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| SCO Statement on Canopy Settlement |
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Friday, March 11 2005 @ 10:40 PM EST
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How weird is this? SCO is putting out a statement [moved; now here] about the Canopy-Yarro settlement before the litigants have. Somebody wants the world to know it's really, really settled and that Yarro and Mott remain with SCO on the board. I'm sure shareholders will find that *very* reassuring, after all they heard alleged about those two in the Canopy-Noorda Complaint, their Answer to the Yarro Complaint, and their Motion to Dismiss Ralph J. Yarro III as Director, not to mention the astounding corporate documents they had a chance to look over. The wording does sound like there has been a Canopy-SCO divorce: "SCO is pleased that the final settlement between The Canopy Group and its former management has removed any uncertainty regarding The SCO Group and SCO shares that Canopy has owned. " Like *that* is what worried us. But notice the "has owned", past tense? So, that's a relief. I was afraid Mr. Mustard was going to run Yarro off and then conduct the lawsuit competently himself. He seems to be able to get a few things done pronto.
Stephen Shankland claims he knows what is in the settlement that hasn't been announced yet too: Under the terms of the settlement, Yarro will receive all of Canopy's SCO shares, SCO said. In addition, Canopy paid Yarro, Mott and another former Canopy employee, Brent Christensen, an undisclosed amount of money. Yarro, Mott and Christensen have resigned from all roles at Canopy or companies Canopy invested in. Other terms weren't revealed. So, I gather SCO has been on the phone, calling reporters with their version of events. Personally, I'd like to wait to hear from the litigants themselves. I know what happened. SCO is doing an homage to the Keystone Kops. Or is it the gang that couldn't shoot straight? Anyway, the gang is intact. That much we know for sure. Speaking of lawsuits settling, you have probably heard that Microsoft and Burst have settled their lawsuit too. But did you know this little detail? Take a look at BayStar's portfolio page and what do we find? Yup. Burst is on the list. Look under "I", for Instant Video Technologies, their former name. So if Microsoft shovels money to Burst as part of a settlement, why... well, well. $60 million and an ongoing licensing deal. As I live and breathe. What a small world it is, after all. Here's SCO's statement:
**********************
SCO Issues Statement Regarding Canopy Settlement
Friday March 11, 8:12 pm ET
LINDON, Utah, March 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The SCO Group, Inc. ("SCO") (Nasdaq: SCOXE - News), the owner of the UNIX® operating system and a leading provider of UNIX-based solutions, today issued the following statement by the Company's president and CEO, Darl McBride, regarding the recently announced settlement by The Canopy Group and its former management.
"SCO is pleased that the final settlement between The Canopy Group and its former management has removed any uncertainty regarding The SCO Group and SCO shares that Canopy has owned. As SCO's largest shareholder, we look forward to Ralph Yarro's continued leadership and guidance as chairman of the SCO board. We also look forward to Darcy Mott's continued participation as a SCO board member. We believe that SCO will benefit from their long-term view of SCO's shareholder value."
About SCO
The SCO Group (Nasdaq: SCOXE - News) helps millions of customers in more than 82 countries to grow their businesses everyday. Headquartered in Lindon, Utah, SCO has a worldwide network of more than 11,000 resellers and 4,000 developers. SCO Global Services provides reliable localized support and services to partners and customers. For more information on SCO products and services, visit http://www.sco.com.
SCO and the associated SCO logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of The SCO Group, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. All other brand or product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.
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| Authored by: rsteinmetz70112 on Friday, March 11 2005 @ 11:13 PM EST |
I claim for Groklaw first right of foresight.
I think I first suggested, rather timidly, that Yarro would get the Canopy
shares of SCOG.
---
Rsteinmetz
"I could be wrong now, but I don't think so."
Randy Newman - The Title Theme from Monk[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, March 11 2005 @ 11:15 PM EST |
Without the public announcement all the institutional investors have been afraid
to trade SCOXE stock for fear of being charged with insider trading.
The trading has been way down this week and everyone was wonderring when an
announcement would be made.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: emmenjay on Friday, March 11 2005 @ 11:17 PM EST |
| The Shankland link is broken. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, March 11 2005 @ 11:17 PM EST |
Are Yarro and Co going to give them some of the spoils?
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| Authored by: jailbait on Friday, March 11 2005 @ 11:23 PM EST |
Please place your off topic posts here.
-----------------
Steve Stites
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, March 11 2005 @ 11:52 PM EST |
| So they gave Yarro the Bountry treatment; cast adrift on the SCO dingy. This
also says volumes about the relationship and involvement of Yarro in the SCO
scheme. Perhaps when this eventually winds down and the appropriate
authorties finally become involved, he can get an adjoining cell with Darl at
club fed?
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| Authored by: rsteinmetz70112 on Friday, March 11 2005 @ 11:56 PM EST |
SCOG is now again claiming to be the Owner of the Unix Operating System.
