SCO Archive

Darl McBride. It's the guy everybody hates. Well, he is no longer in charge of SCO, the UNIX vendor who relentlessly litigated against Linux vendors: he has been fired as part of the Chapter 11 restructuring plans for the company. Sadly, the litigation does not end with him, as SCO's new leadership has said in a statement they will continue the litigation.

The SCO Group plans to emerge from Chapter 11 soon and revealed that not only will it modify its business strategy towards mobile products, it will also replace chief executive officer Darl McBride and pick up the Linux and Unix license lawsuits against IBM and Novell. The new owner of The SCO Group, investment firm Stephen Norris Capital Partners, is planning to open a new chapter in SCO’s Linux lawsuit history, which started back in March of 2003 when the company filed a USD 1 billion suit against IBM. As part of its plan organization, SCO announced that it will appeal the proceedings, which will begin with an appeal against a key decision in favor of Novell from August 10, 2007, which also impacts the lawsuit against IBM.

On April 29, SCO will finally have its day in court, but not exactly in the way the Unix and Linux litigation company had planned. If things had gone the way SCO wanted, it would be facing IBM to see how much money it would get for IBM using Unix code in Linux. Instead of that fantasy coming true, SCO will be trying to hang on to what's left of its assets from Novell.

The Nasdaq market has delisted The SCO Group, the Linux-seller-turned-Linux-litigant now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company's shares were taken off the Nasdaq because of the bankruptcy proceedings, the company said Thursday in a statement. The company had appealed Nasdaq's decision to do so but lost its appeal on December 21, the company said in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yahoo reports that SCO has filed for bankruptcy in order to protect assets. "The SCO Group today announced that it filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. SCO's subsidiary, SCO Operations, Inc., has also filed a petition for reorganization. The Board of Directors of The SCO Group have unanimously determined that Chapter 11 reorganization is in the best long-term interest of SCO and its subsidiaries, as well as its customers, shareholders, and employees." Groklaw has a story on it, too.

"Darl McBride has the unenviable reputation as the man who tried to milk Linux. As CEO and president of SCO Group, McBride has spent the last few years trying to collect billions in licensing fees from companies using the Linux operating system, earning the wrath of the world's open-source geeks. For scores of programmers, here was a lawyered-up copyright troll trying to shake down Linux - the free, open-source operating system built by idealistic hackers working for the common good. But McBride insists he's just misunderstood."

Microsoft has denied allegations that it offered to guarantee an investment made in The SCO Group, a software company embroiled in a long-standing intellectual property dispute with IBM. "Microsoft has no financial relationship with BayStar and never agreed to guarantee any of BayStar's USD 50 million investment in SCO," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.