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Investors Bailing On SCO Stock, SCOX Plummets

HailDorothy writes "SCO's stock price is plummeting in the aftermath of Judge Kimball's ruling that Novell owns the UNIX copyrights, as we discussed earlier. '[W]e will continue to explore our options with respect to how we move forward from here,' SCO said in a public statement issued in a futile attempt to calm investors. SCO's stock price has fallen 70 percent during trading today, reaching a 52-week low. It looks like the end is near for SCO, which still owes Novell 95 percent of the SVRX UNIX royalties it collected from Microsoft and Sun through the SCOsource program. As Judge Kimbell noted in his ruling, it's unlikely that Novell will ever be able to collect on those royalties."

11 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. Wow! by Jugalator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The most surprising thing here to me is that this implies some share holders actually believed SCO had a case here.

    --
    Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    1. Re:Wow! by beheaderaswp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Face it. If you get your information from press releases you deserve what you get.

      --
      Another consultant who stuck it out.

      "We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
    2. Re:Wow! by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The most surprising thing here to me is that this implies some share holders actually believed SCO had a case here.

      Well, here's how it was explained to me:

      SCO is so dirt-cheap right now that you can basically play with it without risk. At a dollar a share, you can buy a block of 100 shares and if it tanks you've lost a whopping $100. However, if by some miracle they actually managed to win, maybe that $100 would become a few thousand. Basically, it had a huge potential upside with almost no downside and a lot of people bought it just to see what might happen.

      Well, that upside just vanished and the stock plummeted. You could also interpret this as meaning that 70% of SCO's market value was based on potential lottery winnings, and when the lottery date came and went without SCO winning, its price dropped to compensate.

      But IANA stock analyst, so take that with a grain of salt.

      --
      Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
  2. Re:Someone bought those shares today. by stox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A lot of today's buys may have been people closing their short positions.

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    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
  3. Re:Someone bought those shares today. by KingSkippus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Who's buying the stock and why are they buying it?

    If something's cheap enough, there will always be someone willing to buy it.

    If it gets low enough, someone could snag it if for no other reason than to liquidate its assets. All of those desks, computer monitors, and coffee machines have got to be worth something.

  4. Re:microsoft trial balloon by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You'll notice they won't even tell you which patents of theirs linux infringes now. SCO got bad PR instead of them and IBM got good PR for defending linux.

    No, they won't tell, and they most likely never will unless they get in a SCO-like situation where their actual revenue stream is drying up fast and it's either sue-and-pray or just die quietly.

    I believe this is the primary lesson MS learned from their SCO experiment: The implication of IP infringement is much more effective at scaring people away from Linux than actually trying to prove it. As long as the infringement is a non-specific threat with only a hint of reality behind it, it works on the basic fear-centers of the brains of IT management. As soon as it becomes something real, like a lawsuit, then it instead it invites the managers to use the analytic portions of their brains. FUD and fact checking don't go together.

    The concept of FUD is really nothing new to Microsoft of course, but this was an actual test run of "can we scare more people away from Linux with an actual IP lawsuit instead of just claiming that it is unsafe?" and it turns out the answer is "no".

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  5. Re:Darl? by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The crime was apparently filing a lawsuit that didn't pan out.

    Nope. The crime is fraud.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  6. Re:Darl? by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What sort of punishment would be appropriate here? The crime was apparently filing a lawsuit that didn't pan out.

    Sorry... I think you'll find the crimes and misdemeanors fall more under the following categories:
    Libel
    Slander
    Stock Fraud
    RICO
    Breach of Contract
  7. Dead cat bounce by jmorris42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > Anything dropping like this just has to bounce!

    Looking to cash in on the 'ol dead cat bounce? Considering SCOX has always managed to bouce back over the $1 mark to avoid delisting I suspect you might be right. Not going to bet money on it though, this time even former cheerleaders like Daniel Lyons at Forbes say they are dead. Darl has a big ol fork sticking out of his forehead.

    Yes they will file a desperate appeal with every court that might possibly have jurisdiction. No it isn't going to help them do anything other than drag this thing out to the end of the year, January at the best. Then it is over and the patent wars will move from saber rattling and into the shooting phase.

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    Democrat delenda est
    1. Re:Dead cat bounce by rtb61 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Being unable to service that Novell licensing debt, makes it look like they were trading whilst insolvent, they could possibly 'bounce' from a civil to criminal court. Continuing to spend money on lawyers on a losing case whilst they cannot pay an outstanding debt to Novell puts them in more than just a tricky position.

      The share trading that occurred during this whole process is likely to come under review in what is now starting to look like nothing more than a pump and dump scheme ie. sue IBM for billions with no hope of winning but have a sudden influx of funds to fund the case which just happens to come from one of IBM biggest competitors.

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      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  8. Now Wash Your Hands. Re:money money money by twitter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anything dropping like this just has to bounce!

    It may make a splash, but most people just flush it.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.