SCO Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy 421
Can you say "the SCO, the" in German? writes "Trading of SCO's stock has been halted on news that SCO has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. This move just so happens to fall on the eve of SCO's trial with Novell. One would think that their prior boasts were mostly bluster, that they believe they have almost no chance of prevailing at trial, and that they're now desperate to protect their executives from SCO's creditors while seeking yet another delay. From the release: 'The SCO Group intends to maintain all normal business operations throughout the bankruptcy proceedings. Subject to court approval, SCO and its subsidiaries will use the cash flow from their consolidated operations to meet their capital needs during the reorganization process. "We want to assure our customers and partners that they can continue to rely on SCO products, support and services for their business critical operations," said Darl McBride, President and CEO, The SCO Group. "Chapter 11 reorganization provides the Company with an opportunity to protect its assets during this time while focusing on building our future plans."'"
Sad, sad news (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sad, sad news (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sad, sad news (Score:5, Informative)
There's nothing to cheer about here. This is SCO's way of weaseling out of their legal liabilities. They conceivably now will not have to pay Novell, or at least not for a long while. It gives them time to continue their court cases without having to settle their debts.
It's a tactic. They're not out of business, at least not yet.
Re:Sad, sad news (Score:5, Insightful)
Personal responsibility is for suckers and fools.
Smart people form corporations so they can lie, cheat, and steal with impunity.
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Re:Sad, sad news (Score:5, Insightful)
Rant/
Just look at all they have learned by going through the courts with no evidence and being laughed at by the people who review the case and get the facts instead of reading their press releases. They are literally filing for bankruptcy and assuring their customers that they are fine and can rely on them at the same time... AT THE SAME TIME! No reasonable company would be so immune to shame, so ignorant of the mocking thats going on right in front of them, and still be able to tell people that everythings OK. That these bottomdwellers are still making a living, still giving themselves bonuses and trying to protect their stock is a slap in the face for american justice. This is another Enron, this is another corporation exec scandle happening right now, at this very moment. They are telling us that they don't care that they are wrong and have taken the courts time and our money and threatened people, intimidated customers, extorted from innocent and ignorant law abiding citicens and companies who only wanted to avoid doing the wrong thing and pay whatever license fees to whoever owned the code they were using. They have either planned this and acted accordingly to draw it out, or they employ the most ignorant legal councel out there to advise them. No proof, no problem, No evidence, no problem, No case, no problem. Lets all make a bunch of money! Dirty rat bastards. And we will as a nation let another one get away with it. The people who made these decisions will walk away with millions. We'll complain and let them walk. Accomplices to the raping of this country.
Re:Sad, sad news (Score:5, Interesting)
Ah, but it's easy to placate your customers when you don't have any.
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Re:Sad, sad news (Score:5, Informative)
That isn't to say that SCO is safe, but news that they're filing for bankruptcy doesn't really mean anything.
You want an example of companies that go bankrupt while maintaining operations?
See: US Airline Industry
Re:Sad, sad news (Score:5, Funny)
I see you haven't flown anywhere this summer...
The Chapter 11 hearing should be short (Score:3, Insightful)
So let's see... you took $500 million in paid in equity and in nine short years managed to parley that into a princely sum less than $5 million. In the history of your company your only profitable quarter a judge has found that some if not all of your revenue was the proceeds of conversion that you have spent and can no longer pay back. Your liabilities include the counterclaims remaining from baseless lawsuits you have filed after your claims have been revealed to have no substance.
Liquidation cannot cu
seeking bankruptcy and still in business (Score:5, Informative)
They are literally filing for bankruptcy and assuring their customers that they are fine and can rely on them at the same time... AT THE SAME TIME!
That's what Chapter 11 bankruptcy is all about. It allows you to reorganize your business and liabilities so you can stay in business.
