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?"

Comments

Re:IANAL....

[fireboy1919]

You have a couple of vague terms in your last message that I hope you could clarify:
Define NormalSpeak. New speech codec that only works on English?
Define "legal doings." Lawyer guano?
Define "boil this down." Are you talking about putting legal doings in a bubbling pot of water?
Define "us mortals." Presumably, it means that Cokie Roberts is immortal. Based upon past assumptions, this means that once Cokie Roberts boils down the lawyer guano, it's safe for everone else to use. Do you make bowls out of them or something? Or do you eat it to become immortal yourself?

To be serious, I know what you probably mean. The point is, though, that the language of the law will always be with us. It helps let one say exactly what they mean without room for interpretation, or to fit all interpretations that they want it to fit.

Re:I doubt it

[soft_guy]

IBM should buy SCO and dismantle them just for spite How do you dismantle a company that consists of a box at Mailboxes, etc., some attorney's on retainer, Darl, and two hookers in a motel room?

Typo

[lbmouse]

"Perhaps we can finally be rid of this specter once and for all?"

Shouldn't it be "sphincter"?

NO!

[khasim]

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.

Re:I'm excited

[Amazing Quantum Man]

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.

Re:Can they drop the suit?

[Anonymous Coward]

"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.

In a word: Chainsaws

[no reason to be here]

(EOM)

It's more than bankruptcy.

[Jaywalk]

Judge Kimball has ruled that the Novell case should go before the IBM case, so the Novell timeline is now more important than that of IBM. While it's SCO that sued Novell, the whole show (including IBM) is likely to be shut down by Novell's counterclaims. Boiled down, Novell's has nine "claims for relief" and, if granted, there is nothing left for SCO to sue about. You can read them yourself in the PDF, but the basics are:

1. Novell owns the copyrights and not SCO.
2. SCO needs to give Novell a full accounting of unreported money it owes Novell for SVRX licenses.
3. Novell wants to court to order SCO to comply with their contract, which gives all the royalties from SVRX to Novell.
4. Novell has the right to waive SCO's claims on UNIX code. Including those against IBM.
5. 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.
6. 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.)
7. Number seven repeats number six and asks for the trust again. Eh, lawyers. Go figure.
8. 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.
9. 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.