SCO Receives Nasdaq's Delisting Notice

An anonymous reader writes "This somewhat amusing press release of sorts tells us one of those things we've all been waiting a while for. SCO(X) has announced that 'it received a Nasdaq Staff Determination letter on December 21, 2007 indicating that as a result of having filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel has determined to delist the company's securities from the Nasdaq Stock Market and will suspend trading of the securities effective at the open of business on Thursday, December 27, 2007.' PJ at Groklaw has surmised that with effectively zero cash resources left, Novell doesn't stand to get much more than SCO's furniture, if even that. Ding dong, is the wicked witch finally dead yet?"

Comments

If there was any proof....

[Chrisq]

Novell doesn't stand to get much more than SCO's furniture,

If there was any proof that this was by design (which it probably was) could the directors be held liable in the US?

Re:If there was any proof....

[Linker3000]

Maybe they could sell the chairs to Steve Ballmer?

Re:If there was any proof....

[Kjella]

In theory - yes.
In practise - I'll believe it when I see it. As long as the directors can drag up some crackpots to claim they acted in good faith based on their analysis or advice, they usually walk away with no problems at all. The level of deception and fraud you have to prove in order to make anyone personally responsible is very high, Gross incompetence is unfortunately not enough.

Re:If there was any proof....

[Anomolous Cowturd]

You could probably sell the same chair back to Ballmer several times :)

Re:If there was any proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

It's only fair; he's been selling the same product to you repeatedly, called "Office", with occasional changes of veneer.
MS Office is really the AC/DC of software.

Re:If there was any proof....

[fataugie]

And honestly, don't most corporations carry insurance for their upper management to cover this sort of thing (personal lawsuits)? Unless they have something really damning, the worst that would happen is the insurance would pay off.

These guys aren't in the Enron/Global Crossing/Tyco realm....they're just fucking idiots.

Re:If there was any proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

If there is any justice, the executives and the lawyers are held liable. Why include the lawyers? While it was a frivolous lawsuit brought by the company, the lawyers were the ones executing dirty tactics in the court while getting paid by the millions. They knew well what they were doing.

Re:If there was any proof....

[Eggplant62]

Yahbut, if you look closely at the entire history of the case, you'll find that there was intent to deceive from the get-go. Darl and his minions all thought up this neato scheme to defraud everyone by claiming their IP was in Linux in hopes that someone would pay them off to shut them up. Unfortunately, IBM fought them tooth and nail through purposefully-prolonged discovery shenanigans. Novell noticed the stink and put in their two cents, contracturally directing their proxy, The SCO Group to stand down from their threats. TSG decided instead to carry on the FUD at the behest of their master, the big software monopoly out in the Northwest, damn the torpedoes. Unfortunately for the masters, they didn't get enough fear, uncertainty and doubt out of the whole picture to ensure a big win with the new bloatware OS of the year to get anyone to buy it. Instead, we've got major PC manufacturers selling preloaded boxes carrying Linux picking up a nice segment of the market now.

Surely someone will be drawn and quartered in there for the lies and coverups necessary to try to make it all believable.

Re:If there was any proof....

[Methuselah2]

They still have SCO's good name to sell, don't they? ;-)

Re:If there was any proof....

[toxic666]

Webster on Groklaw (a lawyer) says yes. Not criminal, but personal civil liability against the directors. There is already a finding by Kimball in Utah that the MS and Sun license money was converted (legal term) and should have gone to Novell. That opened them up to civil suits from Novell.

Re:If there was any proof....

[ArsonSmith]

1. Sell chair to Ballmer
2. Duck
3. Sell chair back to Ballmer
4. Duck
5. goto 3
6. profit

How do I get to 6 again?

Re:If there was any proof....

[Forge]

Sad but true.

The corporate vale is very thick. Odd as it seams, all SCO's management would need to do to get shafted royally is pay personal expenses directly from the company accounts and skip the AGM.

Re:If there was any proof....

[Anonymous Coward]

It's cause you've got a bug in your code, and some needless redundancy...

5 TotalProfit = 0 'forgot to add this one in
10 Sell chair to Ballmer
20 TotalProfit += ProfigProfit
30 Duck
40 Retrieve Chair
50 IF TotalProfit DesiredProfit THEN SellChair = RetrievedChair : goto 10
60 END

Re:If there was any proof....

[Opportunist]

I'd be wary here. Selling you the same old shit several times again and again is either already copyrighted by MS or EA.

Re:If there was any proof....

[HolyCrapSCOsux]

profit is a side effect. you should make profit a comment.

Re:If there was any proof....

[SargentDU]

You got the sequence wrong!
1. Sell chair to Ballmer
2. Profit!
3. Duck
4. goto 1
:)

Re:If there was any proof....

[jacquesm]

vale ? veil ?

Re:If there was any proof....

[Eggplant62]

Sell tickets for $125 a pop.

Re:If there was any proof....

[infonography]

You got the sequence wrong!

1. Sell chair to Ballmer

2. Profit!

3. Duck

4. goto 1 :) skip steps 3 & 4 jump to step 5

5. OUCH

6. PROFIT!! (lawsuit)

Re:If there was any proof....

[fwarren]

Why hold the lawyers responsible? Because as soon as they looked at the APA AND the fact that they knew or should have known that SCO called and AKSED for the pattens within 2 months of hiring Boise. They knew that their client did NOT own unix copyrights, all they owned was. 1. SCO Unixware 2. the righg to collect Unix license money and to pass 100% of it back to Novell 3. The right to receive 5% of that Unix license money back from Novel as payment for collecting it in the first place. 4. Any copyrights for new stuff they created since they acquired Unixware 5. The obligation to listen to Novel as far as who to sue/not sue collect/not collect in relation to Unix. Boise should have turned the case down. As an officer of the court they should have informed their client that they did not own any of the copyrights. That even if their was a cloud of doubt, once they phoned Novell for them, they had screwed the pooch and could not get them. That they did not have the right to terminate the license to AIX. That even if they had proof of Linux getting stuff from Unix via IBM, that they did not own those copyrights and should just "let it go". That they had no grounds to sue Novell for Slander of Title and every reason to believe that it would NOT be in the best interests of their client to do so. To not make an attempt to mitigate their clients damage by letting linux users know what they claimed to own. "You know you have stolen it, and we are going to let you continue to steal it and then you will have to pay us for it when we prove it in court four years from now", just does not fly as living up to the standard of being an office of the court. With what Boise should have known from day one, they should not have taken the case. If they figured it out later, they should have persuaded their client to change what they were doing, even if it meant losing the case. All of this does not even take into account the fact that the Unix copyrights are so muddied by the amount of material that has been published about the inner workings of UNIX that there pretty much are not trade secretes or protected materials that had not already been exposed. That SCO was a member of UnitedLinux and had a covenant to NOT sue other members. Thta SCO had distributed and continued to distribute LINUX with the very "IBM" included stuff in the linux kernel, so they were furthing their own harm. Yup, the judge should bitch slap them back to 2003. Then put their head on a pike as a reminder to other lawyers that no matter how large the retainer is, you can't get away with taking a case that you know is a sham and just walk away from it at the end.

Re:If there was any proof....

[RAMMS EIN]

``You could probably sell the same chair back to Ballmer several times :)''

So that's where they got the idea...

Re:If there was any proof....

[janrinok]

seam seem?