FalconRe: (Score:3, Insightful)
The fact that they are using the bankruptcy to escape the stock plummet that would follow the judgements that are comming is a cop out of their responsibility for the actions they have taken. I never said that they were going out of business, closing operations, or filing a different type of bankruptcy that would leed to those outcomes, and if you read that somewhere it was your
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Get out the violin (Score:5, Funny)
And tell the fat lady to start warming up.
It's been a long time coming, but still they had to know this day would arrive. If shareholders weren't really in it for the crapshoot of beating IBM and Novell for $Billion$ they'd have a case against Darl and his lot for running the business into the ground pursuing frivolous lawsuits.
SCO's income from normal opperations must be down to a trickle with Linux and Windows Server vying for most of the market.
Emerge from Chapter 11? I can't see how, unless somehow there was a reversal of court decisions and they're doing nothing to grow their product market.
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Duh! Haven't you listened to Darl? Their mobile SCO Me scam is going to make BILLIONS!!! It's to teh moon!
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SCO is doing this to make Novell into a creditor with respect to the
money SCO owes to Novell.
I dont know if this is something to celebrate or not.
Re:Get out the violin (Score:5, Insightful)
"SCO is doing this to make Novell into a creditor with respect to the money SCO owes to Novell."
Won't work. Novell's claim isn't as a creditor. Their claim is "equitable", meaning that SCO is holding theor property ($$$), not that SCO owes them money. When you go bankrupt, anyone who can show that they own property you're holding on to can claim it from the trustee.
This happens a lot with vending machines, for example, when a plant goes bust. The owner proves that the machine is theirs (not leased or anything - it really is theirs), and they then get to pick it up.
Since Novell already has a judgment saying that SCO is guilty of conversion, and the question is "how much", they have a prior claim to the property (money) in question. SCO is dead.
Re:Get out the violin (Score:5, Insightful)
w00t!!!! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:w00t!!!! (Score:5, Informative)
I'm afraid a "black dress" for wearing to the upcoming SCO funeral will be more useful now.
Oh man... (Score:5, Funny)
Dear Darl, (Score:2, Funny)
Regards, Destiny
Re:Dear Darl, (Score:5, Insightful)
Bankruptcy prevents an entity's creditors from forcing liquidation of the entity's assets. If Novell won it's case against SCO, Novell could enforce it's judgment against SCO and force SCO to dissolve. If SCO was dissolved the case against IBM would disappear. Now that SCO has filed for bankruptcy it is protected from its creditors. Therefore Novell cannot get the licensing fees SCO owes it, and SCO can continue to exist.
Filing for bankruptcy is not SCO tossing in the towel, it is more like SCO knows it is going to lose, and is now trying to bite off Novell's ear to get Disqualified instead of Knocked Out.
Re:Dear Darl, (Score:5, Informative)
The court ruled that the money *belongs* to Novell. That's a far different legal issue than SCO owing money to Novell.
It's like a burglar trying to claim bankruptcy in order to keep the stuff he stole. Since the stuff isn't actually his (and in this case has been declared so in a court of law), bankruptcy doesn't protect it.
Mod Parent Up. (Score:5, Informative)
It might turn into a Chapter 7 filing afterwards, and SCO might be forced to liquidate. This is unlikely, however. In the interim, they'll try to convince a judge or referee that they have IP assets that need protecting, along with their agreements with various companies, and will produce a lot of smoke in their quest to simply survive.
Much attorneys fees will be spent by many companies. Much continued incivility and plain poo will continue to be the hallmark of SCO's perhaps brief existence. Like others, they don't quit until they're just dead. Don't look for much come-uppance. This ends badly, just as it began badly.
Re:Dear Darl, (Score:5, Insightful)
That would be a bad thing, we don't want the IBM case to disappear, we want IBM have a very strong favorable ruling. Any other outcome means this was all a waste of time with no precedents set.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
'If SCO was dissolved the case against IBM would disappear.'
That would be a bad thing, we don't want the IBM case to disappear, we want IBM have a very strong favorable ruling. Any other outcome means this was all a waste of time with no precedents set.
I disagree.
