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Ocean Park's Bill for January in the SCO Bankruptcy
Tuesday, March 15 2011 @ 06:54 PM EDT

It's their 16th bill for advising SCO's Chapter 11 Trustee, Edward Cahn, in the SCO bankruptcy. And, I think we can agree, they've done quite a job on SCO.

Here are all the filings:

03/10/2011 - 1254 - Monthly Application for Compensation of Ocean Park Advisors, LLC (Sixteenth) for the period January 1, 2011 to January 31, 2011 Filed by Edward N. Cahn, Chapter 11 Trustee for The SCO Group, Inc., et al.. Objections due by 3/30/2011. (Attachments: # 1 Notice # 2 Exhibit A # 3 Exhibit B # 4 Certificate of Service) (Tarr, Stanley) (Entered: 03/10/2011)

This bill is for a mere $29,960, but then SCO is now insolvent, and we can certainly credit all the bankruptcy bills from professional advisors for utterly depleting the estate down to almost the last penny. Hence the creditors get essentially nothing, and SCO goes into oblivion, barring a resurrection by the appeals court.

If you look at the breakdown of the bills in Exhibit B, you'll see most of the 83 hours Ocean Park spent on this client were spent in analyzing, preparing, and executing the "restructuring plan". I kid you not. 37.3 hours were spent on that. They could have spent more, theoretically, but they've restructured SCO into oblivion. So I expect that may be the next to last time they can use that category.

Next most active category? Meetings with SCO's lawyers and Cahn. I can just imagine. What to do? What to do? What to do? Oh. Good Golly. Lookee here. No more money. Let's sell off the assets! Great idea. To whom? The pod of sharks that have been swimming round and round the body since 2007? Why not? -- But Novell and the other creditors won't get paid, they hear us say? The newly created company has no experience with Unix or software vendoring? Microsoft has an employee on the advisory board?

What did you expect, bub? Hahahahaha.

I mean, if SCO wanted to pay Novell its money, they would have done that back in September of 2007, when it entered bankruptcy with $6 million and change. That's not how one does The Hustle, ladies and gentlemen. This lawsuit, I think we may safely conclude, was never about what SCO said it was about. It was about placing a cloud of FUD over Linux so it wouldn't do well in the marketplace and if it did, SCO would skim off the top.

And then, what do you know? Life is so funny. Along came Android, which became an overnight sensation. So the dark side is shifting the main tent from servers to mobiles. That is what I see in the Nokia deal with Microsoft, which seems to be about trying to kill off or at least severely impact MeeGo and KDE negatively and getting a combined patent arsenal to try to force Windows Phone 7 down your unwilling, Android and iPhone-loving throats. Alternatively, if you just must use Android, kindly pay royalties for patents to their owners. Either way, Microsoft seems to benefit and Linux gets hobbled. SCO's dream is thus fulfilled, but just in a new category.

If the sale of Novell to Attachmate and CPTN goes through, there could be two tents going on simultaneously, of course, as is usual in any circus, which this is, and if the appeals court does SCO's bidding again, conceivably three. Who benefits from all this? Aside from Microsoft, I mean. The public fell in love with Linux. They love their Androids. And that is upsetting to those who hoped you'd believe all the FUD.

This saga is far from over. The FUD about Android and patents is thick in the air like toxic fumes. Ocean Park and the Chapter 11 Trustee have played their part now, so I'm guessing we'll be saying adieu soon.

But so have OSI and FSF, by bringing the issue of the sale of patents to CPTN, the Microsoft-organized entity, to the attention of regulators in the US and Germany. That has postponed the sale into April, at the earliest.

The real question is, though, is what will Novell do next? Will they appeal the bankruptcy judge's ruling allowing this sale of assets?


  


Ocean Park's Bill for January in the SCO Bankruptcy | 179 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Corrections here.
Authored by: jesse on Tuesday, March 15 2011 @ 07:54 PM EDT
Thank you.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off topic
Authored by: jesse on Tuesday, March 15 2011 @ 07:56 PM EDT
Thank you.

[ Reply to This | # ]

News Picks
Authored by: jesse on Tuesday, March 15 2011 @ 07:57 PM EDT
And try to include the News Pick title so we know what you are referring to...

[ Reply to This | # ]

Comes transcripts here please
Authored by: jesse on Tuesday, March 15 2011 @ 07:59 PM EDT
Thank you

[ Reply to This | # ]

Will Novell Appeal? Oh, gosh yes.
Authored by: GriffMG on Tuesday, March 15 2011 @ 08:31 PM EDT
They will and it will be thorough, damning and convincing.

Will it work, I think it will.



---
Keep B-) ing

[ Reply to This | # ]

A couple of Notices of Appearance
Authored by: benw on Tuesday, March 15 2011 @ 08:36 PM EDT
Both Oracle and Unisys have filed Notices of Appearance so they will be
represented at ... some upcoming hearing? I wonder what they have to say all of

a sudden.

[ Reply to This | # ]

The dinosaurs are dying
Authored by: stegu on Tuesday, March 15 2011 @ 08:39 PM EDT
Even though the desperate and dirty FUD might have stuck to some extent and made
free software somewhat less successful in the marketplace, or delayed their
adoption, both Linux and Android *are* successful.

While the dinosaurs are defending their old territory in the mud, the agile,
small but more evolved animals have taken to the trees.