Re:If there was any proof....

[steelfood]

You're not selling him the chair, you're selling him the "right to throw."

Re:If there was any proof....

[rtb61]

This excludes trading whilst insolvent. All Novell needs to prove is SCO did or should have been aware of it's fiscal liabilities to Novell which SCO failed to pay with in the appropriate time whilst SCO used those monies to fund a civil suit against IBM, which based upon the information released to the press to pump up the stock price compared to the actual evidence submitted in court reasonably stood no chance in hell of ever being successful.

So it would be up to the SEC to pursue SCO and based upon that case Novell could the pursue SCO's executive team and other parties.

Obligatory Futurama Reference

[Apple Acolyte]

"Once again the conservative sandwich-heavy portfolio pays of for the hungry investor!" - Dr. Zoidberg

I wonder if you could get a sandwich with SCO stock right now. . . .

Re:Obligatory Futurama Reference

[Tridus]

Well, the paper the stock is printed on (if they still printed stocks) is worth more then the Zimbabwe dollar, so you could probably get a sandwich there if you had a few million shares.

Re:Obligatory Futurama Reference

[Zeinfeld]

From the release: The SCO Group is a leading provider of UNIX software technology and mobile services.

Guess that means Microsoft can declare victory then.

Printed SCO stock certificates will probably be worth something in years to come as curiosity items, only problem is that very few paper certificates are likely to exist. Most stock is held in street names these days.

Novell will end up with slightly more than the furniture, they will obtain title to all SCO copyright material. At this point the safest thing to do is probably to put them in the public domain.

Re:Obligatory Futurama Reference

[Dachannien]

Leela: Zoidberg owned 51% of the company?
Hermes: The shares were worthless, and he kept asking for toilet paper!

Re:Obligatory Futurama Reference

[Firethorn]

When I read this I imagined being handed a sandwich from a local vender wrapped in SCO stock - much like fish&chips used to be wrapped in newspaper...

Re:Obligatory Futurama Reference

[Opportunist]

Maybe not, but they make ok wrapping material.

New stock symbol

[Just Some Guy]

$0.18 to $0.12 in 45 minutes. Impressive!

Re:New stock symbol

[Ang31us]

Thanks for the link. I especially love the earnings per share at N/A and the price to earnings ratio at N/A. Great business model, Darl!

Re:New stock symbol

[Anonymous Coward]

The ticker suffix "PK" means "Pink Sheets". SCO stock is like an off-off-off-OFF Broadway show now.

Re:New stock symbol

[techpawn]

I know it's denoting de-listing but I was hoping for FSCK

Re:New stock symbol

[MMC Monster]

There was a guy a while back who put in a bid for 1337 shares at 0.07 cents, or something like that. He may end up owning the entire company. :-)

Re:New stock symbol

[budgenator]

nah the 1y Target Est: 5.00 is impressive, optimism springs eternal!

Re:New stock symbol

[archen]

Generally that happens to any stock that goes down. That doesn't mean the stock is necessarily garbage. I'm investing heavily in a stock with negative EPS and a P/E of "NA". Why? Because it's a good buy and the stock just happens to be in the toilet at the moment. Of course SCOX is a sinking ship and will never come back, however you can't deduce this just by EPS and P/E.

Re:New stock symbol

[Anonymous Coward]

Could a coalition of slashdot readers get together and buy a controlling stake?
Could they then restructure and sue the (now previous) executives and (previous) lawyers for acting against the interests of SCO?

Re:New stock symbol

[gbobeck]

I find the "1y Target Est: 5.00" field to be the most humorous.

Re:New stock symbol

[Ang31us]

I assume that the company you're investing in has the prospect for positive earnings in the future, correct? I don't need to know which stock it is (though I am curious), but would definitely like to know what makes you think it is a good buy, given negative earnings. Thanks.

Re:New stock symbol

[archen]

Well negative earnings is relative - we're generally talking about paper not real money. Mainly look at the sector for mortgages. ALL of them took a dive, good and bad. Are people in America just never going to need mortgages anymore? Of course they are, so it's just a matter of finding some stable companies that will pull out just fine. We're past the big dip now, and there are some rough times ahead but many of these companies have organized capital to weather the storm just fine. Of course listening to some crazy person on slashdot isn't a good idea, but if you do a little research you'll probably come to similar conclusions that I did.

Keep in mind that the stock market is extremely vulnerable to day trading anymore. If you could draw two graphs you'd find the stable sane level for about what the stock is worth, and the insane day-trading knee jerk graph which crosses the other one repeatedly with little reasoning. I typically think of terms within 5 years or so, so I'm fairly patient with where stocks go.

Dropping due to

[WillRobinson]

Institutional investors don't keep stock that is desisted, so its just being dumped. Bet they wish they did that yesterday.

Now, to pierce that corporate veil...

Re:Dropping due to

[Chrisq]

Of course we should remember that "they" could well include your pension fund.

Re:Dropping due to

[jedidiah]

...yet another good reason to trust no one else with "your" money.

If you don't understand it at all, don't delegate to someone who claims to.

Stocks are bad. Mutual funds are bad^2.

Keep in mind that some pension funds bought into those junk-bond style subprime mortgage investment products.

A little stupidity and a little greed you have the perfect sucker/mark. This is especially so if the mark happens to be in charge of a corporation, investment fund or pension fund.

Re:Dropping due to

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is your money? That is if you have any.

Re:Dropping due to

[PPH]

See? I told you folks to put your assets into that Nigerian fund years ago!

See if I ever e-mail you any more investmnet tips again.

Re:Dropping due to

[HardCase]

Institutional investors don't keep stock that is desisted, so its just being dumped. Bet they wish they did that yesterday.

Not to worry, the largest institutional investor owned about 600,000 shares as of September 30. A paltry .03% was owned by mutual funds and only 11% by institutional investors. Insider ownership? About 25%.

The real chuckle, to me, is the market cap - a whopping US$1.9 million.

In the words of the great orator Nelson...

[SirLurksAlot]

Haha!

Ding dong

[ozmanjusri]

Is the wicked witch finally dead yet?

No, the wicked witch is still spreading FUD.

She's down one Winkie now though.

Re:Ding dong

[cthulu_mt]

That article is from 2 years ago. How is that pertinent?

Re:Ding dong

[Rob T Firefly]

Ding dong.
Ding dong, yo.
Ding dong.

Re:Ding dong

[SirLurksAlot]

Your point would be more valid if you bothered to cite a more recent article, seeing as how this one was published "Thursday 18th November 2004."

Re:Ding dong

[dekemoose]

Make it three and we've got a deal

Re:Ding dong

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Yeah, geeks have been telling SCO to 'eat it' for years.

Re:Ding dong

[Foobar of Borg]

No, the wicked witch is still spreading FUD [theregister.co.uk].

He threatened to sue while in Singapore. Can't they cane him for that there (please)?

Re:Ding dong

[cthulu_mt]

Damn you simple math! My ancient nemesis.

Probably why I have a liberal arts degree and not something from a real subject.