The Novell ruling removed any chance of a precedence being set. once Judge Kimball said "Novel owns the copyrights, and Novell did have the right to prevent you from suing IBM" the IBM case was dead. There was no chance a precedence would be set as far as Open Source code and the Free Software community was concerned.
This result has no effect on IBM except to limit the additional outlay of money IBM has to spend to defend themselves. There is obviously no money in SCO to pay IBM for the litigat
One word (Score:5, Funny)
Re:One word (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't that just a Greek word instead of a German word? (And one that nobody understands, too?)
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Re:One word (Score:5, Funny)
Can you say Schadenfreude in English?
Yes. It's pronounced "ha HA!", preferably in a high-pitched, somewhat nasal voice reminiscent of a certain cartoon character.
Yay... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yay... (Score:5, Funny)
It's Been Fun (Score:5, Insightful)
For those of you who bought SCOX stock in hopes that they would win this case, you had better sell it. In the past 20 minutes, it has dropped from $0.66 to $0.37 cents (and still is dropping).
According to your market data your net income was a $16.6 million loss. And when your total revenue was under $30 million, you really shouldn't even try to keep operating. Why is this Chapter 11? I guess it's going to come down to one unkillable lawyer with SCO tattooed on his chest. At that point, we'll have to call an exorcist.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought chapter 11 protection included an immediate halt on stock trade?
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Re:It's Been Fun (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Someone you hate (Score:4, Funny)
SCO Vacuums - They suck!
SCO Sexual Enhancers - Get screwed by the best!
SCO Toilet Paper - Absorbs shit like no other!
Nah. They're not that good... (Score:3, Funny)
SCO Potato Chips, comes in douche flavor, instead of just salt and vinegar.
SCO the newest Windows' Vista Reseller.
SCO retailers: Going to Vietnam to compete with Wall*Mart.
SCO Foods: Made with cyclamates, triglycerides and all the hydrogenated denatured vegetable oils you crave.
SCO Soap: Made with extra lubricating oils and gentle soothing lotions. Suppliers to the US Penal System since we found out what we could expect.
SCO Coffee: 'Crap'pucino, Made from what Starbuck's threw away.
SCO Greeting Cards: M
Pump and dump (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's Been Fun (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's Been Fun (Score:4, Insightful)
Too late. Your stock price feed most likely has a time delay built in. Trading will have been halted as soon as the news comes out. This is the insiders dumping their stock before the news gets out.
Isn't that horribly, horribly illegal? Will we get to see the SEC frog-march Darl and the crew for insider trading?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There are just a very strict set of rules that you have to follow when you buy or sell stock as an insider, or with insider information. The main thing, AFAIK, is that you have to file paperwork with the SEC announcing your intention to buy
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Chris Mattern
What SCO told the court (Score:5, Interesting)
Now SCO is facing the exact same judge on Monday morning over the issue of how much money they owe Novell. I predict an interesting day in court
* OK, I was reminded of it by something someone (anonymous, so I can't give credit) said on Groklaw.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
I am thinking the later will happen. I am sure the Novell will file that SCO is really a fiduciary for their assets under the contract and as such, they get first dibs on SCO's assets. In order to find out how much Novell gets though, the case will have to be heard and ruled on. Therefore, the Bankruptcy court judge will lift the stay on the trial.
Judge Kimball has next week off (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
If so then then this may not be a civil matter.
Darn . . . (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
"Don't just bitch about OOXML and patent trolls, put your money where your mouth is.
Donate to Groklaw today."
And now, ladies and gentlemen... (Score:4, Funny)
*drum rolls*
Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.
Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead.
Chapter 11 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Chapter 11 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Chapter 11 (Score:5, Interesting)
Either way 95% is roughly 5 million dollars more than all of SCO's value Liquidated. I wonder if the bankruptcy trustee can declare Darl Mcbride's million dollar bonus for those two sales as invalid and ask for it back? I do hope so.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Ahhhh.... Good times. (Score:2)
DFWT (Score:5, Funny)
Re:DFWT (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:DFWT (Score:5, Funny)
Who are these people? (Score:5, Funny)
Aside from the lawyers for whom SCO is a source of billable hours, who relies on SCO for any products, support, or services? Are these the same folks looking to George W. for stategic planning? The masses going to Michael Vick for pet care tips? OJ for public relations?
