyer #2: (to #1): I know it! It's 100% grade A putang for us! Daryl is gonna be STOKED! I'm gonna step out and call him now. (steps out) Dude! Pop open a foamer and sit down, Christmas is coming early this year.......

      #1 (to IBM Lawyer, stifling laughter and adjusting pants): All right, we've considered your offer and are prepared to accept it. Do we, uh, accept it here or somewhere else?

      IBM Lawyer: What the fuck are you talking about?

  3. WOW! Now it's cheap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Great time to buy! Remember kids, buy low, sell high!

    1. Re:WOW! Now it's cheap! by rzebram · · Score: 5, Funny

      1,000 SCO shares.. The perfect gift for your in-laws for Christmas!

    2. Re:WOW! Now it's cheap! by pclminion · · Score: 4, Informative
      This isn't funny, it's lame.

      Anybody who "bought low" today (around 10:00 AM) and sold at market close made a cool 14%. The price started its correction near the market close, and will probably return to close to its Monday levels.

      I mean dude, look at the charts. Notice the volume spike at around 10:00 AM. It was this sudden accumulation move that caused the prices to turn back around. The whole game is purely psychological. Today was certainly a good day to buy SCOX.

    3. Re:WOW! Now it's cheap! by molnarcs · · Score: 4, Funny
      Great time to buy! Remember kids, buy low, sell high!

      I don't think that's a good idea. When I'm high I don't make very good deals.

    4. Re:WOW! Now it's cheap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wow, 14% JUST LIKE IT WAS NOTHING!

      Wanna hear about my REITs that are up almost 300% counting dividend investments?

      Or how about the 1000 shares of AAPL I bought at 19 (well, before I sold some to buy a new 17-inch PB, heh)

      If you want to make money in the stock market, BUY AND HOLD a few good companies, don't gamble with CRAP like SCOX.

      Can you tell me what's gonna move 14% TOMORROW so I can get in on it before it happens? Didn't think so!

    5. Re:WOW! Now it's cheap! by unoengborg · · Score: 3, Funny

      True, but what if they allready have toilet paper?

      --
      God is REAL! Unless explicitly declared INTEGER
    6. Re:WOW! Now it's cheap! by RickBlaine · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I mean dude, look at the charts. Notice the volume spike at around 10:00 AM. It was this sudden accumulation move that caused the prices to turn back around. The whole game is purely psychological. Today was certainly a good day to buy SCOX.
      You might have had a point if yesterday after close hadn't been when SCOX had the investor conference call announcing that they lost more than twice as much money as the only analyst covering them had predicted. It's never "a good day" to gamble exclusively on market fluctuations. There are too many companies with an actual product that they are developing and selling to customers. Adding actual value to the world instead of trying to leach of the work of others and scam the gullable with press releases.

      SCOX as a business is poison. Who wants to do business with a company that sues its customers? Even if they do lose. And what about a number of pending rulings on any number of the legal fronts which could sink SCOX's legal shenanigans. Pfeh! Better expected ROI on a lottery ticket.

      -Blaine

  4. Canopy Group? by Pacifix · · Score: 4, Funny

    Isn't that name kinda ominous? A canopy blocks out the sun, gets everybody under one thing and cuts you off from the primal forces. Perhaps something more honest, like maybe COBRA?

    1. Re:Canopy Group? by robyannetta · · Score: 3, Funny

      Originally, they were known as Umbrella Co. but then someone made a video game from it called it Resident Evil.

      --
      - Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
    2. Re:Canopy Group? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      What will happen once somebody manages to patent fission?

      I suspect the sun would continue its fusion reaction without noticing...

  5. The only way justice is to be done... by terraformer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...is if the parent co, Canopy Group, and all of the corporate criminal scumbags in charge over there lose their shirts and their golden parachutes mid fall. Otherwise, it will be them who are laughing all the way to the bank, despite the validity of the linux community's claims of fraud. This current administration won't go after them. Given what they have been doing lately to fuckups, they would probably give Darl an award...

    --
    Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
    1. Re:The only way justice is to be done... by sl3xd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This current administration won't go after them. Given what they have been doing lately to fuckups, they would probably give Darl an award...

      You seem to be under the delusion that some other administration would go after them. White collar crime is nothing new, as is the tacit guarantee that white collar criminals are virtually unpunished (with a few token ones like Martha Stewart and a couple of Enron officers). The fact is that it's nearly always the extremely wealthy, ivy-league educated that even compete for the presidency. And one thing can be said of the wealthy: They have a great deal more sympathy for the problems of their fellow upper crust than they do for the problems of any other economic strata. Democrat, Republican, whatever... The rich have the belief that they pay the taxes, so they should get the police -- not the areas that actually have crime. They pay the taxes, so the laws should benefit their lifestyles, not the mid and lower class.