Re:Ding dong

[orclevegam]

CUSTOMER: Here's one -- nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I'm not dead!
MORTICIAN: What?
CUSTOMER: Nothing -- here's your nine pence.
DEAD PERSON: I'm not dead!
MORTICIAN: Here -- he says he's not dead!
CUSTOMER: Yes, he is.
DEAD PERSON: I'm not!
MORTICIAN: He isn't.
CUSTOMER: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.
DEAD PERSON: I'm getting better!
CUSTOMER: No, you're not -- you'll be stone dead in a moment.
MORTICIAN: Oh, I can't take him like that -- it's against regulations.
DEAD PERSON: I don't want to go in the cart!
CUSTOMER: Oh, don't be such a baby.
MORTICIAN: I can't take him...
DEAD PERSON: I feel fine!
CUSTOMER: Oh, do us a favor...
MORTICIAN: I can't.
CUSTOMER: Well, can you hang around a couple of minutes? He won't be long.
MORTICIAN: Naaah, I got to go on to Robinson's -- they've lost nine today.
CUSTOMER: Well, when is your next round?
MORTICIAN: Thursday.
DEAD PERSON: I think I'll go for a walk.
CUSTOMER: You're not fooling anyone y'know. Look, isn't there something you can do?
DEAD PERSON: I feel happy... I feel happy.
[whop]
CUSTOMER: Ah, thanks very much.
MORTICIAN: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
CUSTOMER: Right.

Re:Ding dong

[pak9rabid]

Ding dong.
Ding dong, yo.
Ding dong.
I can't do another nickel!

What if...

[maroonhat]

Maybe that guy who is getting to set up his own office can "provide services" to SCO and get the furniture, then Novell can't even have that.

Re:What if...

[sm62704]

I hate euphemisms. By "provide services" do you mean something like this?

I stopped by Farley's after work for a beer, and I'm sitting there at a table sipping, listening to the annoying beeping of the illegal gambling machines that are in every bar in town when a skinny, ugly, skanky looking bitch sits down at my table.

"Hi, I like to fuck and smoke crack. My husband's in prison, he likes dick even more than I do. Ya wanna smoke some crack and fuck? Hey buy me a beer!"

The uncyclopedia has this to say about crack- "Crack is something that is sold by both drug dealers and prostitutes. The only difference is that a prostitute can wash her crack and sell it again."

-mcgrew

Okay then

[L337Motif]

Novell doesn't stand to get much more than SCO's furniture

I'm fine with that. One of my friends in Redmond could use a few more chairs.

Miguel.

Re:Okay then

[sm62704]

One of my friends in Redmond could use a few more chairs.

You lucky stiff. I need low friends in high places, but all I have are high friends in low places.

-mcgrew

Re: Still spreading FUD.

[Baron_Yam]

I think you need a more recent reference that 2004 to prove your point...

And so..

[Cleon]

Let us take a moment to remember SCO, and all that they did for us. For yea, they did take douchebaggery to new heights, and may their executives never again find work, and their lawyers develop sores. May their stockholders be infested with fleas in places they cannot scratch, and the offices that they occupied cursed for all time. As we prepare to bury this pitiful excuse for a company in the grave of history, may its death continue to be slow and painful.

And let us say:

Bwa ha ha. Ha ha. Ha ha.

Ha.

Re:And so..

[bwintx]

Mod parent UP, please!!

Re:And so..

[UnknowingFool]

You should really work "lamentation of their women" in there somewhere.

Re:And so..

[boyko.at.netqos]

At $0.12 a share, I'm wondering if we can't all buy one as a souvenir...

Re:And so..

[canuck57]

Let us take a moment to remember SCO, and all that they did for us. For yea, they did take douchebaggery to new heights, and may their executives never again find work, and their lawyers develop sores. May their stockholders be infested with fleas in places they cannot scratch, and the offices that they occupied cursed for all time. As we prepare to bury this pitiful excuse for a company in the grave of history, may its death continue to be slow and painful.

Let us not forget the Microsoft connection. From early versions of Zenix, SCO UNIX etc. the boot copyrights and later Microsoft contributions.

While the SCO head is on a death kneel, the other head is still very much alive and up to something.

Re:And so..

[Opportunist]

Wait a few more months, throw in a buck and you can buy the majority.

Re:And so..

[Anonymous Coward]

I know everyone has a go at SCO, but if I recall correctly they aren't the brains behind the sue, pump and dump. Caladara or something like that?

Re:And so..

[Anonymous Coward]

Open Sores.

Re:And so..

[NormalVisual]

Don't forget the whole "see your enemies driven before you" part, too.

Why the 6-day delay?

[davidwr]

The letter is dated 12/21. Why did it take until 12/27 to make the newswires?

Either SCO got it but didn't release it, or SCO didn't get it in a timely manner.

This should have been released to the public at least 1 trading day before the effective date.

Re:Why the 6-day delay?

[peragrin]

This is SCO we are talking about. they probably released the letter after close yesterday on purpose.

Re:Why the 6-day delay?

[daeg]

It would be interesting to find out who unloaded their stock between the 21 and 26 of December.

Re:Why the 6-day delay?

[sm62704]

Why did it take until 12/27 to make the newswires?

Slashdot has the slowest firehose on the planet!

Re:Why the 6-day delay?

[Jim Hall]

It took until 12/27 to hit the newswires because the SCO press release is dated 12/27. The newswires picked it up the same day, today.

Re:Why the 6-day delay?

[hawk]

>The letter is dated 12/21. Why did it take until 12/27 to make the newswires?

They transmitted it over what was left of their networking stack . . .

hawk

Great quotes from SCO's CEO

[Ang31us]

Some of my favorite quotes from Darl McBride: "And C++ programming languages, we own those, have licensed them out multiple times, obviously. We have a lot of royalties coming to us from C++." "Obviously Linux owes its heritage to UNIX, but not its code. We would not, nor will not, make such a claim." "We didn't start this, but we're going to finish it."

Not dead yet

[Archangel Michael]

Tis but a flesh wound.

----

I'm not dead yet .... Shuddup

Re:Not dead yet

[BlueParrot]

Allright, lets call it a draw.

Re:Not dead yet

[Anonymous Coward]

I say, leave the Boo Radley alone!

Re:Paraphrased Obligatory Futurama Reference

[techpawn]

Hermes: Those boots cost me 99 dollars and 98 cents. You invest it how you want...
Hermes Son: I'm going to buy two shares of SCO!
Hermes: Oh! A risk taker!

SCO yard sale

[Billosaur]

Chairs... conference tables... lights... cubicles... free copy of Unix with each purchase...

McBride Goeth Before a Fall.

[h4rm0ny]

So the company is dirt. What's happened to the litigious bastards responsible? Has Darl McBride got away with a fat severance package and a job at Microsoft, or did the directors of SCO go down with their ship in any meaningful way?

Re:McBride Goeth Before a Fall.

[badasscat]

Has Darl McBride got away with a fat severance package and a job at Microsoft, or did the directors of SCO go down with their ship in any meaningful way?

Darl McBride continues to be with the company, as do most of the other important company directors.

As with every other piece of SCO news, people around here are overreacting to this. Being de-listed from the NASDAQ doesn't really mean a whole lot, because they weren't counting on using any investor money at this point anyway. They've put all their financial eggs in one basket, and that's the lawsuits. And those are continuing; SCO has even said they'll appeal the Novell ruling.

This doesn't mean SCO is "dead", not any more than they were yesterday or the day before anyway. Essentially all that's changed is that you won't be able to point and laugh at them on Yahoo Finance anymore.

It's maybe one more nail in the coffin, but they've been building that coffin for a while now, and it's still not finished yet.

