SCO Group Files For Chapter 7 190
New submitter rkhalloran writes "The remnants of the failed litigation engine that was the SCO Group has finally filed for liquidation under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code. 'There is no reasonable chance of "rehabilitation."' Groklaw describes the recent filing (PDF) thus: 'I will try my best to translate the legalese for you: the money is almost all gone, so it's not fun any more. SCO can't afford Chapter 11. We want to shut the costs down, because we'll never get paid. But it'd look stupid to admit the whole thing was ridiculous and SCO never had a chance to reorganize through its fantasy litigation hustle. Besides, Ralph Yarro and the other shareholders might sue. So they want the litigation to continue to swing in the breeze, just in case. But SCO has no money coming in and no other prospects, so they want to proceed in a cheaper way and shut this down in respects to everything else.' I guess that means the lawyers will suck the marrow from the carcass and leave the bones to bleach out in the sun."
Re:7-11 (Score:5, Informative)
SCO filed for chapter 11 back in April of 2011 and now they're filing for chapter 7. Can someone explain what the two together might mean for SCO Group?
Chapter 11 means you're trying to reorganize the company to come out of bankruptcy protection again, typically by making a deal with your creditors and/or selling off assets, IP rights or parts of the business. Chapter 7 is liquidation, it means all their assets will be sold and the company will cease to exist.
Re:Let's not forget (Score:5, Informative)
Nonono.
That was Santa Cruz Operation.
COMPLETELY different outfit.
The people hearing the *FLUSH* right about now were The SCO Group (aka Caldera Systems, later Caldera International).
Essentially, they bought some of the original SCO UNIX IP when Santa Cruz Operation became Tarantella Inc.
Later, they entered into a licensing agreement with Novell to collect fees based on THEIR copyrights.
Caldera, having delusions of grandeur, decided that they'd *bought* all that UNIX IP, didn't pay Novell a dime, changed their name to The SCO Group, and decided that they'd try to take ownership of ALL *nix by trying to collect royalties on anything *nix derivative (including Linux, which they'd contributed to). They somehow thought that holding huge companies like IBM hostage. Apparently they forgot that IBM's lawyers were INFINITELY nastier predators than ANYONE they could afford to hire.
Not to mention incoming and outgoing lawsuits squaring off against RedHat, AutoZone, SGI, and Daimler Chrysler.
The only thing that kept them afloat that long was intervention by Microsoft, looking to chum the waters further.
In short, the asscreants at The SCO Group (a group of litigation-happy IP trolls who didn't do their homework) have jack and shit to do with the original Santa Cruz Operation (a group of technologists).
Correctm they are just rebooting (Score:5, Informative)
They are coming back as UnXis, and they are still asserting that Linux is infringing their intellectual property, including the McBride letter:
http://www.sco.com/5reasons/#5 [sco.com]
It's a coventure between Stephen Norris Capital Partners and MerchantBridge Group. Stephen Norris' biography includes the former presidency of the Carlyle Group, who tried to invest in SCO in 1998, in a deal netting his group 51% ownership with a court filing that included the statement "provides that the reorganized SCO will pursue the Novell/IBM litigation and other pending litigation claims aggressively,".
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_8267122 [sltrib.com]
MerchantBridge Group is a very deep wallet:
http://www.mbih.com/ [mbih.com]
Eric le Blan of MerchantBridge is Chairman at UnXis.
I do not expect this saga is over.
Re:Zombie Corp (Score:1, Informative)
I have a feeling that they will be one of those corporations that rise back from the grave in a few years to continue to attempt to survive off others.
Can we just skip ahead to whatever comes after, "the lawyers will suck the marrow from the carcass and leave the bones to bleach out in the sun."? These guys are like one of those bad zombie movies where the zombies keep coming back; even after the credits are done.
Re:Let's not forget (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry, but IBM is the birthplace of "Here's the first tractor-trailer of paperwork. Where do you want the OTHER hundred and thirty seven?"
It's a commonly known fact that IBM's lawyers eat their own children... =)
Re:good riddance (Score:5, Informative)
Portfolio of what? A jury decided that Novell owned the old Unix copyrights and SCO only had one patent.
Re:Suicide (Score:5, Informative)
What can you do? Do not do harm to anyone. We can wish for justice from courts or society, but I'm afraid all we can do this time is wish.
I'd like to see something like this [slashdot.org] for Mr. Enderle and Ms. Didio, but I don't think it'll happen as part of the SCO case.
As for Mr. Yarro, I hope that folks understand what he did and shun him, but I have no idea if that happens or not.