Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
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.
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.