Re:McBride Goeth Before a Fall.

[fwarren]

It is not likely that they will appeal. Standard operating procedure is they have to put up some money into a trust in case Novell does prevail. They don't have the money to put in the trust. Even if the US Bankruptcy Trustee would green light the deal. So they can claim they have been wronged all day long and that they will appeal.

Practically speaking the only way they can even have a chance with IBM is if they can fulfill step one in the process. Who owns the copyrights. SCO has to own them to be able to continue with the case. Until they win IBM or come out of bankruptcy, they don't have them money to appeal the Novell decision. Until they appeal the Novell decision, they don't have a chance of owning the copyrights they need to win the IBM case. Thus a perfect chicken and the egg or catch 22 scenario.

Re:McBride Goeth Before a Fall.

[hawk]

He;ll receive first pick of the remaining shares and all of the IP he can carry . . . :)

hawk

Re:McBride Goeth Before a Fall.

[trolltalk.com]

"Essentially all that's changed is that you won't be able to point and laugh at them on Yahoo Finance anymore."

Wanna bet? Alternate link to yahoo message board for SCOX.

If anyone deserves to be kicked on the way down, its' these SCOXsuckers ...

Re:McBride Goeth Before a Fall.

[Helldesk Hound]

> Has Darl McBride got away with a fat severance package and a job at
> Microsoft, or did the directors of SCO go down with their ship in
> any meaningful way?

I'd say that Darl has gone down ON SCO - and given it something nasty, something incurable and fatal.

Surely no reputable corporation would hire this person unless they're wanting to hire devious, immoral, trash in order to do something dodgy.

Re:McBride Goeth Before a Fall.

[Anonymous Coward]

SCO has even said they'll appeal the Novell ruling.

Just like the knights in Monty Python where the head left on the ground is screaming "Coward" at the guy on the horse. Or somesuch.

I think i speak for everyone when i say

[blhack]

Dear Sco:

It was fun, but please DIAF (oops, too late).

Love,
The Community

P.S. F*CK YOU!

poor SCO

[JeanBaptiste]

guess I should have paid my $699 licensing fee.

Re:poor SCO

[Nimey]

...you cock-smoking teabagger.

Re: Still spreading FUD.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/108829.asp (2006)
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/ (2007)

You know, that google thing...

So why does everyone hate SCO?

[maillemaker]

So I missed the big hate party. Why does everyone dislike SCO?

Re:So why does everyone hate SCO?

[greg1104]

SCO substantially slowed the use of Linux in corporations by suing IBM in 2003 and threating businesses with their own lawsuits if they used Linux. Their claims were on legally shaky ground and it was obvious to anyone who looked at the short "infringing" code samples that leaked out that their case was based on either gross incompetence or downright fraud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_v._IBM has a good summary of how that played out on the legal+technical side.

Re:So why does everyone hate SCO?

[orclevegam]

In addition to what greg1104 said it should be noted that SCO already had prior history with patent/copyright trolling. Based on their previous history it was fairly obvious that they hoped the lawsuit they brought against IBM would be settled quickly out of court rather than having to actually defend their ludicrous claims earning them a quick cash infusion for little actual work. When IBM failed to roll over and instead bit back they got caught trying to prove the un-provable, but continued to insist all along that they were right while tossing out every excuse they could come up with to buy time. They probably would have been dead in the water long ago, but it seems that Microsoft and various parties (strongly suspected to be Microsoft shills) bought ridiculous numbers of bogus "licenses" from SCO to help shore up SCOs bank account. Of course after many long years of SCO screaming their fool head off that they own Linux (among many other stupid claims) they've finally been beaten into the smear on the concrete that we all knew they were to begin with. This is merely the final act where they get the hose out and wash them into the gutter.

Re:So why does everyone hate SCO?

[LiquidCoooled]

I wouldn't say slowed.
If anything SCO has done more than any other organisation at managing to get Linux on the lips of the upper management.

Remember, any publicity is good publicity.

Re:So why does everyone hate SCO?

[gtall]

Final act? I think not. There is still the Novell litigation, the IBM case, and the case in Europe. And as long as Gates and Ballmer are allowed to run free, it really cannot be over.

Gerry

Re:So why does everyone hate SCO?

[CatoNine]

Well, I was there for the hate party. (I was even there for their surprise let's-bring-this-cool-UNIX-thingy-to-PCs-so everybody-can-use-it-and-call-it-XENIX party). But thanks for these execellent and readable summaries.

Re:So why does everyone hate SCO?

[orclevegam]

It should also be noted that the SCO of today isn't the original SCO. A number of years back they changed their name from Caldera Systems to "The SCO Group" and are referred to informally as SCO. The original SCO (that is Santa Cruz Operation) sold their Unix divisions (among others) to Caldera Systems (now SCO) who at the time were primarily a distributor of a custom Linux distribution. The current SCO has never really done much innovation of any sort preferring instead to buy successful technologies and then litigate about them (as they did with DR-DOS after they purchased it from Novell).

Segway

[imstanny]

Not the scooter...What do you think about Openwave? From this year's performance, they're following in SCO's footsteps...

Re:Segway

[yincrash]

The word you're looking for is 'segue'.

Re:Segway

[ArsonSmith]

Eww! Eww! yes!! We need a new villain.

Re:Segway

[Opportunist]

What? Did MS go bankrupt and Thompson have a stroke?

Gee, be gone for Chrismas and all hell breaks loose!

The very best thing about this press release

[Gossi]

...is SCO's blurb at the bottom. I quote: "SCO owns the core UNIX operating system, originally developed by AT&T/Bell Labs and is the exclusive licensor to UNIX-based system software providers". Uhm, SCO...

Re:The very best thing about this press release

[Kazymyr]

Beh. Anyone can put anything on a web page. Just because mine says "I'm the Creator of the Universe, the Alpha and Omega" doesn't make me that. Or so they say.

Re:The very best thing about this press release

[swillden]

SCO owns the core UNIX operating system, originally developed by AT&T/Bell Labs and is the exclusive licensor to UNIX-based system software providers

Actually, that might just be true. The second part (exclusive licensor) is true, actually. The first part depends on what "owns the core UNIX operating system means". It's pretty clear they don't own the copyrights on AT&T UNIX, and the definitely don't own the UNIX trademarks, but you could interpret "exclusive licensor" as "owner" without too much stretching.

In any case, whatever they are or are not, they're not going to continue being for too much longer.

Re:The very best thing about this press release

[Anonymous Coward]

"I'm the Creator of the Universe, the Alpha and Omega"

All hail Kazymyr, benevolent Lord Universal, Spirit Eternal, most Righteous one!

Re:The very best thing about this press release

[jacquesm]

Well, as they say anybody claiming to be the messiah will have a following, I never believed that until now.

Re:The very best thing about this press release

[owlstead]

Phew. Imagine the license fee.

Re:The very best thing about this press release

[Kazymyr]

Thanks. Now I have a signature.

Re:The very best thing about this press release

[Anonymous Coward]

small 'm' messiah is one thing... big 'M' Messiah has a little larger qualifications to meet, include when to appear based on political and social events and even having someone leading the way, proclaiming in the desert... so the big 'M' has a very constrained obligation to meet.

Re:The very best thing about this press release

[Darby]

All hail Kazymyr, benevolent Lord Universal, Spirit Eternal, most Righteous one!

