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IBM and Novell File Objections to SCO's unXis Sale - And how!
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| We're in OMG territory now, y'all. Let's continue:
|
| 14. Of course, the very involvement of Mr. Robbins in introducing Mr.
| McBride to Mr. Norris calls into question the good faith of the
| contemplated transaction. In its January 8, 2009, disclosure to the
| Court, the Debtors represented that Mr. Robbins -- Mr.
| Norris's "partner" -- had "extensive experience in structured finance and
| private equity as co-founder and managing partner of Peninsula Advisors"
| and "served as Investment Director and lead negotiator with several
| leading financial institutions."... And Mr. Robbins first introduced Mr.
| Norris to the Debtors, laying the foundation for the PSA.... But both Mr.
| McBride and Mr. Norris have testified that they believe Mr. Robbins to be
| involved in fraud. ... Mr. Norris "had come to find out and pretty
| definitively that Robbins had been lying to everyone and misrepresenting
| essentially everything to everyone and had probably engaged in a whole
| variety of frauds."
|
| This proposed deal is dead in the water, methinks. It turns out, according to
| IBM's filing, that there is no one actually committed to invest in this deal:
|
| 15. Financing for the PSA Transaction. Mr. Norris claimed that he had
| fairly firm plans to line up capital for the transaction proposed under
| the PSA, but he did not provide particulars.... He admitted, however,
| that he has no executed agreements from anyone to invest in this
| transaction, that there are no written commitments to back up either the
| Letter of Credit-Balance or the Letter of Credit-Sun and that he has no
| scheduled meetings over the next two weeks with any potential
| investors.... He claimed to have a variety of interested bidders, but did
| not clearly explain his solicitation process and, apparently on the
| advice of counsel, refused to identify any of the potential bidders
|
| [...]
|
| Now that the word "fraud" has entered this bankruptcy, we find ourselves in a
| new universe. Bankruptcies spin the other way, once there is fraud in the
| picture. And it's about time, too, I know you are thinking. If I had to read
| the judge say one more time that SCO was doing its very best, I was in danger
| of becoming a cynic. Why doesn't someone tell this judge what is *really*
| going on? That was what I was thinking about over the weekend. And now
| someone has.
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http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090720175057950
Adobe Opens more stuff
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| Food for thought there, especially considering the proxy battles Microsoft
| has waged against Linux in the past; $86M to SCO, for one example.
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| Maybe it’s worth explictly telling those people that say things
| like: “Microsoft would be suicidal to sue” that that is simply not true.
| Microsoft could easily sell off one patent to any patent troll company to
| attack Linux with – then what? It’s not like Microsoft doesn’t spawn patent
| troll companies.
`----
http://mono-nono.com/2009/07/21/adobe-opens-more-stuff/
Recent:
Darl, Norris, Bryan Cave Named as Defendants in IP Litigation - The Pelican
Brief
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| Well, my dreams are coming true. This is better than eagles. A new lawsuit
| with Darl McBride, Stephen Norris and Bryan Cave all named as defendants by
| Pelican Equity. The accusation? Theft of trade secrets.
|
| No. Wait. Wait. Wait. It gets better. They are also accused of violating the
| Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. There is a God! [passes out from joy]
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2009070123514867
SCO Files Notice of Cure Amounts Re Leases and Executory Contracts
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| There is a monster SCO filing in the bankruptcy, 531 pages, I'm told, a
| Notice of Cure Amounts in Connection with the Assumption and Assignment of
| Unexpired Leases and Executory Contracts [PDF] and then a 7-part exhibit. SCO
| proposes to transfer everything on this list to unXis "free and clear of all
| liens, claims, encumbrances and interests upon satisfaction of the cure
| amounts... except for Assumed Liabilities and Permitted Encumbrances".
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http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090708223757362
SCO's New Proposed Sale Plan - Wants to Sue Linux Users Some More
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| - By the way, did you catch the part about "other potential defendants" in
| addition to Novell, IBM, Red Hat and AutoZone? Everybody pretty much goes to
| unXis, leaving McBride as captain of the Good Ship SCO, and he gets to sue
| and sue and sue, while the assets have gone to unXis, so if SCO loses all the
| litigation, then the victors get no spoils and can't be be made whole by the
| legal process. But what particularly struck me is SCO saying that they will
| be able "to move the UNIX business forward with unXis in a very exciting
| way." "With unXis"? In what sense? It starts to hint that this is more a
| renaming, taking in some new management who seem to have financial expertise,
| and SCO keeps skipping along as unXis, with the dangerous litigation spun off
| safely into a litigation troll. Is that not what you see?
