SCO v. IBM: Case Closed?
‘Lawsuit is doomed,’ attorney says
By Jennifer deJong
March 15, 2007 —
(Page 1 of 6)
It’s been a long four years of lawsuits, countersuits, motions for dismissal and judges’ refusals to grant them, but the case of SCO v. IBM isn’t over yet. Or is it?
“SCO has no future,” said Tom Carey, an intellectual property attorney for Boston-based law firm Bromberg & Sunstein. “The lawsuit is doomed.”
Industry analyst Rob Enderle echoed those sentiments, saying he believes the company has no future beyond the outcome of the lawsuit.
The SCO Group sued IBM in March 2003 for US$1 billion, alleging that IBM took code from SCO’s version of Unix, and, without authorization from SCO, contributed it to open source operating system Linux. The essential complaint that SCO has against IBM—that IBM misappropriated code in violation of its contract with SCO—is “a complete loser,” said Carey. “The IBM contract expressly permits IBM to develop competing products using the very personnel who have had a look at the Unix source code.”
Compounding SCO’s legal troubles is its weakening financial position. The company has an accumulated deficit of $250 million, noted Carey. Share prices have ranged from a 52-week low of 85 cents and a 52-week high of $5.23, and were trading at about $1 in late February.
If SCO loses the case, the most it can hope for is a four-man office to collect license fees on legacy Unix installations, Carey said. “There will be no more R&D and no new products.”
SD Times offered SCO the opportunity to respond to Carey’s comments by e-mail, but SCO did not reply. Nor did the company respond to a request for a phone interview.
‘INTENSE ANTAGONISM’
In an effort to stem its financial losses, SCO launched new mobile product offerings last summer, including HipCheck, an application that lets IT managers monitor network problems from a cell phone.
In-Stat principal analyst Bill Hughes said that SCO’s new mobile product offerings launched last summer are worth looking at, and that he does not believe the company’s legal troubles will have a negative impact on potential buyers. He also described as unwarranted the ill will SCO has generated within the industry, noting the company has been the recipient of “intense antagonism.”
Share this link: http://sdt.bz/30321
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
From the Editors: Node.js is unruly, but that’s where the fun is
The time to get involved with Node.js is now; Hadoop is about to break its own barriers
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Zeichick’s Take: Looking for the best of the best of the best
It's time once again for readers to send in nominees for the SD Times 100
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles
|
|
Xceed releases UX-focused suite for Microsoft’s WPF
"Blendables" helps match user experiences to developer visions
|
Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
|
|
RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
|
|
GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
|
|
Facebook claims hacker cred
Facebook's SEC S-1 filing form includes a short essay on the Hacker Way by Mark Zuckerberg himself.
|
The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing
Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...
|
|
Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic
As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...
|
|
Ensuring Software Quality at a Major International Bank
One of the world’s leading international banks has adopted AgitarOne technology for delivering generated unit tests for their Java software...
|
|
Load Testing Adobe Flex Applications
Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you’ve worked with before. For classic HTML web applications, the server does all...
|