It is very nice up here. I see many good years ahead. What happens down in the
dirt does not seem important any longer.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Ocean Park's Bill for January in the SCO Bankruptcy
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, March 15 2011 @ 08:50 PM EDT
sorry - I'm out of the loop, but is there any sign
that novell will appeal the sale? Isn't there a deadline
coming up soon?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Ocean Park's Bill for January in the SCO Bankruptcy
Authored by: eric76 on Wednesday, March 16 2011 @ 12:54 AM EDT
... we can certainly credit all the bankruptcy bills from professional advisors for utterly depleting the estate down to almost the last penny. Hence the creditors get essentially nothing, and SCO goes into oblivion, barring a resurrection by the appeals court.

Which is, of course, the real purpose of bankruptcy.

Years ago, I met a bankruptcy attorney who told me that in most bankruptcies, the only real winners were the attorneys -- that the whole thing was geared to milking the company for all it was worth and then when nothing is left, shutting it all down.

The bankruptcy court mainly just looks out for the bankruptcy attorneys to make sure they get paid in full.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Bankruptcy or not to bankruptcy
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 16 2011 @ 01:33 AM EDT
I'm beginning to think our local system is a lot better. You
don't get Chapter 11 protection. You go directly to Chapter 7.
No advisors pulling money from the estate. Bankruptcy is
bankruptcy.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Ocean Park's Bill for January in the SCO Bankruptcy
Authored by: lanser on Wednesday, March 16 2011 @ 04:09 AM EDT

If I was Gross I would be extremely embarrased to have presided over this, reducing an almost viable company to nothing and defrauding the very people it should have been protecting.

The Trustee should also bear some blame
The United States Trustee Program
The United States Trustee Program is a component of the Department of Justice that seeks to promote the efficiency and protect the integrity of the Federal bankruptcy system. To further the public interest in the just, speedy and economical resolution of cases filed under the Bankruptcy Code, the Program monitors the conduct of bankruptcy parties and private estate trustees, oversees related administrative functions, and acts to ensure compliance with applicable laws and procedures. It also identifies and helps investigate bankruptcy fraud and abuse in coordination with United States Attorneys, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other law enforcement agencies.
Emphasis Mine

[ Reply to This | # ]

  • Agreed.... - Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 16 2011 @ 12:34 PM EDT
Running Total?
Authored by: odysseus on Wednesday, March 16 2011 @ 05:00 AM EDT
Is anyone keeping a running total of all the bankruptcy bills? It will make for
depressing reading but would be a valuable record showing how it was the lawyers
and advisers who picked the carcass clean.

[ Reply to This | # ]

It's too late to kill Android
Authored by: soronlin on Wednesday, March 16 2011 @ 05:45 AM EDT
Along came Android, which became an overnight sensation. ... the Nokia deal ... to try to force Windows Phone 7 down your unwilling, Android and iPhone-loving throats.
The boat has already left. How many owners of an Android phone know or care about the cloud supposedly hanging over it? Very few. All of this messing about will not affect the phone-buying public one iota. So demand will continue to rise, and where there is demand there is supply. The phone manufacturers will continue to produce Android phones, (and one or two WP7 phones to keep a toe in the water.) It would be corporate suicide to do anything else.

The most that Microsoft, Oracle and other hyenas can hope to get out of this is some royalties, and I hope they are not counting even those eggs too soon.

[ Reply to This | # ]

The Wrath of Cahn
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 16 2011 @ 07:31 AM EDT
When Edward Cahn was appointed, there were some folk, and I believe PJ may have
been one, who expected some sanity would be injected into the process and the
asset destruction would be stopped.

If anything, his incompetence, which surely borders on the criminal, has been
staggering, apparently being abetted by the useless judge in the bankruptcy
court, resulting in the complete destruction of any hope that SCO creditors may
have had of ever being recompensed in any way.

I can only assume that Cahn and Gross have made significant sums of money out of
this saga, as I cannot imagine any other reason that they would display such
open and blatant incompetence.

Finally, I assume that the US Trustee must also be corrupt and taking back
handers, as he/she/it has done nothing to prevent this situation whilst in the
position to do so for over 3 years, and with the quite clear requirement to
intervene as part of the job description.

The U.S. Trustee does not have prosecution powers, but is required by law to
refer information regarding potential criminal violations of bankruptcy laws to
the United States Attorney [Title 18 of the U.S. Code section 3057].

Has anyone anywhere got any faith left in this system?

[ Reply to This | # ]

unXis IS the restructuring plan
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, March 16 2011 @ 03:40 PM EDT
There are 4 common ways for a company to get out of Chapter 11:

1. Luck: Making enough money to pay their debts in full, essentially using Ch11
as a "payday loan".

2. Settlement: Getting the creditors to write off some of the debt, so the
remaining debt is affordable.

3. Recapitalisation: Getting someone to invest enough money in the company to
satisfy the creditors.

4. Restructuring: Replacing the legal and financial entities that made up the
company, but keeping most of the rest. Legally, this is done by creating one or
more new empty companies and then selling/transfering most of the assets from
the old companies to the new ones, leaving the old company and its business
license behind like an old snakeskin. The new company will mostly be run by
the "better" half of the old staff, thus all the new company needs to
bring is cash and a business license.

Selling tne SCO assets to unXis fits this definition of a restructuring plan
perfectly, and the main change since the first unXis offer is that SCOg no
longer has a realistic chance of getting out in one of the other ways.

[ Reply to This | # ]

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