SCO Preps Appeals Against Novell and IBM 163
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like SCO will be emerging from the almost dead soon, with new owners and $100 million on board. SNCP is adjusting the business strategy, according to this report on TG Daily, SCO is saying goodbye to CEO Darl McBride and is also preparing to appeal the summary judgments in the cases against Novell and IBM. If you have thought the chapter was closed, think again. Those $100 million can go a long way (even if SCO has to pay 17% interest on it)."
Doesn't the sale have to be approved first? (Score:5, Informative)
The lost cause (Score:-1, Informative)
Bad summary (Score:5, Informative)
They're still almost dead - this deal doesn't change anything about the fact that they owe a ton of cash to Novell, and will soon owe more to IBM.
The $100M is really $5M, plus a LOAN of *up to* $100M.
And the loan's interest rate is 17% plus prime (so closer to 21%.)
This is like you claiming that MBNA invested $50,000 in you when you signed up for a new credit card.
Inaccurate subject (Score:5, Informative)
Re:PJ must be relieved... (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, Groklaw [groklaw.com] has begun to deal with other cases of dubious IP claims and attacks on free software, open standards, and so forth, so it will still have a reason for existence once SCO is kaput. The current top article, for example, is about the ISO BRM on OOXML.
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Informative)
However the jury is still out on weather this is another Microsoft thing like BayStar
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/Whats-Behind-the-SCO-Buyout/ [eweek.com] SJVN's oppinion incase you are interested
Re:Inaccurate subject (Score:5, Informative)
It's YASPS - "Yet Another Stock Pump Scheme". Darl, contrary to his public protests, is VERY happy to be getting out/cashing out.
Re:Dear Novel and IBM (Score:3, Informative)
They are SCOmbies and their weaknesses are still unknown (their mortal weaknesses that is--I think plenty is known about their legal weaknesses).
Re:Well (Score:4, Informative)
Read the business summary and note the previous name. Bankruptcy, especially Chapter 11, doesn't mean a company disappears. If there are parts of the company that are viable, a reorganization means these parts get a new lease on life.
Cheers,
Dave
Will they even get an appeal (Score:5, Informative)
I don't care how slick the lawyer is, SCO had a summary judgment against them. Provided the judge in the case dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's those things are damn near impossible to successfully appeal. I'd put the odds against successful appeal at 20 to 1. More likely than not the appeals court will simply say, 'No' and that will be the final whimper of SCO.
who cares yet? this is not factual. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Put SCO down (Score:5, Informative)
It's too late for that. SCO is in bankruptcy court, in chapter 11 proceedings. This means that the current stockholders have effectively no say in what goes on at this point. It's up to the SCO to come up with a reorganization plan that will allow it to continue to operate. Generally a reorganization plan includes cancelling any and all common stock, as does theirs "On the Effective Date, the existing common stock and common stock equivalents of SCO Group shall be cancelled and extinguished." Anyone buying the stock now is hoping for a miracle and that SCO will somehow continue to operate without completing chapter 11 reorganization.
In summary, doing this would neither give you control of the company now, nor when they exit chapter 11.
Re:What about Darl? (Score:3, Informative)
That's one of the problems with US corporate law. There are reasons, perhaps good ones, why corporate officers aren't directly penalized for making wrong decisions (in a company running legally and ethically, the company can and will administer appropriate penalties). However, when the top officers of a company like SCO or Enron do the things that they have done, there needs to be personal responsibility.
Not that it's simple to draw the line.
Re:Put SCO down (Score:3, Informative)
Another journalist who isn't keeping up. (Score:5, Informative)
For example, you would think he would have noticed that Novell has already objected [groklaw.net] to the reorg because of the sketchy details. Like, does SNCP even have access to that kind of money? There is this article [itjungle.com] that says Norris might have Middle East connections, but no explanations of why those connections would want in on the SCO case. Or how much of the bill they'd be willing to cough up. The schedule's a bit iffy too. Novell points out that SCO's hanging on to the "definitive documents" on the reorg and isn't planning on releasing them until the day that objections to the reorg are due. Read carefully and you'll see that objections are due by March 26th at 4:00pm, while the documents are to be released on March 26th, but with no time stated. Any bets on SCO planning on providing those at 4:01pm?
Keep in mind that SCO has already proposed and scrapped [groklaw.net] a bailout deal. In that one, they were playing a shell game where all the company's assets (and execs) went one way, while all the company's liabilities went the other. Needless to say, the courts weren't going to let that happen.
The bottom line is that this is SCO, so you already know it's a scam. It's just a matter of waiting and watching to determine what kind of scam they're trying to run this time.