---
Rsteinmetz
"I could be wrong now, but I don't think so."
Randy Newman - The Title Theme from Monk[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Khym Chanur on Friday, March 11 2005 @ 11:58 PM EST |
So, did Yarro say "I'll settle if you give me some loot", and
Canopy/Noorda/Mustard thought "Lets give him the SCO stock, it'll satisfy his
demand and get rid of some dead weight at the same time"? Or did
Yarro say "Give me SCO"? If he made a demand for SCO in particular,
rather than just random loot, what would his motivation be? I can only think of
these:
- Keep Mean Mister Mustard from looking through SCO's paper trail
and finding evidence something illegal going on.
- Yarro is afraid that Mean
Mister Mustard would settle the suit on IBM's terms, and either:
- Yarro
wants the suit to drag on for as long as possible, or
- A settlement on IBM's
terms would include handing over many internal documents to IBM, documents which
would make Yarro look very bad.
Any other reasons why Yarro might
have asked for SCO?---
Give a man a match, and he'll be warm for a
minute, but set him on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
(Paraphrased from Terry Pratchett) [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: The Mad Hatter r on Friday, March 11 2005 @ 11:58 PM EST |
In an earlier post I had wondered how Mr. Mustard would handle the SCOG issue -
after all there are serious questions about what value if any remains in the
company. Since Canopy is a major shareholder in SCOG this is a big issue.
Now if the settlement reports from Stephen Shankland, Maureen O'Gara and the
SCOG press release are true, we know the answer. If SCOG does not win the
lawsuit the company has no value. Depending upon how you rate their chances the
value of the company is either zero or half a billion dollars. Quite frankly
it's a gamble, and corporate types don't like gambles (which is one of the
things that had me really puzzled when the suit was first announced - only an
idiot or a gambler would file a suit like this - it appears a gambler did).
So in one shot Canopy dumps a CEO and his staff that no longer had the
ownerships confidence, and dumps an investment that is very much a long shot
(and was becoming a public embarassment). This will probably allow them to take
a large write down (tax loss) and may make up for a portion of the 20,000,000
they allege that Yarro overpaid himself.
Yarro gets some money (we don't know how much) and a large holding in a company
he apparently believes in.
It looks like a win-win situation for both sides.
Now myself, I'm a war gamer, and I have a tendency to forget the real point of
things and go for blood. Of course that's one reason that lawyers exist - to
point out to clients like me that winning is sometimes the same as losing.
---
Wayne
telnet hatter.twgs.org
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| Authored by: Anthony Kaye on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:05 AM EST |
Press Release
March 11, 2005, Lindon, Utah: Ralph Yarro, Darcy Mott and Brent Christensen, and
Mrs. and Mrs. Raymond Noorda, The Noorda Family Trust, the Canopy Group, Inc.,
Canopy's CEO, William Mustard, Terry Peterson and Val Noorda Kreidel announced
today that they have reached an agreement to amicably settle all claims in the
pending litigations amongst the parties. Under the agreement, Messrs. Yarro,
Mott and Christensen will receive an undisclosed amount of money, and Mr. Yarro
will receive Canopy's shares of SCO stock. Messrs. Yarro, Mott and Christensen
have resigned from all positions they held with Canopy and Canopy's portfolio
companies, and they will cease to hold any interest in Canopy. The other terms
of the agreement are confidential.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:09 AM EST |
Isn't SCO in a Canopy building?
Are the other Canopy loans to SCO, paid off? (I seem to vaguely remember that
there might have been one secured against SCO's assets)
Quatermass
IANAL IMHO[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:10 AM EST |
Geez, PJ, I see some reputable companies (AFAIK) on this list too. Like Roxio
and Sirius.
What are we to make of this? Another conspiracy waiting to happen?
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| Authored by: montana on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:13 AM EST |
Most PR types will tell you that if you want to bury bad news announce it on a
Friday night when no one is paying attention.
It appears that SCOXE thinks this is really good news, however.
Classic narcisstic behaviour.
---
Oro Y Plata[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: jim Reiter on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:20 AM EST |
30 % of 17,000,000 shares at $4.00 a share is about $20 million. Canopy
probably paid half or less of the $4.00 a share price.
It would be interesting to know if the Yarro gang will hold Canopy harmless in
the IBM suit, for what that might be worth?
Just one more thing that doesn't make any sense.
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| Authored by: dmarker on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:24 AM EST |
And when MOG in her role as seer of all things pro sco, will enlighten us about
what a great thing it was that SCO and Yarro were able to divest themselves of
Canopy and conentrate on the end-game plan for SCO against the mighty and IBM
and its army of unwashed socialists of the FOSS.
But from another perspective ...