Hmmm what do you have to offer for my eternal devotion?

The current bid stands at a beer volcano and a stripper factory.

Re:The very best thing about this press release

[Kazymyr]

I'll take a cue from the Catholic church on this one.

I will NOT have you burn in hell for all eternity. There. Satisfied?

Re:The very best thing about this press release

[Darby]

I will NOT have you burn in hell for all eternity. There. Satisfied?

I dunno, I could just go with Catholicism. It has that plus ritualized cannibalism and an aerobics program (sit stand kneel etc.)

I think I'll have to stick with the FSM though ;-)

all I have to say about SCO's delisting is

[aslan963]

HA HA

Somewhat amusing

[conureman]

" About SCO

The SCO Group is a leading provider of UNIX software technology and mobile services."
I think I like the Nelson Muntz quote best.

My Favorite Christmas Song

[DoctorPepper]

"All I want for Christmas is to see SCO die"

Re:My Favorite Christmas Song

[tobiasly]

Merry Fucking Christmas, Darl!

Furniture?

[kpainter]

Novell doesn't stand to get much more than SCO's furniture The fumigation costs alone would make that a bad deal for Novell. First, you would have to scrape all that slime off.

SCO's furniture

[oahazmatt]

Novell doesn't stand to get much more than SCO's furniture...

Why do I have the feeling McBride's sofa is sewn together from the pelts of one thousand penguins?

Re:SCO's furniture

[flyingfsck]

Bird pelt? Dude, you really need to visit an educational zoo some time. ;)

Redundant karma whoring

[Ubi_NL]

The funniest IRC quote ever (and happy to burn modpoints for it, as this will doubtlessly be flamed down):

From http://bash.org/?106579
Topic in #os: hey guyz, stop pickin on irix.
<SCO> w00t! i bought unix! im gonna b so rich!
<novell> /msg atnt haha. idiot.
<novell> whoops. was that out loud?
<atnt> rotfl
<ibm> lol
<SCO> why r u laffin at me?
<novell> dude, unix is so 10 years ago. linux is in now.
<SCO> wtf?
<SCO> hey guyz, i bought caldera, I have linux now.
<red_hat> haha, your linux sucks.
<novell> lol
<atnt> lol
<ibm> lol
<SCO> no wayz, i will sell more linux than u!
<ibm> your linux sucks, you should look at SuSE
<SuSE> Ja. Wir bilden gutes Linux f&#252;r IBM.
<SCO> can we do linux with you?
<SuSE> Ich bin nicht sicher...
<ibm> *cough*
<SuSE> Gut lassen Sie uns vereinigen.
* SuSE is now SuSE[UL]
* SCO is now caldera[UL]
<turbolinux> can we play?
<conectiva> we're bored... we'll go too.
<ibm> sure!
* turbolinux is now turbolinux[UL]
* conectiva is now conectiva[UL]
<ibm> redhat: you should join!
<SuSE[UL]> Ja! Wir sind vereinigtes Linux. Widerstand ist vergeblich.
<red_hat> haha. no.
<red_hat> lamers.
<ibm> what about you debian?
<debian> we'll discuss it and let you know in 5 years.
<caldera[UL]> no one wants my linux!
<turbolinux[UL]> i got owned.
<caldera[UL]> u all tricked me. linux is lame.
* caldera[UL] is now known as SCO
<SCO> i'm going back to unix.
<SGI> yeah! want to do unix with me?
<SCO> haha. no. lamer.
<novell> lol
<ibm> snap!
<SGI> :~(
<SCO> hey, u shut up. im gonna sue u ibm.
<ibm> wtf?
<SCO> yea, you stole all the good stuff from unix.
<red_hat> lol
<SuSE[UL]> heraus laut lachen
<ibm> lol
<SCO> shutup. i'm gonna email all your friends and tell them you suck.
<ibm> go ahead. baby.
<SCO> andandand... i revoke your unix! how do you like that?
<ibm> oh no, you didn't. AIX is forever.
<novell> actually, we still own unix, you can't do that.
<SCO> wtf? we bought it from u.
<novell> whoops. our bad.
<SCO> i own u. haha
<SCO> ibm: give me all your AIX now!
<ibm> whatever. lamer.
* ibm sets mode +b SCO!*@*
* SCO has been kicked from #os (own this.)

Re:Redundant karma whoring

[Pecisk]

Hahah, I think this is 4 year old, as I remember :)

Owns :D

Re:Redundant karma whoring

[greeze]

I've never seen this before. In addition to being hilarious, it's also the best history lesson I've ever received.

Re:Redundant karma whoring

[ArsonSmith]

That is so sad. What makes it so sad is I read your post and thought, "Me too."

Re:Redundant karma whoring

[mikehoskins]

I hadn't seen it, either. That is/was awesome! :-)

Normally I'd vote this kind of story down

[sm62704]

I mean, I don't care about financial matters or stocks or suh, I'm a nerd. Money, to me, is just a tool, an easy way to trade goods and services. The kind of person who eagerly seeks financial news and links to the WSJ and the like worships money. I think worshiping oes' tools is foolish.

But SCO is different. So YAY SLASHDOT! The only thing I'd like to see different is a) for McBride to go to prison for fraud and b) Sony to get delisted.

-mcgrew
Happy nude year!

Re:Normally I'd vote this kind of story down

[Opportunist]

Money, to me, is just a tool, an easy way to trade goods and services.

Hand in your geek license right now. You get it back when you installed a bittorrent client.

Re:Normally I'd vote this kind of story down

[sm62704]

1. My nerd license was suspended last week, I got laid
2. I already have bittorrent installed
3. Money is for tangible goods and services, bittorrent is for bits. I can't (yet) trade my electronic gizmos for reefer through bittorrent (but just wait a while and you can, I'll be dead)

Re: Still spreading FUD.

[Baron_Yam]

Try harder. 2007/May/28 isn't all that recent either.

Besides, why should I Google when I'm not the one making a claim? I'm pointing out that the evidence provided so far is out of date.

But most important question NOW is:

[Anonymous Coward]

Was Microsoft behind the curtain or McBride and his gang did it by themselves?
If not, let's celebrate the end of SCO.
If yes, doesn't the Novell-MS agreement stink a bit more now?

Re:But most important question NOW is:

[Kazymyr]

You won't be surprised to find that the answer is 'yes' - on all counts.

Re:But most important question NOW is:

[canuck57]

Was Microsoft behind the curtain or McBride and his gang did it by themselves?

Everyone knows MS was behind the curtain.

If not, let's celebrate the end of SCO.

Why would that make a difference? Lets rejoice in SCO dieing! Let MS run and sneak away, their time is coming. Maybe many years off, but a coming.

If yes, doesn't the Novell-MS agreement stink a bit more now?

Sinks/stinks in real good. Novell isn't going sue one of SCO's biggest backers they have a sourcing agreement with, MS. Real dumb move on Novell's part as they did need to develop/support SUSE and forget MS promises. The executive should be fired.

Is Darl in jail yet?

[roystgnr]

No? And he's still got all the money he made via his pump-and-dump, too?

Then the bad guys won. The fact that they managed to hurt stupid greedy investors more than honest innocent competitors does little to mitigate their victory.

Re:Is Darl in jail yet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Aren't you glad our big government came to the rescue and made things right? Oh, wait...

