The SCO case gets weirder

The SCO case gets weirder

Posted May 29, 2003 1:47 UTC (Thu) by freeio (guest, #9622)
Parent article: The SCO case gets weirder

As "Deep Throat" (of Watergate fame) is reputed to have said, "Follow the money." What we are seeing is the end game of a failing business model (selling software licenses for utterly unremarkable software) and the replacement with another (attempted extortion through the court system). But the key reasons for the behavior may well lie in the attempt to manipulate stock prices (SCOX has had quite a price run-up based on their new business model) or as an exit strategy for certain major investors (i.e. if there is little of value, start a big lawsuit and hope that someone will buy the company on the chance that the lawsuit will be won).

Now it would appear that the game may be up, as the truth is coming out. If what we have read is true, then it would appear that SCO does not own the trademark, copyrights, or patents, and has duboius claims as to trade secrets since their product (in which the secrets were embodied) is not particularly advanced. Honestly, SCO virtually had to know all of this before the suit was started, and that there were real risks in persuing this. Beyond that, pulling on Super Man's cape (suing IBM - what were they thinking?) will undoubtedly have some real repercussions. IBM has more patents than almost any other company, and given a month or two I suspect that IBM could find dozens which SCO might be said to be violating - especially since IBM has the SCO source code to plow through. So just what were they thinking?

In light of the newly falling SCOX stock price, it would be well to investigate what inside trading has occured during the last several months, and could be happening right now. It may well be that this is the exit - a financial windfall for a few investors. If the company fails, so what? We got ours! Well, that might be true until the SEC investigations start, which is the next likely step. Artifically manipulting stock prices has recently resulted in monumental fines, and hard time in the big house for the formerly wealthy perps.

So sit back and watch the show. This is financial gambling of the first magnitude.

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