back to article SCO gets sale approval

SCO's request to sell off its software business has been approved by the bankruptcy courts. The Delaware court approved the motion to sell SCO's software business leaving a rump company to pursue what's left of its Linux legal action. SCO's Unix is still in use, and still bringing in revenues. Potential bidders must file …

COMMENTS

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  1. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Trolling time

    Maybe Paul Allen or Bill Gates will buy them and do even more trolling?

    Why compete when you can impede.

  2. Daf L

    Wow!

    So a judge has decided that SCO can sell off the only part of it that could possibly make any money and stave off its bankruptcy to leave it with a shell that has lost all hope of making any money due to its continual losses in the courts.

    If SCO feel they have to sell off their only assets to continue operating then they are surely BANKRUPT?

    I suppose it adds a bit more to the "SCO the Movie" plot line.

    1. Kevin Reader
      Flame

      ultimate shell game

      And it creates the kind of litigation shell that cannot be counter sued as it has nothing of value to be sued for....

      One can only assume/hope that IBM and others will oppose the sale which will only go to pay off an ex director who orchestrated a very weird load deal, and the liquidators and their mates.

      Sadly the bankruptcy judge appears to operate in full Delaware mode, where the consideration of creditors comes a long way down the priority list. After all what are they going to do... "take him out back and shoot him?" As he said himself.

  3. hplasm
    Grenade

    Ninepence!

    I bid nine pence! Ten if I get to punch that Darl guy!

    1. Ian K
      Grenade

      I bid 50p

      ...if that includes a kick in Darl's nads.

      1. DJV Silver badge

        Get in the queue...

        that is all

    2. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      I'll bid a grand.

      But only if I get the brand name as well as the software business. After years of running the SCO name into the mud, it'd be nice to throw some poetic justice at it. I am thinking along the lines of attaching it to a Linux distro...perhaps making SCO to SUSE as CentOS is to RedHat. Who knows, a decade or so of doing right by folks could cause an ultimate karmic redemption.

      SCO was cool once, back when it was the Santa Cruz Operation. It would be nice to rework the name into even the faintest shadow it’s former self.

  4. Blake St. Claire
    Happy

    Oh yeah

    | Potential bidders must file interest [in SCO Unix], and evidence of assets to pay for the purchase,...

    I've got $1.86 in my pocket.

    Showing my age, but back in the late 80s Everex was flogging ESIX SYSV and later SVR4. At some point though they filed for bankruptcy and in liquidation, IIRC, the Unix business was sold for $100K.

    Given SCO's reputation at this point, I figure my pocket change ought to about right for their Unix line. Might get in a bidding war and drive it up to $2 and change.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    after they sale the software business....

    .... what would the base their lawsuit on? Don't tell me that they are hoping to sale their software business, then tell the buyer that they need to buy UNIX licenses from them?

  6. Geoff Mackenzie

    I'll have the good bit of SCO

    It's a bit tarnished with patent trolling filth though, so I won't outbid hplasm.

  7. Chronos
    Flame

    Die SCO, die!

    It's German ;o)

    Seriously, Novell still own Unix, code "copied" hangs on errno.h (#define ENOCASE 133 /* Pathetic posturing, no case to answer */) and Darl's an idiot. How much longer are we going to have to put up with these morons?

  8. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

    Do we at last get some closure on this? Or something worse.

    So this will mean that the stewardship (term chosen very carefully) of the genetic UNIX code, originally controlled by Bell Labs. will definitely be changing hands, leaving SCO with just Linux interests?

    I'm not sure how this works, bearing in mind that it is the use (or misuse) of the UNIX code itself that was the subject of the legal action. Surely, it is not possible to sell the very subject of the action, while keeping the action going. It makes no sense!

    It is the case, of course, that the IP rights and license revenue will remain as-is, with Novell.

    What I would be worried about is Darl being backed by someone, and buying back the UNIX business and attempting to start the whole thing over. Or even Microsoft (perish the thought).

    Aaaagh, horrible thought. Oracle!!!!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: Do we at last get some closure on this? Or something worse.

      "What I would be worried about is Darl being backed by someone, and buying back the UNIX business and attempting to start the whole thing over."

      It may be Utah, but even Darl is going to run out of helpful relatives at some point.

    2. Paul RND*1000

      It makes no sense!

      Nothing SCO did in the last 7 years or so made sense. Why change anything now?

  9. Smoking Man

    Why not HP?