Re:Is Darl in jail yet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is Darl in jail yet?

McBubbas are still awaiting the arrival of their McBride and making plans to demonstrate their version of pump and dump with their new McBride.

Re:Is Darl in jail yet?

[Opportunist]

You are aware that those greedy investors do so with the money from normal people who want to build up a nestegg for retirement, yes?

In fact, as long as the people responsible for this pump'n'dump game are free to enjoy their spoils, this is a loss-loss situation.

Re: Still spreading FUD.

[Anonymous Coward]

Besides, why should I Google when I'm not the one making a claim?

The claim was yours, that the info is outdated. It is not, as MS reiterated that position and holds to those claims, which makes your "2007 is not enough up to date" a laughable rethoric trick.

Another more general reason to google up things is not to pollute discussion forums with baseless speculation.
But of course, people that try to stay informed are unlikely to side with microsoft, so you have a point.

The best move they could do now

[SigmundFloyd]

Now they have a way to redeem their memory forever: release SCO UNIX's full source code to the public domain.

Re:The best move they could do now

[SnarfQuest]

According to SCO, most of it is already available: in Linux.

Re:The best move they could do now

[budgenator]

They don't own it, Novell owns it; SCOX thought they owned it. When they acquired Caldera they thought they acquired Unix and continued to believe that they owned it as in Trademarks, Copyrights, ad nauseum. What they actually own is in litigation, but everyone is certain it's not the copyright to the Unix SVR4 sources.

Time for a new "them"

[ibm1130]

Having run out the string on SCO, whom, one wonders, will M$ choose as their next sock puppet.

Re:Time for a new "them"

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, phase 2 has been their patent licensing agreements with various linux vendors. Novell was one of the first ones to jump on this bandwagon. I think linspire did the same.

Strangely enough, the captcha word for this post is "extorted"

Re:Time for a new "them"

[krenshala]

Having run out the string on SCO, whom, one wonders, will M$ choose as their next sock puppet.

umm ... i think you mispelt "stock puppet" ...

McBride et al giveth themselves bonuses!

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20061118000708715&query=SCO+bonus+executives

Just a curiosity...

[Z00L00K]

Is it possible that the complete control of SCO(X) can be transferred to Novell through a court decision?

(OK, Novell may not want it, but anyway)

And in that case - can the board of SCO(X) be held liable for anything? It seems to me that if anything - the board of SCO(X) has at least deceived the share holders.

The only good thing that may come out of this is that it serves as a wakeup-call for investors since they will be a bit more aware that the course taken was bad for business. If I was an investor I would be a bit more careful with businesses that triggers legal actions - especially if the case looks weak.

Re:Just a curiosity...

[Anonymous Coward]

AFAIK a court decision can't transfer the control of the company to another one.

However, control has already been partially transferred to the trustee handling the bankruptcy. A court decision could make Novell the most significant creditor, giving them a lot of leverage in the bankruptcy proceedings.

The most likely outcome in any case is that the bankruptcy proceeds to chapter 7 and the remaining assets of SCO are divided among the creditors.

I'll liquidate it for them

[HangingChad]

Novell doesn't stand to get much more than SCO's furniture,

I'll be happy to liquidate it for them. Imagine being able to sell SCO office furniture on eBay? Along with a certificate of authenticity. Heck, I'd bid on a piece myself. It's like owning a piece of the Titanic of tech history.

Re:I'll liquidate it for them

[boyko.at.netqos]

Uh, it's not the Titanic of tech history. No one on the Titanic was going: "We did NOT hit an iceberg, the ship is NOT sinking."

It's the Bush Administration of tech history.

Re:I'll liquidate it for them

[ArsonSmith]

Actually part of the problem was that people thought they did hit an iceberg but that the ship was still "unsinkable" Otherwise evacuation of the ship would have started earlier and more people would have survived.

Re:I'll liquidate it for them

[Opportunist]

Ohhh... I know, it's bad form. But: A joke.

You know, the Titanic was supposed to be raised many times over the years.

First, under the Wilson administration, they were interested in the technology.
Then, under Reagan, they were interested in the gold in the safes.
Now, under the Bush administration, they're keen on getting the band that still kept playing while the ship was sinking.

Re:I'll liquidate it for them

[HangingChad]

Now, under the Bush administration, they're keen on getting the band that still kept playing while the ship was sinking.

Hehe. Good one.

SCO's new home

[figa]

SCO is listed on Pinksheets.

Re:McBride et al giveth themselves bonuses!

[Jason Levine]

That must have been for their brilliant strategy of getting the stock price to go from $1.85 (02/28/2003 - Just before SCO sued "Linux") to $19.41 (09/14/2003) to $0.13 just over 50 months later. It takes a real talent to destroy a company like that. Of course, that's the kind of talent I wouldn't want running my company, but what do I know? I'm not management. (*checks hair* - Nope, not pointy.)

A late christmas present!

[downix]

It appears that yes, there is indeed a santa claus!

Re:A late christmas present!

[Opportunist]

Darl must've been a naughty, naughty boy this year...

They have bright futures ahead

[cgenman]

How do these people have anything other than bright futures ahead? The directors have all been high-profile people in the news for many, many years now. Daryl McBride probably has a slew of potential opportunities in front of him. He should have no problem getting tons of offer letters, considering how well known his name is and the unique experiences that he has had (like trying to sue every company in america).

I'm sure we'll see him as the CEO of Royal Crown soon, suing Coke and Pepsi for stealing his formula.

Re:They have bright futures ahead

[VE3MTM]

If I were on the board of [insert large corporation here], I know I would say "hell no" to hiring him. He already drove SCO straight into the ground and turned their name, their trademarks, into a farce. Would you really want him running your business? What would make any board of directors *want* him running their company?

Re:They have bright futures ahead

[Anonymous Coward]

Never heard of a hatchet man hmmm? I mean, look at Dave "I'm a redneck ceo so I'll make offensive gay jokes by email even if this is San Francisco" Hills over at LookSmart, that's the sort of opportunity he needs. Oh boy I better remember to check that anonymous button.

Re:They have bright futures ahead

[falconwolf]

If I were on the board of [insert large corporation here], I know I would say "hell no" to hiring him. He already drove SCO straight into the ground and turned their name, their trademarks, into a farce. Would you really want him running your business? What would make any board of directors *want* him running their company?

A board could make him president so he inflates the stock price and they dump the shares they own before it tanks. However now that the market is onto that trick the market may not fall for it.

Falcon

SCO's botched endgame

[Animats]

For those of you who don't follow this mess, SCO voluntarily went into bankruptcy in September, the day before the SCO vs. Novell trial was to start. This stopped that case. For about two months. Novell asked the bankruptcy judge to let their case continue. After frantic maneuvers from SCO, which went nowhere, the bankruptcy judge let the Novell case proceed. It will go to trial in January or February. The only remaining issue there is how much money SCO owes Novell. SCO already lost on the "who owns UNIX copyrights" issue; Novell owns them.

The IBM and Red Hat cases are still pending, so if anybody wants to buy up SCO (the company's entire market cap is only $2.4 million today), they'd be stuck with those potential liabilities, on top of the Novell liability. That's why nobody is snapping up the remains of the company.

Plan on visiting the liquidation auction some time next summer.

