The SCO Group, provider of Unix software technology, announced today it is pursuing a sale of most of its Unix business assets, including certain Unix System V software products and related services.
With this asset sale, “our goal is to ensure continued viability for SCO, its customers, employees and the Unix technology,” said Ken Nielsen, CFO of The SCO Group, in a statement.
Referring to previous company announcements on secured funding for operating, administrative and litigation expenses, RedMonk analyst Michael Coté thinks this is just another way to generate more money.
“It looks like they want funds to support the customers they still have and pursue revenue through litigation by going after Novell and IBM, among others,” he said.
But for a business that deals in selling Unix products, it makes one wonder what will happen next. “What’s left?” asked Bola Rotibi, research director at Creative Intellectual Consulting. “Nothing.” However, this asset sale “comes at no surprise,” she added.
The decision to sell portions of its Unix business comes after years of litigation over the ownership to the copyrights of Linux source code. The long-running case first began in 2003, when The SCO Group sued IBM, which also distributes Linux, claiming that Linux is an unauthorized subset of Unix. The company has been in bankruptcy since September of 2007 after persistent and fruitless lawsuits against companies using Linux drained its funds.