    "If old systems want to die, they go for HP"

    And since HP has a proven track record in paying ridiculous amounts of money for things they don't need, or that they just want to throw away <enter any number you like here> of months after acquisition, this would be a perfect fit.

    I think I sent Shane Robison a mail, the CTO of HP, who invented the rebranded iPod.

  10. Paul RND*1000
    IT Angle

    They still sell stuff?

    I'd sort of forgotten that SCO had a software business.

    Anyway, isn't this a little bit like being on a sinking fishing boat in some cold, unforgiving place and being told that the survival suits and life raft have been auctioned off to raise money for some buckets to bail water out of the boat with?

    1. Vic

      No.

      > Anyway, isn't this a little bit like being on a sinking fishing boat in some cold,

      > unforgiving place and being told that the survival suits and life raft have

      > been auctioned off to raise money for some buckets to bail water out

      > of the boat with?

      Not even close.

      It's like being on a sinking fishing boat in some cold, unforgiving place, and being told that the survival suits and life raft have been auctioned off to raise money to pay for some "consultants" to come and tell you you need to bail the water out...

  11. Paul RND*1000
    FAIL

    How to make $100,000 in the UNIX business

    Start with $25 million and try to extort Linux users with a dodgy lawsuit.

  12. Christoph

    A bit of a poisoned pill?

    Hi guys, we've just bought SCO's software business and given them some more money to struggle on with their ludicrous lawsuits.

    Err, where has everyone gone?

  13. Phil Rigby
    Black Helicopters

    Are there any really interested parties?

    Anyone think Oracle might go for them, given Larry's recent buy-everything mood and what he's doing with Solaris/Java?

    Could be ironic if Novell bought them.

  14. g e

    Seriously...

    I might bid twenty quid.

  15. bubba-bear

    What is it that they can sell?

    The courts have said that SCO doesn't own very much of the UNIX IP, it was retained by Novell; what is it that they are trying to sell? If it is the SCO UNIX distro, my guess that few people would want to buy any new SCO UNIX licenses. UNIX growth is pretty much stagnant right now and Linux has largely replaced small to mid range *NIX. SCO UNIX is an orphan version of UNIX, and nobody with any sort of a memory of SCO's history will buy it.

    1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
      Boffin

      "SCO UNIX is an orphan version of UNIX"

      Excuse me, UNIXWare is the direct closest linear descendent of Bell Labs version5/6/7 UNIX that first appeared on University PDP/11 systems around 1976/77. It is the closest thing to being the main UNIX line that exists.

      The line runs as follows

      Bell Laboratories UNIX Timesharing System Version 5/6/7

      PWB

      USG

      System3 (Sometimes written System III)

      SystemV (Sometimes written System 5)

      SVR4

      UNIXWare

      Bell Laboratories, which could possibly make a claim for switched to Plan9 after UNIX edition 10 sometime around 1990.

      Of course, there has been cross pollination, especially from the BSD releases, but these were made almost completely AT&T code-free around 1993. BSD4.4 could be regarded as intellectual descendents, but you would have to question whether it still counts as a genetic UNIX.

      SunOS/Solaris, AIX, and HP/UX are vendor-owned branches of the original code, and Linux is not even a distant cousin, although there may be some illegitimate blood from dalliances from the UNIX members in the past. The family resemblance is striking, however.

      SCO picked this up via UNIX System Laboratories (USL), Novell, Original-SCO and Caldera-SCO.

      The term is Genetic UNIX. A good diagram can be found here http://www.levenez.com/unix/. Enjoy.

  16. Chad H.
    Joke

    Putting together a buyout group

    I'm putting together a buyout group if anyone wants to join in. Ralph wiggum abd I have 2 crayons and a carton of milk so far, we think it's fair but wouldn't mind a little more to put us over the top.

  17. Sureo
    Flame

    They could try..

    ..putting it up for auction on eBay. 2 birds of a feather.

  18. Tim Bates

    Wow...

    Bidding on elRegBay is already up to 20 quid?

    Hmm, let me see... I'll got $100 Australian. Should be able to sue Red Hat for well more than $100...

  19. Phil Koenig
    FAIL

    Not sure what's worse

    This ridiculously overextended legal debacle, or the endlessly drawn-out demise of Commodore/Amiga...

  20. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    How would this work?

    I mean, if SCO sells off the software business, then what cause do they have to sue? They were suing over allegations regarding their software, they don't own the software any more.

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