Buying SCO

Posted Jun 12, 2003 18:53 UTC (Thu) by corbet (editor, #1)
In reply to: The Trillian Project : Proof of SCO's actions by emkey
Parent article: Did SCO open Unix source code? (ZDNet)

No, I don't think it would be a good thing. It would encourage more of the same sort of attack in the future, first of all.

But it's also worth remembering that IBM has not always been the good guy. The company has worked carefully and thoughtfully with the free software community for a while now, and I sure hope that continues. But man it would be a bummer to have some internal lawyer wake up one morning and say "gee, now *we* own this stuff that's in Linux." It's a highly unlikely scenario, but it's one that would not be fun to have to fight.

Buying SCO

Posted Jun 12, 2003 21:13 UTC (Thu) by emkey (guest, #144) [Link] (7 responses)

I agree its a risk, and back in the 80's I never would have believed I'd give serious consideration to supporting IBM in anything. Times change though and the stakes here are high enough that I find myself willing to believe that the last few years are indicative of a real change at IBM. It is interesting to consider the ramifications of such a move from the point of view of other companies trying. Frankly I suspect it happens all the time and we just don't notice since it isn't happening in our area(s) of interest.

To the best of my knowledge nobody in the press has looked at the buyout option which is interesting. Given the relative sizes of the two companies it just seemed like an obvious possible outcome.

Buying SCO

Posted Jun 12, 2003 22:31 UTC (Thu) by hamjudo (guest, #363) [Link] (2 responses)

Google new search on IBM buyout SCO gets a few hits, change the spelling of buyout and you'll get some different hits. Judging by the stock price, I'd guess that some investors think SCO is worth buying.

There are more reasons why a buyout would be a very bad thing. If IBM were to buy SCO, they'd get stuck with all of SCO's liabilities and obligations, which may be substantial. Do any members of the SCO management team have a golden parachute? Do SCO customers have support contracts?

SCOX has a market capitalization of $110M USD today. Usually the purchase price exceeds the market cap. Far more cost effective to spend a comparatively small amount on lawyers, than a huge amount that rewards the scum.

As smart as IBM is acting these days...

Posted Jun 13, 2003 1:59 UTC (Fri) by cr (guest, #3685) [Link] (1 responses)

They'll probably wait, and buy just the IP at a Chapter-7 yard sale.

As smart as IBM is acting these days...

Posted Jun 13, 2003 22:34 UTC (Fri) by vksgeneric (guest, #11932) [Link]

Chapter7 would be a real bummer in terms of IP transfer. If a small company gets it, they can try the same stunt as SCO when times get tough. If a large company gets it (IBM, M$, whoever), they can easily sue smaller companies that compete with them and do other stupid things that hurt free software in general and Linux in particular.

Auctioning off IP is like auctioning off a nuke or a set of keys to a bank. You can't expect anything good to come out of it unless the buying party is super-honest and has best interests of humanity in mind, forever.

Buying SCO

Posted Jun 13, 2003 15:21 UTC (Fri) by allesfresser (guest, #216) [Link] (3 responses)

Of course, there are other companies with really deep pockets that might like to snag the "IP" once its ownership has been established in court... and then where would we be? Does the prospect of a certain company in Redmond bidding for that code successfully scare y'all as much as it scares me?

Buying SCO

Posted Jun 13, 2003 18:31 UTC (Fri) by ccchips (subscriber, #3222) [Link] (2 responses)

Yes: Like Novell.

Buying SCO

Posted Jun 13, 2003 21:24 UTC (Fri) by allesfresser (guest, #216) [Link] (1 responses)

Well yes, them too. :-) I suppose the NSA could snap it up as well, and really screw things up...

Buying SCO

Posted Jun 13, 2003 22:39 UTC (Fri) by vksgeneric (guest, #11932) [Link]

NSA? Not possible, but it would have been the best outcome possible. If they want to outlaw anything, they can do it already. But if they own the IP and don't outlaw the stuff, it effectively means it becomes public domain.

If you meet a monster that is about to bite your head off, would you rather meet one that hates you (competes with you, that is), or one that doesn't really care whether you exist?