One view could be that Yarro by being granted all the SCO shares held by Canopy,
has been left to hang on the yardarm when the SCO vs IBM case really starts to
unravel. This could be the way Canopy has protected itself from IBM
counterclaims. "Yarro, pick up thy SCO shares and walk".
So the facts seem to be ...
Canopy no longer has any financial or business interest in SCO or what she does
or where she goes, and possibly they don't care as long as it all happens away
from them.
Doug Marker
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| Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:32 AM EST |
I find that interesting.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:47 AM EST |
| The SCO Group, Inc. ("SCO") (Nasdaq: SCOXE - News), the owner of the UNIX®
operating system,
I don't recall SCO using this phrasing lately in their
press releases. Is there significance here?
UNIX is a registered
trademark of The Open Group.
Hmmm... So SCO owns UNIX, but it's
somebody else's registered trademark. Typical of SCO - they own stuff that
somebody else owns.
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| Authored by: dmarker on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:51 AM EST |
Settlement leaves SCO board intact: News.com item
DSM
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:56 AM EST |
What about the corporate veil problems that Canopy was in the potential sights
of from IBM, Red Hat, Novell, shareholders, etc?
Is Canopy trying to show that canopy is not to blame? Does the shell game go
on? Is the an attempt to sever the oord so that litigantes can't climb those
Canopy stairs as easily?
What is in the water out in Utah?
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 12:58 AM EST |
The SCO Group helps millions of customers in more than 82 countries to grow
their businesses everyday. Headquartered in Lindon, Utah, SCO has a worldwide
network of more than 11,000 resellers and 4,000 developers. SCO Global Services
provides reliable localized support and services to partners and customers.
Millions of customers?
11,000 resellers, I didn't think they sold that many units last year.
4,000 developers is that a lifetime cumulative total?
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 01:12 AM EST |
they can now grind SCO and the SCOundrels into the ground without worrying about
doing the same to Ray Noorda. This settlement is probably a good thing. Yarro,
Darl, and SCO deserve one another.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 01:23 AM EST |
SCO Issues Statement Regarding Canopy Settlement:
SCO is proud to announce to all of our valued investors and customers that only
people that feel they could gain large ammounts of money from our scam wish to
be associated with us.
---
Are you a bagel or a mous?[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 01:43 AM EST |
Or was he involved with Yarro et al before 2002.
I've always believed he
was brought in to do a job.
If he was told during the appointments process
that new Caldera did have IP in Linux, it may have taken him some time to come
to the conclusion that he had been conned as well.
What is his previous, if
any, with the Yarro crew.
Brian S. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: rob.thomas on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 01:45 AM EST |
Mean Mr. Mustard probably got a whiff of the the Kool-Aid and then suggested
sending Mr. Yarro off with a few gallons and an extra straw for Darl!
Rob
---
Living life on the edge .. of a continent![ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: geoff lane on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 02:12 AM EST |
I think Yarro will now seek to realise any value from TSG that he can, as
quickly as he can. TSG lawyers will be on the phone this weekend trying to
discover what will be necessary to make the Novell and Redhat cases go away -- I
suspect that simply abandoning any claim to Unix and returning all rights to
Novell will be sufficient.
IBM will not be so easy to pacify, but while SCO v. IBM exists TSG is not going
to find a buyer. A sacrifice may be necessary and Darl looks like a good
candidate...
---
Not using the GPL is not a character flaw.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 10:03 AM EST |
| Does this mean that there is a "change of control" of SCO? [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: blacklight on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 10:41 AM EST |
"I was afraid Mr. Mustard was going to run Yarro off and then conduct the
lawsuit competently himself" PJ
How does one competently conduct a lawsuit that has virtually no evidence to
back it up against knowledgeable parties that have the facts and the law on
their side?[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: webster on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 11:27 AM EST |
Canopy got ride of SCO and Yarro and hopefully minimized the risk that IBM would
come after them.
Yarro avoided the chance of losing everything, he protected his frineds and he
made a few million. He also gets to continue the SCO suit which depending on
developments can be a boom or bust. If they can 1) get some issues past the
Judge to a jury 2) with no PSJ's, then IBM will settle lavishly. This is a
tall order at this point. He is confident of further financing somewhere since
he no longer has Canopy backing. This case stands to grow exponentially in
evidence and parties before it ever goes to trial. IBM may bring in SCO
investors to balance the sympathies before the jury. It is time to rerun those
Canopy subpoenas.
---
webster[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, March 12 2005 @ 01:25 PM EST |
PJ,
It's worth pointing out that Burst had Microsoft by the short-and-curlies.
They had dug up enough evidence of Microsoft's systematic document-destroying
policies, and a bunch of omissions in Microsoft's discovery responses.
I don't think MS was throwing $60m at Burst just to make Baystar happy or
something. I think Burst was about to be the biggest legal headache MS had ever
had to date, and $60m was a small price for them to make that go away.[ Reply to This | # ]
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