SCO Files Its 10Q Sob Story

Groklaw ^ | 14 September 2006 | Pamela Jones

[ShadowAce]

[antiRepublicrat]

Poor babies, your plan to get free money backfired, and now running your company into the ground. Caldera (SCO's original name) was never a good company though, and performed worse than the other dotcom Linux companies. Buying the UNIX business and filing the suits may have helped it limp along for a while longer, but it's been doomed for a long time. It will be finally dead when the lawsuit scheme fails.

[ShadowAce]

It will be finally dead when the lawsuit scheme fails.

I gotta admit--I've never seen a wreck take this long to finally destroy a company.

[steve-b]

It has to be hard to get anyone to agree to help you if you are the SCO Group.

Cash. Up. Front.

[1L]

Can someone give me a quick readers digest version of what's going on here.

[SlowBoat407]

Can someone give me a quick readers digest version of what's going on here.

I am Joe's Failure.

[clyde asbury]

Darl McBride is making the leading role from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas seem sober in comparison.

[thinkthenpost]

My quick take:
SCO accused IBM of including code from IBM's AIX OS in it's Linux release. SCO then claimed ownership of that code and sued. IBM responded no we didn't, see you in court. A few years later the trail is supposed to begin in February '07, and during discovery SCO has had difficulty responding to some of IBM's motions asking for clarification as to identifying the code in question. I frankly don't think SCO has a case, but I guess we will see when the Summary Judgment motions are ruled on, and then during the trail.

[reagandemo]

What I think we are seeing and I am not alone is Microsoft using a company to delay Linux from taking over as the leading operating system. You have to admit it. If this is true that really got their money's worth. Poor SCO stock holders.

[ct_libertarian]

I remember when this started to go down.
I watched SCO go from 15 to almost delisted
Considered mortgaging the house and selling short because McBride's actions, pomposity, and thin arguments made it obvious that they were crashing.
Thought I would just generate bad karma if I did.
So I just stood back, watched, watched and shook my head.

Big OpenBSD fan, BTW.

SCO tried the same thing with the BSD community but they were able to prove outright that all of their source was licensed correctly and publicly owned, so SCO went away looking for another court cash cow.

[N3WBI3]

I cant believe I'm going to hit 30 before this case is over... At this rate I might make it to 40..

SCO just wont die, and not in the cool immortal kind of way, in the tragic way when their (and our) suffering just wont end!

[N3WBI3]

lol!

[ArrogantBustard]

They're not "immortal" like "Highlander" ... they're "undead", like zombies.

[PAR35]

Can someone give me a quick readers digest version of what's going on here.

The company acquired some rights to the Unix operating system. They then sued IBM, claiming infringement. They also claim that Linux infringes, and tried to get large Linus users to pay licensing fees to SCO.

When IBM dug in for the long haul, SCO then began to sue customers (Daimler Chrysler and other litigation). Some companies apparently don't want to do business with a company that has a business plan based upon suing customers.

As to the original litigation, IBM has repeatedly filed discovery seeing to have SCO identify the specific infringing code.

Somewhere along the way, claims cropped up that SCO may not have bought all of the Unix rights that it claims to have bought.

Finally, some of the funding flowing into SCO which supported the litigation has been traced back to interests with ties to Microsoft.

Disclaimer. This is a broad brush summary. All of the pleadings and rulings in all of the litigation should be reviewed to obtain a full picture of the background and status of the various lawsuits.

[shadowman99]

You left out the amusing part where SCO attempted to portray the GPL as illegal and non-binding. They did this when blogs revealed SCO had been distributing the code in question as part of a SCO Linux distribution. So SCO had to argue that 1) they didn't know they had freed the code into public use or 2) it doesn't matter because the GPL is unconstitutional.

"Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!"

SCO eventually abandoned this legal tactic.

[antiRepublicrat]

The company acquired some rights to the Unix operating system.

You left out the funny part. Here's a rewording:

A Linux company acquired some rights to the Unix operating system and renamed itself to sound a lot like the former owner of Unix.

[TechJunkYard]

Caldera was never a good company though, and performed worse than the other dotcom Linux companies. Buying the UNIX business and filing the suits may have helped it limp along for a while longer, but it's been doomed for a long time.

The thing is... if they'd stayed with Linux, and invested that $34.5M in the business instead of handing it to the lawyers, they'd probably be sitting pretty now. Caldera contributed a lot to Linux under Ransome Love, unfortunately, Love just didn't quite get it. Remember that Love is the one who did the SCO Unix deal.

Then Darl came in and thought he could be the king of monetizing Unix. And it's all been going downhill ever since.

[dighton]

Quite simple, really.

;-)

[dayglored]

> What I think we are seeing and I am not alone is Microsoft using a company to delay Linux from taking over as the leading operating system. You have to admit it. If this is true that really got their money's worth. Poor SCO stock holders.

You are not alone.

Why do you think Microsoft went from calling open source a "cancer" in 2003, to getting all buddy-buddy with open-source in 2006?

They placed their bets on a losing horse, and no amount of whipping would get it to run.

IMO any SCO shareholder who still held shares by 2004 should have bailed. I had an argument to that effect with the President of the company where I was Engineering Manager in late 2002 (he was convinced that SCO would kill Linux). By mid 2003 the end was clear for SCO, all over but the shouting.