Re:SCO's botched endgame

[phrostie]

and Mcbribe gets to laugh all the way to the bank after giving himself and his cohorts all those raises and bonuses

Re:SCO's botched endgame

[Firethorn]

This might make for an interesting question:

Could the stockholders go after Mcbride and othe SCO executives for mismanagement and such?

Re:SCO's botched endgame

[gtall]

Almost, the Novell case is unstayed, and Judge Kimball gets to figure out how much of Novell's money SCO stole by not turning over unix license revenue. But the bankruptcy judge will determine how much of that Novell should get. They won't get anything because SCO is busy burning through every last penny on some truly outstanding examples of lawyering into the wind, a relative of pissing into the wind.

Gerry

Re:SCO's botched endgame

[CrimsonAvenger]

No. Stolen money doesn't come under bankruptcy control. Novell basically gets everything that was stolen, up to the limit of SCO's assets.

In addition, the Backruptcy Judge can order that SCO's management disgorge some of those salaries and bonuses, if he likes. And turn that over to Novell.

Not dead according to them!

[Chrisq]

From SCO site:

SCO intends to maintain business as usual throughout the Chapter 11 proceedings. Subject to court approval, SCO will use the cash flow from its operations to meet its capital needs throughout the reorganization process.

Other companies such as Delta Airlines, Texaco, Dow Corning, K-Mart, United Airlines, Toys R' Us, Macy's Department Stores and others have emerged from Chapter 11 protection after restructuring themselves for success. We intend to do the same.

Re:Not dead according to them!

[oahazmatt]

Other companies such as Delta Airlines, Texaco, Dow Corning, K-Mart, United Airlines, Toys R' Us, Macy's Department Stores and others have emerged from Chapter 11 protection after restructuring themselves for success. We intend to do the same.

Of course, there's the other side of the spectrum. My first tech job went under when the CEO paniced and spent so much time trying to unload the company to a corporation that he had to sell it for pennies on the dollar. And one of my favorite comic book publishers, CrossGen, had a line of titles that people actually bought, but due to a poor return policy and overstock found themselves drowning in debt.

Plus, the aforementioned companies by SCO had a reasonable business model. Travel, clothing, entertainment, etc. What has SCO produced that anyone can name off the top of their head, other than an outrageous claim to ownership of Unix?

Re:Not dead according to them!

[Anonymous Coward]

And who will be doing business with them after all this mess? I wouldn't want to buy anything from such jerks.

Re:Not dead according to them!

[drseuk]

Groklaw: I'll tell you what's wrong with you, my lad. YOU's dead, that's what's wrong with you!

SCO: No, no, we's uh,...we's resting.

With grateful apologies to Monty Python / http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/monty-python-parrot.html

Furniture auction on E-Bay...

[hardaker]

SCO stuff may be finally worth something...

1) go bankrupt
2) sell furniture on EBay
3) get amazed when Darryl's chair sells for one millllion dollars
4) profit!!!

Look MA, no question marks!

Re:Furniture auction on E-Bay...

[calebt3]

3.5) Get even more amazed when you notice that chairs in the company (including Darryl's after a considerable bid war) were bought by the same bidder and they are now being shipped to Redmond, WA.

Mod parent up

[R2.0]

"If there is any justice, the executives and the lawyers are held liable. Why include the lawyers? While it was a frivolous lawsuit brought by the company, the lawyers were the ones executing dirty tactics in the court while getting paid by the millions. They knew well what they were doing."

It's worse than that - part of their compensation was stock. That means that they were
a) part owners of the company, and
b) they had an inherent conflict of interest as officers of the court. They had a huge incentive to act unethically with the lawsuit - they didn't get paid unless SCOX stayed at a high value, which is substantially different from getting paid if they won the suit.

sco.com and caldera.com domains should have worth

[GodWasAnAlien]

A 3 letter domain is always valuable. And Caldera. That a great name for a company or product. Perhaps Novell could rename there obscure SuSe LiNuX DiStRiBuTiOn.

The Next Story we'd all love to see:

[some old guy]

Dateline: Last surviving .bomb yuppie bar in Cupertino In a massive blow to software ogre Microsoft, Novell/SUSE and Google today announced the free download availability of "Google Linux...powered by SuSE". Robert Love, where are you?

Restructuring for success - Top Ten list

[Weaselmancer]

Ok, let's do a David Letterman style top-10 list on ways SCO could "restructure themselves for success"! Ready?

• #10, Rent Darl out as a dummy to Jeff Dunham
• #9, Go into the fertilizer business
• #8, Build a transporter and beam themselves to Bizarro world
• #7, Get all Shakespeare in their "reorganization" and kill all their lawyers
• #6, Block Redmond at their firewall so they don't get any more great ideas from "those guys"
• #5, Pie. Sell Pie. Who doesn't like pie?
• #4, Move to Montana and be a dental floss tycoon
• #3, Try to claim copyright on Windows next and get Linus to pay them
• #2, Soylent Lawyer
• And the #1 way for SCO to restructure themselves for success - Make a fucking product!

Re:sco.com and caldera.com domains should have wor

[some old guy]

1337 is SO 90's...

Uh, folks, SCO isn't going anywhere

[flieghund]

Sorry to rain on everyone's parade, but SCO filed for Chapter 11 (reorganization), not Chapter 7 (liquidation). To quote this guy from Texas:

Businesses may used Chapter 7 bankruptcy to liquidate or Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize their business and repay their debts over a period of years under a "plan." Business that want to continue as going concerns must use Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

So no used furniture for Novell, SteveB or anyone else. IANAL, but IIRC on the plus side Chapter 11 doesn't discharge debts or prevent the acquisition of new ones (e.g., a new court-imposed fine), it just delays lenders' abilities to collect until the company emerges from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and obligates lenders to accept reasonable repayment terms as approved by the bankruptcy court.

Re:Uh, folks, SCO isn't going anywhere

[Opportunist]

But a Chapter 11 is also not a "get out of jail" (or, in this case, get out of debt) card. As you pointed out, it buys time. It doesn't really solve anything for the company affected.

In reality, it often does, because creditors start getting a bit more lenient in the hope of getting more of their money (instead of getting little or nothing if they press too hard and drive the company into a chapter 7). Though I doubt that there will be a relaxed attitude towards SCO. Yes, other companies (list on SCO's page, as a "look, they did it too and it turned out great" list) have had similar problems. The difference is: Those companies actually had something to sell, something that could get them out of debt.

What does SCO have? And I'm not talking about office chairs or domain names, I don't talk about assets to liquidate (because then the company is done for), I'm talking about products.

Re:Uh, folks, SCO isn't going anywhere

[sopwith]

Companies heading into chapter 7 sometimes get there via chapter 11, because ch11 gives them more control over the how & when, and is more likely to preserve the business intact in case it can be sold as a whole. Chapter 7 is still a distinct possibility because of this, and because getting a chapter 11 plan approved requires demonstrating that it will benefit the creditors more than chapter 7. I think the main question is how much potential there is for future revenues from any existing customers who are stuck with SCO boxes - there may be enough to keep SCO alive for a while yet...

The SEC should investigate

[stites]

Under the law important news about a stock has to be released in such a way that all investors know what is happening. There should not be some investors who know the important news when they are trading and other investors who do not know the news when they are trading. Publicly traded companies handle this by either making the announcement after the close of trading for the day or by asking for a trading halt while the news disseminates. So SCO was correct to make the announcement after the close.

