Slashdot Mirror
SCO Bankruptcy "Imminent, Inevitable"
mattaw writes "From analysis by Groklaw it seems that SCO may owe Novell nearly all the SCOSource licensing fees, and has been hiding the fact for 3 years. Imminent. Inevitable. Bankruptcy. Those are the words from Novell's lawyers. Perhaps the IBM/SCO case could close earlier than planned? Perhaps we can finally be rid of this specter once and for all?"
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
.... therefore almost nothing referenced here makes any sense to me. Someday lawyers will be forced to speak and write in NormalSpeak, preferably in English. Until such time, I am at the mercy of people like Cokie Roberts to explain these legal doings. Could /. maybe hire her to boil this down for us mortals?
.nosig
Because /. keeps posting it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I would be really disappointed if the Novell and IBM cases are finally resolved because SCO ran out of money. I would much rather see a final resolution on whether or not Linux has any sort of IP conflict with SCO. Bankruptcy skirts the issue. I would rather see a clean bill of health. Perhaps Microsoft now wants SCO to go bankrupt so that clean bill of health never comes.
I mean seriously. We've been hearing variations of the "OMG SCO is teh doomed!" now for so long my eyes just glaze over when I see another one.
Call me when Darl is in jail or flees the country.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Maybe SCO should sell bonds against the anticipated damages IBM will be paying once SCO wins the lawsuit... Ha ha ha ha.
"Perhaps we can finally be rid of this specter once and for all?"
Shouldn't it be "sphincter"?
SCO has been acting as if they had bought some sort of IP rights to SysV UNIX from Novell, and sold licenses based on those rights to Sun and Microsoft ("SVRX licenses").
Novell is now pointing at the actual text of the contract, which says that all SCO acquired was the right to act as an agent of Novell - basically, they can sell licenses in Novell's place, then hand over all the money to Novell. After that, Novell will return them 5% of the money as an agent fee.
It all seems pretty undisputable, from following Groklaw. As Novell claims SCO did its job badly so they won't even have to give them the 5% back, they're basically claiming that those cash infusions from Microsoft and Sun belong to Novell. And it's asking the judge to make haste, since this is simply their money, SCO is wasting it, and they'll soon be bankrupt.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
SCO wanted to be bought by IBM. That would be a "good thing" for SCO. Their stock jumps and their executives all cash out more options.
IBM should crush SCO in court and be awarded whatever is left of the company as compensation.
If IBM gives up any money to SCO or SCO executives, IBM has lost and will be sued again over this same kind of crap.
The current SCO is not, and has never been the Santa Cruz Organization.
The current SCO (newSCO) is what used to be Caldera. Santa Cruz (oldSCO) became Tarantella, and was bought by Sun.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
SCO's quarterly financial reports say different. They state about $2 million in research and development costs for the last reported quarter. If we assume that to be mostly salaries, then that's about 50 developers. SCO also makes software releases regularly containing many new feature. And now, a moment of silence in mourning over SCO's imminent demise ...
that's long enough.
"Bonds against damages awarded in lawsuits" are effectively what shares in SCO have been for years. SCO has been loss making for years now, and makes little revenue, certainly when compared to their liabilities in lawyers' fees. So the only realistic sources of value in the company are the lawsuits: and thus the share price can be seen as the market's view of how likely a SCO win is. Its current share price is $1.19, giving a market cap of $25M. Since it's requesting at least $5 billion in damages, the market's view is that this outcome is a 40/1 shot. That's long odds in a 2 horse race.
(EOM)
my pet machine
- Novell owns the copyrights and not SCO.
- SCO needs to give Novell a full accounting of unreported money it owes Novell for SVRX licenses.
- Novell wants to court to order SCO to comply with their contract, which gives all the royalties from SVRX to Novell.
- Novell has the right to waive SCO's claims on UNIX code. Including those against IBM.
- Novell wants the court to issue a "declaratory judgment" that Novell has the right to audit SCO's performance to make sure that it doesn't take any more of Novell's money.
- SCO needs to put all the money it "converted" (i.e., "stole") from those licenses into a constructive trust. (This is the one they're fussing about now. Sun and Microsoft gave SCO a bucket of cash to carry on the lawsuit against Linux under cover of a UNIX license. But SCO is supposed to give UNIX license money to Novell.)
- Number seven repeats number six and asks for the trust again. Eh, lawyers. Go figure.
- Number eight asks for the trust again, but adds punitive damages for swiping the money in the first place. Since SCO has already spent most of the cash, this is pretty much just adding insult to injury.
- Finally, Novell wants a complete accounting of all SVRX agreements or "other agreements relating to royalty bearing products." That's because SCO was claiming that the Sun and Microsoft agreements weren't "real" SVRX agreements, so SCO didn't owe Novell any money. Novell wants an accounting to make sure SCO isn't hiding any more ill-gotten gains.
So, yeah, the cash is a big deal and it's going to bankrupt SCO. Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of fellas. But read number four again. If Novell has it's way, the IBM case is gone too because SCO never had the right to sue in the first place.Of course, there are always IBM's counterclaims, but it's unlikely there will be anything left after Novell is done.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
You should go through the list and add up the costs. It's not that great. For example, it's hard to imagine having more than one manager and one secretary per 10 developers. Hardware is dirt cheap (a few thousand per year at most). Electricity and office space likewise, at least compared to a developer's salary. Health insurance is a serious expense, but still only a fraction of the cost.
And if SCO is paying $1.5 million for coffee, the management should be fired tomorrow. A dollar or two per day per employee, that's it.
Trust me, $8 million per year buys a lot more than 10 developers.
I think. Therefore, I am not a stock broker.
If fate makes you a motorcycle, you become a motorcycle.
Keep in mind that nobody was much interested in UNIX by this point. The original deal was between the original Santa Cruz Operation and Novell because Novell wanted out of the UNIX biz while Santa Cruz wanted some stuff so they could do a joint project with IBM. That project didn't pan out, so they renamed themselves Tarentella and sold the UNIX business to Caldera. Novell didn't much care who owned the business as long as they got their checks, which both Santa Cruz and Caldera sent them as per the contract.
Caldera didn't want the UNIX business either. They were a Linux business and thought they could convert SCO's UNIX distribution network to selling Linux instead. That didn't work out either; apparently the UNIX resellers didn't want to switch to Linux and Caldera was making more selling UNIX than distributing Linux. So they ditched Linux (and their CEO) and switched to concentrating on UNIX and changed their name to SCO for the name recognition.
But there was no scam -- at least with the UNIX royalties -- until the whole Linux shakedown started. Santa Cruz and Caldera sent Novell the checks and Novell pocketed the money. The Linux shakedown was just supposed to get IBM to buy them out, in which case it would have stayed business as usual. Things didn't hit the fan until after SCO tried to up the ante by threatening to sue Linux users over UNIX rights. And even then it took a while.
I'd have loved to have been in the Novell staff meeting when someone (I've always pictured a balding accountant with a slight paunch) looked up from his notes and said, "Hey, isn't SCO supposed to be giving most of the UNIX money to us?"
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====