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SCO inks last-second life-saving Unix pact

The firm that wouldn't die!

By Austin Modine • Get more from this author

Posted in Software & Security, 16th June 2009 18:45 GMT

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After a nuclear holocaust, the only thing left alive will be roaches... and the SCO Group.

The company that thinks it owns some lines of Linux – and that everyone else thought was fated for Chapter 7 bankruptcy death this week – has instead revealed to the world that it is the immortal Highlander.

Just before a crucial liquidation hearing in bankruptcy court today, SCO Group chief executive Darl McBride inked a life-saving deal with a company called Gulf Capital Partners. The investment firm is backed by the high-profile equity investor Stephen Norris, the very man who pondered buying SCO the last time it faced bankruptcy destruction.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the deal would sell SCO's Unix software unit to London-based Gulf Capital Partners. SCO president Jeff Hunsaker and the majority of the company's 62 employees would join the new company. What remains of SCO would hold tight to its long-standing licensing claims against IBM and Novell under McBride.

SCO filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2007 after a US judge found that Novell was the true owner of the Unix licenses that SCO sold to Sun Microsystems and Microsoft – and was suing IBM over.

An appointed bankruptcy trustee recently asked permission to dissolve SCO under Chapter 7, saying the company has "no reasonable chance of rehabilitation." That is, unless it somehow miraculously came up with the cash to pay off its debts. And oh how we scoffed at the very idea.

It seems SCO's uncanny survival will now be decided at the new hearing set for July 16, or the backup date July 27. ®

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