      And never forget that Kerry still has even more money than Bush.

      Nor can I think of any president in the last half-century that did much to prosecute white-collar crime.

      And before that, there was the great depression, where everybody was poor anyway...

      Hmm... I've got it! We need another Theodore Roosevelt. A guy that spent his presidency breaking up monopolies and fighting for the working class.
      He's dead, though. And I doubt he'd win a modern election.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    2. Re:The only way justice is to be done... by dillon_rinker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And I doubt he'd win a modern election.

      Yup. I was looking at the only known picture of TR and FDR last night and said wistfully to my wife "Why can't we have someone like that be president again?" The answer, of course, is television.

      WRT white collar crime - no one walks the streets at night worried that a white collar criminal might kill them pointlessly while looting their pension fund.

  6. Microsoft will be the white Knight by maddu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who wants to bet that before long Microsoft will march in as White Knight and have proxy control over SCO. Hell, it already controls it indirectly!

    1. Re:Microsoft will be the white Knight by Samari711 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Why would MS touch it with a 10-foot poll? They got enough negative press for orchestrating the BayStar deal, there's no way in hell they want anything to do with SCO at this point. What's probably going to happen is Canopy will carve out any useful IP and resources from SCO and form yet another company while it leaves SCO as a litigation company. then another Canopy company will buy out SCO, initiating the new change of control procedure which gives Darl & co. a set of nice golden parachutes and they walk away from the mess with all the investor's cash.

      What I want to know is how illegal this whole racket was...

      --

      I never said I was smart, I just said I was smarter than you

  7. Re:Canopy Group? Dont you mean ... by UnderScan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Umbrella Corporation?

  8. The new Canopy CEO is... by schon · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... Colonel Mustard, in the boardroom, with a letter opener.

  9. "Plunged?" by pclminion · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I'd hardly call a drop of 7.5% a "plunge." Stock prices always react this way when bad news is accounced, and they usually come back up again. I've made quite a bit of (virtual) money playing this game.

    I've seen companies take a 35% hit based on bad news and return to previous prices in less than a week. Considering the apparent magnitude of the announcement and the ensuing PIDDLY 7.5% drop I'm going to wager on the stock price returning to its recent levels.

    I'm placing a market open order for (virtual) shares of SCOX right now.

    (This is not financial advice, I'd barely even consider it virtual financial advice.)

    1. Re:"Plunged?" by Megane · · Score: 4, Informative
      I'd hardly call a drop of 7.5% a "plunge."

      Especially when the stock was 25% lower less than two months ago.

      I do have to thank SCOX for one thing, though. They got one of the Groklaw readers to pester UCal for a copy of the secret AT&T/BSD agreement under a Freedom of Information request. As it turns out, there wasn't any thing scary in there after all.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  10. WHY?? by burbankmarc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now how are people going to get their license for Linux?!

  11. Settling? by DeathFlame · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "The fate of SCO is one of the big question marks. New management at Canopy . . . may push [SCO] to try and settle."

    Settle? Does anyone see IBM settling? Why would they when they will win.

  12. SCO Insider Trades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here it is- the regular SCOX insider trades report! Sell, sell, sell- even while it was going up.

    12/07/04 BAYSTAR CAPITAL II L P Beneficial Owner of more than 10% of a Class of Security 10,000 Open Market Sale proceeds of $45,870.00

    12/07/04 BAYSTAR CAPITAL II L P Beneficial Owner of more than 10% of a Class of Security 6,100 Open Market Sale proceeds of $28,745.00

    12/01/04 BAYSTAR CAPITAL II L P Beneficial Owner of more than 10% of a Class of Security 15,000 Open Market Sale proceeds of $61,767.00

    11/30/04 BAYSTAR CAPITAL II L P Beneficial Owner of more than 10% of a Class of Security 70,500 Open Market Sale proceeds of $273,550.00

    11/24/04 BAYSTAR CAPITAL II L P Beneficial Owner of more than 10% of a Class of Security 60,000 Open Market Sale proceeds of $216,181.50

    11/22/04 BAYSTAR CAPITAL II L P Beneficial Owner of more than 10% of a Class of Security 37,500 Open Market Sale proceeds of $131,250.00

    11/19/04 BAYSTAR CAPITAL II L P Beneficial Owner of more than 10% of a Class of Security 10,000 Open Market Sale proceeds of $35,000.00

