SCO at risk of bankruptcy

Lindon (USA) – Three and a half years after launching its legal attack on Linux, SCO Group has initiated proceedings for Chapter 11, a sort of receivership with which the company hopes to avert bankruptcy and rearrange the accounts.

“The SCO Group Board of Directors has unanimously decided to initiate a Chapter 11 reorganization in the long-term interest of SCO and its subsidiaries, and in that of its customers, shareholders and employees,” reads a statement. released on Friday by the company.

SCO Group has made it known that during the receivership it will carry on all its usual business activities, e will continue to provide its customers with services and assistance . During this same period, in which the operations of the company’s managers will be supervised by a court, SCO hopes to pay off all debts through future profits, while preserving its assets.

Although SCO’s economic crisis has distant roots, there is no doubt that the costs associated with the causes have had a significant impact on the company’s balance sheets . The well-known blog Groklaw.net reports that among the company’s major creditors are the document management company Amici and the law firm Boies Schiller & Flexner. Following are Microsoft, Sun, Intel, Fujitsu and HP.

The legal war against IBM and Linux never took the turn SCO hoped, but for the company led by Darl McBride the biggest blow came last month when District Judge Dale A. Kimball ruled that it is Novell, and not SCO, a own copyrights on Unix and UnixWare . A second hearing will now have to determine the amount of royalties SCO owes Novell for Unix licensing agreements previously sold to Microsoft and Sun.

Judge Kimball’s decision could prove crucial to the other cases as well related to Linux, including that with IBM: the copyright issue is in fact one of the pillars of SCO’s accusatory castle.

In the last month SCO’s stock value literally plummeted with a further decline (-43%) recorded on Friday evening, after the announcement of Chapter 11.