Soon a huge volcanic crater...

[mdlbear]

... will be all that's left of SCO.
-- (from "High Barratry", on Coffee, Computers, & Song)

The first stage in the formation of a caldera is a gigantic volcanic eruption that empties the magma chamber, which subsequently collapses. Now that SCO has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, we're starting to see the eruption tapering off.

This filing stays all pending legal action against SCO, including the trial in SCO vs. Novell that was scheduled to start on Monday. But Pam Jones of Groklaw points out in the cited post, and in an earlier comment, that SCO isn't exactly off the hook here. First of all, Novell already has a summary judgement that SCO is liable for conversion (the civil equivalent of theft) of the royalties it was owed. So SCO is, in effect, in posession of stolen property, and that's not affected by the bankruptcy. The only thing left to determine is how much. Tuesday's hearing in Delaware should be interesting.

There's also the interesting fact that, up until yesterday, they were telling the court and the SEC that they were still solvent. Is it remotely possible that they were, um, shading the truth a little? There's also a fascinating paragraph in the bankruptcy filing where they continue to claim that they own Unix. In spite of Judge Kimball's recent ruling that they don't.

The soprano is warming up.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

The soprano is warming up.

No she's not. I could hear her if she was. :) :) :)

This has the effect of dragging things out another year or more. Now, it could well be that Novell's summary judgement ends up wiping out SCO's assets, or enough of them that SCO's creditors could prove on preponderance of evidence that reorganization was impossible, and that *would* end it. Or there could be just enough left of SCO to keep going, in which case AFTER a year or so of bankruptcy proceedings we get to go BACK to SCO vs. IBM...

This is the scratch with the poisoned dagger, that seals SCO's fate. But there are a lot of soliloquies and thrashing around yet before the chorus comes onstage to end the play (to morph the metaphor a bit)... and it remains to be seen where that noxious point is gonna fall. Harmlessly to the floor? In Steve Ballmer's back? Who knows?

And your point about the SEC is well taken; if SCO defrauded the stockholders, Darl could end up in the pokey. Sarbanes-Oxley is *nasty* about that.

Noooo, we're just getting into the fifth act. cflute can rest a bit before she has to warm up. :) :) :)

[mdlbear]

A lot depends on whether Novell succeeds in blocking the bankruptcy proceedings, or at least in convincing the judge that SCO's assets can't be properly valued without determining how much of their cash on hand was actually stolen from Novell. SCO might have waited a little too long on that one: Novell already has the judgment.

Meanwhile, somebody is certainly preparing a criminal case or three. We're definitely somewhere around Act V, Scene 2; I'm not too clear on whether cflute comes in after the buzzards' chorus, or before.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*nods* Perhaps it was that Novell's board realized it was too late to save the Titanic...

Of course, the Chapter 11 filing is a blatant attempt to confuse things further (and perhaps give the principals time to run now that the inevitable is occurring); SCO at this point has no intangible assets that are worth anything, and the company is patently not viable. The question is, how many of SCO's base are belong to Novell, and what's left for the vultures.

According to the directions of the original Ring Cycle, the chorus of the Rhinemaidens comes after the soprano aria...

Guess I better get cflute some Throat Coat, eh?

[mdlbear]

Oh, right -- the gold eventually gets back to where it belongs, doesn't it? Seems appropriate... Definitely time for Throat Coat.

SCO is clearly just trying to delay the inevitable; they even admit it in the bankruptcy filing. Tuesday's going to be fascinating.