| SCO CEO Darl McBride is on his way out |
Feb. 14, 2008
While The SCO Group may go on to pursue its plans with a $100 million buyout, it will do so without its longtime CEO Darl McBride.
Buried in the proposed MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between Unix vendor and Linux litigator SCO and SNCP (Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners) is the note that "upon the effective date of the Proposed Plan of Reorganization, the existing CEO of the Company, Darl McBride, will resign immediately."
McBride is usually seen as the mastermind behind SCO's kamikaze legal attack on IBM. As time went on, SCO's lawsuits continued to grow. Other Linux companies, notably Novell and Red Hat, were drawn in. SCO also sued several of its customers, AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler, for improper use of Unix code and Linux.
McBride came on board Caldera/SCO to push SCO's lawsuits forward. While most people scoffed from the beginning about SCO's chances of making its case, McBride always asserted that SCO could win by proving that Unix code or other IP (intellectual property) had been used improperly in Linux.
SCO was never able to show any proof of its position that the courts found acceptable. As time went on, McBride became one of the most hated executives in IT. He was seen by many as being the moral enemy of Linux and open source.
For a time, he was accompanied by armed bodyguards because of threats against him. McBride, however, was never sold on the idea that SCO was nothing but an anti-Linux company. Even when it became apparent that a company like Microsoft could be financially backing SCO to further its lawsuits and other companies, such as BayStar Capital, were only willing to support SCO if it abandoned Unix and spent all its resources on its lawsuits, McBride insisted that the company continue to spend resources on its Unix operating systems and later its mobile applications.
In what had appeared to be SCO's last days, however, according to SCO's motion to approve the deal, SCO has decided to abandon McBride's policy of continuing to support Unix. In Section 7 of the motion, Case No. 07-11337 (KG), to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, SCO's attorneys explicitly state that the "Primary purpose and intended results of the Plan, and the financing commitments provided under the MOU, is to encourage and promote an early and favorable resolution of the Novell/IBM Litigation. Notwithstanding the August 2007 interim ruling by the Utah District Court in the Novell Litigation, SCO believes it has an excellent chance to prevail in the Novell/IBM Litigation, including potential for an award of substantial damages in its favor should SCO prevail."
The MOU also spells out that as part of the "Proposed Plan of Reorganization, SCO will continue to pursue aggressively the Company's claims in the Novell/IBM Litigation and other pending litigation, including The SCO Group, Inc. v. AutoZone."
There is no mention in the legal documents of any intention to devote any resources to SCO's software businesses. So, while McBride may soon be gone, if the bankruptcy court approves this deal -- SCO's board has already approved it -- SCO will be more aggressive than ever in pursuing its anti-Linux lawsuits against Novell, IBM and AutoZone.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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