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?"

If there was any proof....

[Chrisq (894406)]

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 (626634)]

Maybe they could sell the chairs to Steve Ballmer?

Re:If there was any proof....

[Anomolous Cowturd (190524)]

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

Re:If there was any proof....

[ArsonSmith (13997)]

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....

[infonography (566403)]

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....

[Opportunist (166417)]

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....

[steelfood (895457)]

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

Re:

[Kjella (173770)]

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:

[fataugie (89032)]

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....

[Eggplant62 (120514)]

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:

[Methuselah2 (1173677)]

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

Re:If there was any proof....

[toxic666 (529648)]

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.

Mod parent up

[R2.0 (532027)]

"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.

Obligatory Futurama Reference

[Apple Acolyte (517892)]

"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:Paraphrased Obligatory Futurama Reference

[techpawn (969834)]

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!

New stock symbol

[Just Some Guy (3352)]

$0.18 to $0.12 [yahoo.com] in 45 minutes. Impressive!

Re:New stock symbol

[Ang31us (1132361)]

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!

McBride Goeth Before a Fall.

[h4rm0ny (722443)]

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 (563442)]

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 (579763)]

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:

[trolltalk.com (1108067)]

"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 [yahoo.com].

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

Re:New stock symbol

[MMC Monster (602931)]

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. :-)

Dropping due to

[WillRobinson (159226)]

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:

[Chrisq (894406)]

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

In the words of the great orator Nelson...

[SirLurksAlot (1169039)]

Haha!

Ding dong

[ozmanjusri (601766)]

Is the wicked witch finally dead yet?

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

She's down one Winkie now though.

Re: Still spreading FUD.

[Baron_Yam (643147)]

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

Re:Ding dong

[Foobar of Borg (690622)]

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)?

Not dead according to them!

[Chrisq (894406)]

From SCO site [sco.com]:

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.

Restructuring for success - Top Ten list

[Weaselmancer (533834)]

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

Okay then

[L337Motif (1203898)]

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.

And so..

[Cleon (471197)]

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.

Why the 6-day delay?

[davidwr (791652)]

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:

[Jim Hall (2985)]

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

The SEC should investigate

[stites (993570)]

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

Great quotes from SCO's CEO

[Ang31us (1132361)]

Some of my favorite quotes [wikiquote.org] 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 (180766)]

Tis but a flesh wound.

----

I'm not dead yet .... Shuddup

SCO yard sale

[Billosaur (927319)]

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

poor SCO

[JeanBaptiste (537955)]

guess I should have paid my $699 licensing fee.

The very best thing about this press release

[Gossi (731861)]

...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...

SCO's furniture

[oahazmatt (868057)]

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?

Redundant karma whoring

[Ubi_NL (313657)]

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.)

Is Darl in jail yet?

[roystgnr (4015)]

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.

I'll liquidate it for them

[HangingChad (677530)]

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:

[ArsonSmith (13997)]

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.

SCO's new home

[figa (25712)]

SCO is listed on [pinksheets.com] Pinksheets [pinksheets.com].

SCO's botched endgame

[Animats (122034)]

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:So why does everyone hate SCO?

[greg1104 (461138)]

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 [wikipedia.org] has a good summary of how that played out on the legal+technical side.

Re:So why does everyone hate SCO?

[orclevegam (940336)]

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:

[canuck57 (662392)]

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