Slashdot Mirror
SCO Admits They Might Just Not Win - Maybe
inetsee writes "According to Groklaw, SCO has admitted in a 10K filing that if the court grants any or all of IBM's six motions for summary judgement, 'We can not guarantee whether our claims against IBM or Novell will be heard by a jury.' The site goes through a statement by statement run-down of SCO's filing, noting things like the absence of employee numbers (a piece of information they told investors they would disclose). Elsewhere in the document, it is revealed that SCO's stock is in danger of being delisted from NASDAQ, they may come under further litigation from an unrelated legal matter, and SCO is now claiming that OSes like HP-UX and Solaris are derivatives of code that they 'own'. Despite the dire pronouncements throughout the filing, if everything else runs according to plan their 10K indicates they could keep fighting the good fight for another 12 months."
...and demand Trial by Combat.
And I'm not just saying that because I want Darl whacked by a sword.
Which is exactly what SCO want - to be bought up rather than to lose the case and end up bankrupt.
Not to mention the precedent it would set for other low-lifes to start legal action against IBM with the hope of being bought.
IBM could have bought them any time they wanted. They haven't because they're going to kill them, burn them, stomp the ashes, salt the earth, burn the salted earth, burn the salty earthy ashes, stomp that out, pour gasoline around, burn the remaining mess, and then piss on it to put it out.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
I thought 10K filings are supposed to have that type of information, on the forseeable risks. I don't care what sort of PR bravado a company has, a 10K filing is not the place to pretend you are guaranteed a win everything.
In short, nothing to see here, move along.
First: The board of SCOX has adopted a poison pill plan which pretty much allows them to set any price regardless of what the company is worth on the stockmarket, should anyone be as daft as want to buy it. If you buy a company you also buy their liabilities. (And remember that some 45% of the shares is still held by insiders in the company) Darl McBride said in 2004: And that fits pretty well with the suspicion that their original plan was to force a buyout from IBM (Source http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/08/31/HNscoca
Second: as many others have pointed out - give in to extortion tacticts and they will just keep coming again and again and again.
Par value is a non-zero value that the stock needs for regulatory reasons. It's as meaningless as, well, cautionary statements made in a 10K filing. It has nothing to do with how much profit any stockholder has made.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
The bold print giveth, and the fine print taketh away
And he'll mutter to himself: "ahh, what might have been"...
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
When Darl was hired as CEO, just before the scam began, about four years ago. Scox's market cap dropped below $6M. Scox was on the brink of delisting and bankruptcy. Now scox's market cap is over $20M.
Kevin McBrid pulled in $885K in the last two years. Darl probably made about $2M since the scam began. Not bad for small time scammers. Scox's law firm, BSF, has made over $30M. And the company that financed the entire scam, MSFT, is getting five years of top quality FUD for a meager $50M.
Scox never expected a victory in court, scox expected either a quick settlement, or scox would just loot as much msft FUD money as possible.
Scox was just given more delay - yet another scox victory.
SCO Lawyer: Our motion to compel was denied by the judge
Darl McBride: Denied? Inconceivable!
SCO Lawyer: Our sealed motion for reconsideration, which tossed out 187 of SCO's items of allegedly misused materials by IBM, was also denied by the judge
Darl McBride: Denied? Inconceivable!
SCO Lawyer: Most recently, our motion for Motion for Relief for IBM's Spoliation of Evidence was denied by the judge
Darl McBride: Denied? Inconceivable!
IBM Lawyer: You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means...
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." ~The Honorable Daniel Patrick Moynihan
In a way, the parent is accurate. When SCO launched this expedition, they also launched it in the media. The media at the time was clearly piqued by the ramifications were SCO to succeed. IBM clammed up because they had a court case to fight. However, SCO used all the media hype to attempt to shake down other companies. Were it not for Groklaw poking public holes in SCO's stories, several companies likely would have paid up. Eventually, the court cases would have been lost by SCO and the gravy train would dry up. However, the precedent would not be good.
The beneficiary of this, and mostly likely the PuppetMaster after the initial benefits were realized, was Uncle Fester and Cousin It (a.k.a. Bill). They (and Sun) managed to funnel a few cool mil to SCO just to keep the game going longer. Groklaw ferreted that connection out in such a way that Uncle Fester and Cousin It probably won't touch SCO now with a ten foot pole.
In addition, Groklaw did some good work in ferreting out the details of the APA agreement and its tortured history into SCO hands. One could argue that Groklaw did more in freeing Linux from the stigma of "stolen" than IBM ever could do.
And Groklaw isn't going away any time soon. Uncle Fester and Cousin It will have Groklaw teasing out their malpractice with a fine tooth comb for a long, long time.
Gerry