Re:Who are these people? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sberbank (Savings Bank Of The Russian Federation) Chooses SCO's OpenServer 6 to Upgrade Thousands of Servers [yahoo.com].
They must be feeling really good about that decision now.
Re:Who are these people? (Score:4, Informative)
Well, like North American banks and Caribbean branches that have a *tonne* of legacy code running on AS/400's, business apps are still out there running in SCO environments, apps that are critical to the business, but which scare the shit out of the organisation in terms of even thinking about unwinding them out of their businesses.
SCO had a solid biz app developer network out there one upon a time, with a lot of re-seller support, a holdover from when they were *the* PC-based UNIX, long before daryl and his prick henchmen decided to pursue a new 'business model' [cough]pump-and-dump scheme[cough].
But I guess they're fsck'd now, and looking at a whole different risk - they'll *have* to start working on it.
And no, I'm not painting a tech-equivalence between a modern AS/400 installation and intel hardware running openserver 6. But the business process analogue is solid, I think.
Thanks for the mods. (Score:2)
I guess you have MS using SCO as a proxy for fighting Linux, but other than that?
Use SCO's bandwidth... (Score:2, Informative)
http://ir.sco.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=264124 [sco.com]
Re: (Score:2)
host ir.sco.com
ir.sco.com is an alias for cald.client.shareholder.com.
cald.client.shareholder.com is an alias for webcenter360.shareholder.com.
webcenter360.shareholder.com has address 170.224.5.57
ir.sco.com is an alias for cald.client.shareholder.com.
cald.client.shareholder.com is an alias for webcenter360.shareholder.com.
ir.sco.com is an alias for cald.client.shareholder.com.
cald.client.shareholder.com i
come back? nah (Score:5, Insightful)
There are tons of good Unix and Linux distributors out there... no reason to choose SCO anymore.
You want free and good? Linux and BSD. You want enterprise level? IBM and Sun. You want Windows-based? Dell and HP. You wanna convert your entire revenue stream into attorney fees billed at $400/hr? Take SCO.
Everything I know I learned in kindergarden... (Score:2)
We scrapped all our remaining SCO stuff and completed converting to Linux. There will be no tears here when SCO is dead and buried.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
15 minutes later, she struck again, and Larry punched her in the afce as hard as he could, knocking her down and bloodying her nose. His father, as he was preparing to whip him, ebmoaned Larry's lack of contr
Too bad they ruined the name of SCO (Score:3, Informative)
Acronym... (Score:2, Funny)
In their own words .. (Score:2)
Good Job Darly! (Score:5, Funny)
Stock plummetage (Score:2)
Re:Stock plummetage (Score:5, Informative)
NEWSFLASH (Score:4, Funny)
When asked about these future plans, Mr. McBride announced his intention to sue every single internet user, based on the fact that the Internet became as popular as it did due to traffic running on products that were based on SCO intellectual property. "I personally was the creator of these tubes and filed for a patent back in 1956". Mr. McBride became irritated when this reporter informed him that the Internet did not in fact run through tubes, rather through optical lines and copper cables. "Where have you been? You must have missed my good friend Ted Stevens describing how the internet was a series of Tubes, just stick to what you know, which is
Reporting live from Emerald City, this is T. Bert signing off.
How about they do something to suprise us all? (Score:2)
Ideally they could do something to suprise us all and release everything under a BSD or MIT style license (or even public domain), but presuming no executive there is sane enough to do that... what will they do?
I know it's just speculation, but it'd be nice to have another real UNIX derivative open up to the community along the same lines as Solaris and (I know it's not UNIX and not really
"the SCO, the" (Score:5, Informative)
Sideshow Bob is applying for parole claiming that he wouldn't pose a danger to Bart:
Lawyer: "Don't you have a tattoo that says 'die, Bart, die' on your chest?"
