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SCO Puts Unix Assets On the Block
itwbennett writes "SCO Group announced Thursday that it plans to auction off most of its Unix assets, including 'certain UNIX system V software products and related services,' ITworld reports. 'This asset sale is an important step forward in ensuring business continuity for our customers around the world,' said Ken Nielsen, SCO chief financial officer, in a statement. 'Our goal is to ensure continued viability for SCO, its customers, employees and the Unix technology.' Interested parties must submit a bid for the assets by Oct. 5."
$1.73 million buys the whole company. http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SCOXQ.PK
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
http://www.novell.com/prblogs/?p=2648
Unless by "assets" you mean "little asses", I don't think SCO has any. Besides which, can't Novell confiscate assets as part of the settlement of it's lawsuit? Seems to me there are a lot of interested parties that would request the judge freeze any sale of assets.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
A smoldering hole in the ground, watched by many for signs of activity leading to great destruction. Usually produces little more than some noise and gas.
Xenix anyone?
I see you're not familiar with Xenix.
Spun wrote
Press Release says
Yes they are certainly still claiming ownership of Unix.
A Judge enjoin them from selling anything while the lawsuits against them are adjudicated.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
The Unix name is owned by the Open Group, which certifies a system (eg, AIX, OS X, Solaris) as being Unix.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
No, Microsoft was a concerned enough corporate citizen that they were the FIRST to pay big money to acquire a license to said technology. That was even before SCO found the money to start all the lawsuits, ironically.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
This will make their debt the responsebillity of the buyer and not the management
No it won't. They're only selling the assets and not the business entity. If they were selling the whole SCO enitiy - if someone bought all the outstanding common stock - then you would be correct, IIRC business law.
If you look at most business sales, the buyer only purchases the assets - includes any trademarks and other IP. Sometimes, as part of the deal, the buyer will take on some of the debt. SCO is in bankruptcy, this is strictly an asset sale and the proceeds will go to the creditors.
It goes for the liabilities too. By purchasing just the assets, the previous entity keeps the liabilities (lawsuits, judgments, and years ago, any environmental liabilities). That's the basics and there's a shit load of subtleties that the lawyers worry about - especially when it comes to environmental problems.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
Groklaw has mention of the event, too:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20100916121940186
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
Haha no, it doesn't even have an X server or the GNU toolchain out of box.
Well, the Unix trademark is owned by The Open Group. You can't call your OS Unix without going through them. The argument SCO was trying to make was that AT&T sold the original Unix source tree copyrights to Novell (which did happen - Novell paid ~$300 million for it), but that then Novell turned around and sold the copyrights to SCO (which did *not* happen - the deal with SCO was for ~$50 million about 2-3 years after the AT&T deal). Instead, SCO actually bought rights to develop and market their own version of Unix (called Unixware) and access to a number of distribution channels, plus kickbacks for collecting Unix licensing revenues for Novell (SCO got 5% as an administrative fee).
Of course, everything was cool until about 8 years after the original agreement, after the company changed hands about 3 times and new management took over. At which point Darl McBride and company started jumping up and down screaming "WE OWN UNIX!!" and suing/threatening to sue everyone and their mother. The nonsensical litigation dragged on for these past 7 years, with IBM and Novell being the primary players (Novell has judgments in their favor declaring that they do, in fact, own the Unix copyrights - SCO is appealing, naturally).
At this point in our sad, sad story, SCO is in chapter 11 bankruptcy (and has been for over three years) with a trustee now running things. Because the lawyers are pre-paid through all litigation and appeals, it looks good on paper to continue the litigation lottery in hopes of getting some settlement to shut up. Of course, IBM has a point to prove, and the Unix copyrights are worth too much to Novell to suffer an adverse judgment, so SCO will get nothing there.
Anyway, with that backstory told, my point is that the bankruptcy judge hasn't enjoined them from anything, in fact he's approved the terms of the auction. So there is no legal hurdle to prevent them from doing this. Though it is definitely a case of "caveat emptor" because the buyer may end up with a whole lot of nothing when all is said and done.
Unlike most commercial Unixes, it's never really had any cutting edge features (unless you consider "runs on x86 hardware" to be cutting edge, which it may have been twenty-odd years ago)
Well, 30 years ago Microsoft Xenix supported five users concurrently on an 8086 processor with 512K of RAM. The users connected to serial ports on the box and used dumb terminals. It's a somewhat impressive accomplishment. I still have one of them, an Altos 586.