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090623013806705
SCO wants to keep waging legal war after $2.4M asset sale
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| SCO has secured a deal to sell off its major assets for $2.4 million to an IT
| consulting firm called Unxis. The agreement, which is still awaiting court
| approval, specifies that SCO retains the right to continue pursuing its
| litigation.
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http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/06/sco-wants-to-keep-waging-legal-war-after-24m-asset-sale.ars
SCO vs. Linux: New investor rescues SCO from bankruptcy
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| In yet another bizarre twist in the interminable legal dispute over source
| code allegedly illegally copied from UNIX System V into Linux, the SCO Group,
| which claims ownership of the disputed code, has secured a last-gasp reprieve
| from the threat of liquidation. Immediately before the crucial liquidation
| hearing in the bankruptcy court, SCO CEO Darl McBride signed an agreement
| with a company by the name of Gulf Capital Partners, backed by well-known
| investor Stephen Norris. Caught out by the surprise development, all parties
| have agreed to postpone the liquidation hearing until the 16th or the 27th of
| July.
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http://www.h-online.com/open/SCO-vs-Linux-New-investor-rescues-SCO-from-bankruptcy--/news/113540
SCO Group strikes deal just before bankruptcy hearing
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| The SCO Group lives.
|
| Facing life or death, officers of the embattled Utah software company signed
| a deal Monday just before walking into a federal bankruptcy courtroom for a
| hearing on motions to liquidate it. Instead, they proposed selling off the
| company's Unix business to a London-based firm, while keeping its licensing
| claims that are part of high-profile lawsuits involving IBM, Novell and other
| companies.
|
| The SCO Group also would retain its mobile application business, an area
| where it sees big potential growth.
|
| "We signed that deal just minutes before the court hearing, and walked in and
| handed it to them, " said Darl McBride, CEO of Lindon-based SCO.
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http://www.sltrib.com/technology/ci_12595750
Last Minute Filings in SCO Bankruptcy - Hearing Later Today - Update: 1st word;
2nd Update
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090615122117389
After the Hearing: Reports From Our Eyewitnesses - Updated
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| So, the bottom line of the day is that the proposed sale to
| Gulf-Cap-whatever-their-name-really-turns-out-to-be (see previous article)
| will have a hearing on July 16, as Webster earlier reported. So we will no
| doubt get to see the proposed agreement filed, and then objections, the usual
| song and dance. So, bottom line? Delay, delay, delay. It's too bad SCO can't
| package it up and sell delay. They'd make a fortune. It is what they are best
| at, I'd say.
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http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090615122117389
After the Hearing: Reports From Our Eyewitnesses
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20090615195402823
SCO Does It, Quite Frankly, As Usual
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| As it stands, everything remains up in the air — the proposed sale is by no
| means final, and if it is like any of the others, is likely nothing more than
| a delaying tactic. If the judge has any sense about him, when and if this
| deal falls through like all the rest, he'll wake up and finally start
| sanctioning SCO for treating the Bankruptcy Code like kindling. If it falls
| through by next month's hearing, SCO will need a miracle even Satan couldn't
| help them get to avoid conversion into a Chapter 7 — once the Chapter 7
| trustee gets his hands on them, they'll find themselves sold off faster than
| $5 Ferraris. By the time it finally happens, that champagne we all put away
| in 2002 will be just about right.
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http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/sco-does-it-quite-frankly-usual
Related:
Shuttleworth: Microsoft Fracturing the Open-Source Community
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| "That's extortion and we should call it what it is," he said. "To say, as
| [Microsoft CEO Steve] Ballmer did, that there is undisclosed balance sheet
| liability, that's just extortion and we should refuse to get drawn into that
| game. On the other side, if Microsoft is concerned about its intellectual
| property, there is no one in the free software community that wants to
| violate anyone's IP. Disclose the patents and we'll fix the code.
| Alternatively, move on."
|
| Microsoft has said it does disclose which patents are being violated, but
| only in one-on-one conversations with vendors. To Shuttleworth, that is not
| disclosure, because patents are public documents.
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http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2167193,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
[Mark Shuttleworth Interview]
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| Microsoft is asking people to pay them for patents, but they won't
| say which ones. If a guy walks into a shop and says: "It's an
| unsafe neighbourhood, why don't you pay me 20 bucks and I'll make
| sure you're okay," that's illegal. It's racketeering. What Microsoft
| is doing with intellectual property is exactly the same. It's a great
| company and I have great admiration for it, but this was not a
| well considered position.
|
| So you wouldn't do a deal?
|
| No, absolutely not. But the time will come when the folks at
| Microsoft who have a clear vision for the company as a participant
| in this community, rather than as a hostile antagonist, will win.
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http://mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=6672
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