Sideshow Bob: "No! That's German. It means 'the Bart, the'".
Parole Officer 1: "No one who speaks German could be an evil man!"
Parole Officer 2: "Parole granted!"
Re:"the SCO, the" (Score:5, Funny)
But since Bart is male, shouldn't it be "der Bart, der"?
Unless he's talking about several Barts, but then you'd have to conjugate the noun as well and it'd become something like "die Barten, die". Or "die Bärte, die"?
Actually Bärte means "beards" in German, with the singular "Bart" which is masculine. So my best guess is that the tattoo was a badly written German version of "the beards, the".
So what's Sideshow Bob's interest in beards anyway? As possibilities we have Jasper Beardly, the Sea Captain, but most interestingly, Krusty's father: Rabbi Hyman Krustofski.
My guess is that Sideshow Bob is either a latent Nazi with a hatred for Hyman, or he is one of these wusses who cannot grow a decent beard and is taking it out on Krusty.
An alternate theory is that I have too much time on my hands.
STILL claiming UNIX in the press release! (Score:5, Interesting)
"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."
Those SCO guys are a real pantload! Hahahahah
Does anybody find it odd... (Score:5, Interesting)
Buh-BYE! (Score:5, Funny)
Chickens came home to roost (Score:3, Funny)
Maureen O'Gara / G2 Computer Intelligence (Score:4, Interesting)
"G2 Computer Intelligence" is listed as a debtor by SCOX in their filings, so now we know she's the paided little whore we always suspected her to be.
That's right Maureen, you're fucking out of the fucking closet.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
What's funny is how many restaurants are in the list of unsecured creditors. Don't these guys even pay their restaurant tabs?
Need to Look at the Big Picture (Score:4, Interesting)
Looking backwards (Score:5, Funny)
By Daniel Lyons, 06.18.03, 12:00 PM ET
[ ... ]
In other words, like many religious folk, the Linux-loving crunchies in the open-source movement are a) convinced of their own righteousness, and b) sure the whole world, including judges, will agree.
They should wake up. SCO may not be very good at making a profit by selling software. But it is very good at getting what it wants from other companies. And it has a tight circle of friends.
[ ... ]
Bad Faith (Score:5, Interesting)
Still no Enderle quote? (Score:3, Funny)
Why, oh, why can't we have a comment from the quintessential blurbmeister here? Rob, where are you in this historic moment to weigh the subtle issues and deliver some clarity in fifteen words or less?
Will you all please give him some hits on his blog at ITBE [itbusinessedge.com] and let him know we need his insight at this trying time?
Re: (Score:2)
the evil that corporations do...
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Re:FSCK YEAH! (Score:5, Funny)
Wrong word (Score:2, Informative)
"Decimated" means destroying 1 in 10. IIRC, if a unit in the Roman Legion was cowardly|treasonous|bad, they counted off by 10's, a number was picked, and whoever had that number was beaten to death by the otehr 9 "luck ones".
I don't think Novell or IBM want SCO "decimated". I think "obliterated" is more appropriate.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
They have already been found to be guilty of conversion - taking something that Novell owns (the royalties they were owed) and keeping it for themselves (TSCOG).
Bankruptcy or no bankruptcy, they have to give Novell what ALREADY belongs to Novell.
They were obligated by contract to give the royalties to Novell BEFORE any bankruptcy, they are still required to give them AFTER any bankruptcy.
The only point to be determined by the court is HOW MUCH
Re:Obvious (Score:4, Informative)
Not quite. In the case of the royalty money, the rulings thus far are that the royalties are Novell's, not SCO's, money. There's a question of the dollar amount to be determined, but that money isn't a debt owed to Novell so bankruptcy doesn't shield it. Read up on "conversion", which is the term the judge used. If you steal money from someone, you can't use bankruptcy protection to retain it since it's not yours in the first place.