    11/17/04 BAYSTAR CAPITAL II L P Beneficial Owner of more than 10% of a Class of Security 10,000 Open Market Sale proceeds of $35,465.00

    11/08/04 BAYSTAR CAPITAL II L P Beneficial Owner of more than 10% of a Class of Security 100,000 Open Market Sale proceeds of $372,615.00

    11/05/04 BAYSTAR CAPITAL II L P Beneficial Owner of more than 10% of a Class of Security 22,000 Open Market Sale proceeds of $80,900.00

    1. Re:SCO Insider Trades by kisielk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Heh, good to point this out. If you look at the "Insider Trades" link on Yahoo Finance, SCO insiders have sold of 2,246,000 shares in the last 6 months (~25%). Looks like they don't have much faith in their company..

  13. Hope by FiReaNGeL · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hope for only one thing :

    That their (inevitable) demise receive AT LEAST AS MUCH publicity on public news channels / papers that their foolish lawsuits received. To inform the population that it was FUD. Or else they'll have (kinda) suceeded in inspiring a doubt in the minds of many concerning Linux legitimacy. No one on slashdot, obviously, but the common man who heard on news that SCO was suing IBM on UNIX/Linux for code thievery... maybe.

  14. I for one am shocked! by pjwalen · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was certain the, honorable and the trusted SCO Software would come out ahead of those socialist pirates known as Linux users. Who's with me?

  15. DiDio Doin it Again by LithiumX · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So what, exactly, is the deal with Ms Didio? I could understand her possibly (giving her benefit of the doubt) originally siding with SCO as an analyst... but over time her constant support, constant praise, and general attempts at propaganda make it more than obvious she's got a heavy leash being held by someone over there.

    Does she expect to retain any value as an "independant analyst" in the post-SCO market? It's all too common for analysts to be paid to support a product or company, but they're usually a little less blatant about it. Who would value her opinion, knowing that her opinion is for sale?

    Though... I suspect (recently) that it's more Canopy holding her leash, than SCO, since she seems to choose Canopy over SCO when she has to (like in her recent comments - she still didn't say anything bad about them, but saved all her real praise for her theoretical overlords at Canopy).

    --
    Do not confuse "Freedom of Choice" with "Free Will".
  16. Sucker! by Darth+McBride · · Score: 5, Funny

    Attorney David Boies of New York agreed to cap the overall cost of SCO's lawsuits to $31 million in return for a bigger piece - 33 percent, instead of 20 percent - of any settlements.

    Dear David,

    We ran out of money, but we will give you an even bigger slice of nothing.

    Love,
    Darl

  17. Re:but the real question is... by tha_mink · · Score: 5, Funny

    SCO is a software company??? All this time I thought they were just a legal firm...just me?

    --
    You'll have that sometimes...
  18. 5 year trend by Skiron · · Score: 3, Informative

    As seen here:

    http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SCOX&t=5y

    SCO started the attack on Linux first (early 2003) when their stock was at the lowest point, and it paid off a bit - until now - and they are back where they started, except now everybody hates them :)

  19. can you hear this? by WormholeFiend · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm playing the world's smallest violin for SCO.

  20. we can't let this happen by pyrrho · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't have time to learn a new villian.

    --

    -pyrrho

  21. Rumor Has it... by marcushnk · · Score: 5, Interesting


    That Mustard is a bit of a hatchet man. (walks into a sinking ship and throws so many people overboard that its starts floating.. then points that barely floating ship back in a direction that will assure the safety of whomever is left)
    Couple that with the CFO's leaving and the REALLY piss poor financials that were released yesterday.. I reckon we're about to see the end of this whole saga.

    --
    "Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
  22. don't forget... by ecalkin · · Score: 5, Informative

    The state of California putting an end to sneakwrap EULAs!

    eric

  23. Re:How will this affect Trolltech ??? by mcc · · Score: 5, Informative

    Canopy's investment in Trolltech is absolutely tiny. As far as I am aware nothing that could possibly happen to Canopy would affect Trolltech at all.

  24. SCO Management by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 4, Funny

    I, for one, welcome SCO's new overlords!.

  25. I can think of one! by pragone · · Score: 5, Funny

    To get laid???

    1. Re:I can think of one! by hazem · · Score: 4, Funny

      Come on... we're dealing in realistic things like FTL travel and Santa Claus.

      I can't believe you're spreading rumors about this mythical "getting laid" thing.