Where SCO acted incorrectly was in waiting 5 days to announce the news. This set up the opportunity for the people who knew that SCO was going to be delisted to trade on insider information. The SEC should investigate trading in SCOX shares between December 21 and December 26 to see if any insider trading in SCOX occurred.

-----------------------
Steve Stites

SCO's Delisting

[hackus]

Merry Freakin Christmas. :-)

-Hack

Duke and Duke

[Anonymous Coward]

Obvious yet relevant Trading Places film reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6cZUCa6Kyk.

SCO's "worth" 2.2 million now.

[Jason Levine]

According to Google Finance, there are 21.48 million shares of SCO stock ( http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=SCOX ).

As I post this, SCOXQ.PK is selling for 10 cents per share ( http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SCOXQ.PK ).

$0.10 * 21.48 million = $2.148 million. Who has an extra $2.2 million lying around to buy all of the shares of SCO? ;-) (Putting aside all questions as to why someone would *want* to.)

Interestingly, the market cap on SCO is being reported by Yahoo Finance as 1.80M. This seems to indicate to me that the stock might drop down to 8 cents per share.

Also interesting, apparently last year Darl acquired 100,000 copies of SCOX ( http://google.brand.edgar-online.com/fetchFilingFrameset.aspx?FilingID=4771077&Type=HTML ) at $2.30 per share. Assuming he still has them (I didn't see any sale documents), they've gone from being worth $230,000 to being worth $10,000. Way to grow that fortune, Darl! ;-)

Re:SCO's "worth" 2.2 million now.

[Marcion]

As I post this, SCOXQ.PK is selling for 10 cents per share

Yeah it is literally going down before our eyes as the computer programs of institutional investors automatically ditch the non-listed shares. I wonder if there are a load of Linux fans who shorted this thing at $15 and made thousands? (I wish I had!)

I reckon there are quite a lot of naked shorts out there that now have to now unravel so the price might bob up and down for a few days, but I am not sure that pink sheets can go on the Threshold Security List? Anyone know that?

Re:SCO's "worth" 2.2 million now.

[Marcion]

We might get getting a dead-cat bounce, but it has become so cheap that even a relatively small trade can affect the value. The volume moving through is pretty high, if the volume stays high for several days then there will be the naked shorts.

Re:SCO's "worth" 2.2 million now.

[DrSkwid]

Sound's like Darl & ESR have the same advisor

Where was the NASDAQ press release?

[davidwr]

I'm surprised the NASDAQ didn't release it after a reasonable period of time. Say, 4PM EDT 1 business day after they notified SCO. The 21st was Friday. If SCO received notification that day, then NASDAQ should have done a press release of its own when the markets closed early on Christmas Eve.

Threatening litigation? That's a paddlin'

[Anonymous Coward]

Where's Jasper when you need him?

http://www.saout.de/assets/jasper2.gif

Re:McBride et al giveth themselves bonuses!

[Marcion]

Yeah but did you see all the unpaid bills at restaurants, entertainment companies and such like. The employees seemed to have a hell of a time on the way down. Ran the company into the ground yes, but it seems Darl can throw a pretty good party...

Not quite time for the Munchkin Coroner

[andrewagill]

Ding dong, is the wicked witch finally dead yet?

It ain't over `till it's over, and the Munchkin Coroner is not yet ready to aver that SCO's not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead.

But I hear he's ordering new parchment.

What is the sound of Darl McBride's a$$...

[go$$amer]

finally hitting the floor anyway?

Had to ask.

Re:SCO's "worth" 2.2 million now. More likely not

[Herschel Cohen]

Taking a short position is time dependent, where you sold shares you do not own pocketing the difference only if the selling price was in net larger than the price you have to pay at the end of the period. That is, at a fixed date you have to buy shares to replace the ones you sold on speculation to pay back the real owners. It was your responsibility to make up the difference whatever the cost. If it went up, as it did mostly manipulating the closing price on thin trading trading volumes, you could have bankrupted yourself having to buy higher priced shares to clear your debt by the demand date.

Certainly the price went down overall, but shorting SCO was still a very risky bet. I was amazed seeing the price rise so many times with no real positive news. I could only conclude there were too many dumb traders with excess funds they were determined to lose. Nonetheless, it took a long time.

the 2003 esr open letter

[johnwbyrd]

Fascinating to go back and read Eric Raymond's 2003 rant, which in retrospect seems quite prescient.

Scog = very successful msft FUD PR stunt

[walterbyrd]

By now, the sco-scum are ready to toast their success, accept big fat going away bonuses, and move on to their next scam.

2007 was another stellar year. I'm sure Darl is still enjoying his $34K per month salary. But the scam is closing in on it's fith year, and everything must come to an end.

No need to worry about msft, I'm sure there are plenty of acacias out there to help msft with their fud-spewing PR stunts.

Scog is still spewing fud, still claiming to own the UNIX operating system. If nothing else, all issues about who owns what, and who can and can not be sued, and who owes what to who for the right to use whatever; have been thoroghly confused. For example, The Economist hardly got anything right. Except for a tiny handful of people who following this case very closely, nobody understand the truth of the situration at all. Most PHBs are just left with a vauge, uneasy, feeling about FOSS being a legal mine-field; which is just what msft wanted.

As I posted on groklaw, the SEC seems to be more than fair to scog. Martha Stewart tells one lie, and does time in prison. Darl LIES, LIES, LIES, LIES, LIES, hundreds of times, to the SEC, the court, the
media, the public; and the SEC just looks the other way.

Oh well, at least one msft PR stunt is winding down. Plenty more where that came from.

Question, the licenses ...

[Ralconte]

that SCO was able to frighten a few people into paying for, you know, to continue to use "SCO property" once the lawsuit was judged in their favor, right. Do those still earn money for SCO, or do you not have to pay to a bankrupt company. Can those people who chose to pay sue SCO for strongarming them without basis?

Not until God own the IP

[kentsin]

The evil will reborn from dead. Only God can stop it.

Where is Maureen O'Gara

[symbolset]

And Rob Enderle... when we really need them to help us understand this?

And Dan Lyons, too!

Did I mess something?

[ReturnOfWarbirdNut]

"SCO owns the core UNIX operating system, originally developed by AT&T/Bell Labs and is the exclusive licensor to UNIX-based system software providers." Hmmm, did some one forget to tell some one something here?

Re:sco.com and caldera.com domains should have wor

[zakezuke]

A 3 letter domain is always valuable But... what would the new sco stand for?

Scrumptious Carp Ovaries?

SCO is dead

[kauttapiste]

Nasdaq confirms it, SCO is dead!

Uh?

[jotaeleemeese]

According to who?

That is not my experience and I have knowledge of many big corps that continued deployment as usual.

Evil incarnate is not dead yet

[tuxgeek]

As you may recall, MS was behind the funding of the SCO lawsuits. Now that SCO is in their final death throws, MS has found more fools to finance and carry on the assault champaign against open source software, the community, and linux in general. At the moment, I forget what they call themselves, but they are essentially the patent trolls of texas, and are the ones bringing the new round of law suits against Novell and Red Hat, for starters.

So much for Novell's alliance with MicroShaft. Shake hands in the open and smile for the photo ops, but plunge a knife into Novell's back when no one is looking.

Microsoft must die!!

SCO is dead! Long live SCO!

[White Flame]

....wait, ignore that last part.