  26. bogus report by frovingslosh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    SCO was under $3 at the beginning of November. It's last trade today was at $4.17. Yea, stocks go up and down, but to call this a tailspin is a bit extreme. It's taken a couple of bigger drops in the last two months, but the rises have been even larger. Hey, I hate SCO too, but reporting a relatively small dip in the stock as a tailspin is an overstatement based only on bias against them.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  27. Another number: 99% drop by Embedded+Geek · · Score: 3, Informative
    I love numbers. You can look at them any way you want and make up nearly any story you want to go with them. While some posters are talking about "only a 7%" drop in SCO shares and say this is nothing, you can look at another number and become tingly with delight at a 99% drop in SCO's licensing revenues, from $10.3M 20034Q to $120,000 this 4Q (Forbes story with ads here). This was the big contibuting factor in a total revenue drop of about 60% (and resulting stock drop).

    Naturally, the truth is somewhere in between. This is bad news for SCO's strategies. That does not mean McBride won't be able to convince his minders to hold the course and continue with litigation. Strictly speaking, at this moment, they're still convinced. Neverhteless, it's obviously a bumpy road ahead for them.

    So, don't throw a victory party yet, but I think we're all entitled to spend a few minutes smirking.

    --

    "Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."

    1. Re:Another number: 99% drop by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What's more important is their balance sheet.

      $10M in the bank and a burn rate of $3M per quarter.

      Unless they get some extra revenue within 6 months they're toast.

  28. Classic Quotes by dynamo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ""The fate of SCO is one of the big question marks. New management at Canopy . . . may push [SCO] to try and settle."

    This remark just made my day. Imagine SCO trying to settle, being pressured by it's parent company, sitting with IBM attourneys, trying to 'reach out' to IBM to make some sort of agreement. I figure they'll eventually both agree that SCO has wasted all of their time and money on something that is going to eventually cost it's upper management their careers, and hopefully their freedom (but I doubt they'll realize that quite yet.)

    and this:

    "We're in a challenging business environment," he said during an earnings teleconference. "[But] we believe there is value in our Unix licensing business and we offer our customers . . . value they need to be made aware of."

    It's straight out of The Godfather. Way to tell it, Darl!

  29. Novell, not Microsoft by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Novell will be the one to come in and snatch up SCOX.

    Novell is making Linux the centerpiece of its technology strategy, so it has something to loose.

    Ending this thing once and for all would endear the Linux community to Novell, so it has something to gain.

    It also has $475M earmarked for acquisitions.

    Novell has a history with SCO/Canopy. Ray Noorda was the chairman at Novell before he started Caldera. Darcy Mott was Novell's Treasurer, and R. Duff Thompson was Senior Vice President of Corporate Development. Even Darl McBride came through Novell.

    SCOX has a $79M market cap. For this small portion of their acquisition warchest, all this goes away and they get real linux street cred. Their marketing department should be lobbying hardest for this one.

    When they're done with that they'll buy UNIX(TM) from The Open Group and geeks will write songs about them.

    Only if they want to crush Redhat, that is.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  30. Printed on soft paper? by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 3, Funny

    If the share certs are printed on soft paper, preferably scented, I'll take a few rolls.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
  31. Neither Novell, nor Microsoft by RickBlaine · · Score: 5, Insightful
    There is absolutely zero upside for Novell in buying SCOX. And absolutely zero downside for not buying SCOX. SCOX is shooting blanks (header files????) on the legal front. And Novell already has linux street cred for 1. buying SuSE, 2. Sending a "STFU" letter to SCOX re the IBM suit and 3. pretty much shutting SCOX down in the "slander of title" suit.

    You don't get street cred for rewarding extortion. Look at where SCOX was before they pulled this BS. About a buck a share. And SCOX has diluted shareholder value (in other words, printed and sold more stock) since then. Let's see: option 1. Pay more than 4x the original value of the company for an extortion threat or 2. let SCOX die a slow, painful and public death for being idiots. Anyone thinking of getting good PR by preventing this company from publicly bleeding to death from its self inflicted gut-shot is stupid. Paying off extortionists is *always* bad PR.

    -Blaine

  32. Re:but the real question is... by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 3, Informative

    Then there were a series of mergers and renamings that I didn't really follow. And there they are now.

    They sold their Unix licensing business (which they had bought from Novell) and their name to Caldera. Caldera changed it's name to SCO, and (old) SCO changed their name to Tarentella.

    So, that's not them that are there now.

    --
    It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
  33. Before you all rush to celebrate by Rogerborg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Bear in mind that the weasels at the top will loot the burning hulk and golden parachute to new jobs with their friends and relatives, while the actual working stiffs at SCO are the ones getting "reorganised" out of the door with nothing to show for their work, some of which will have been performed before SCO went Dark Side.

    --
    If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.