SCO Forum 2005: CEO pledges to focus on innovation

Computerworld - LAS VEGAS -- With numerous copyright infringement lawsuits against IBM, Novell Inc. and others still winding through the courts, The SCO Group Inc. today opened its annual SCO Forum reseller conference here by stressing its 26-year commitment to its core Unix technologies and products.
Even as detractors continue to label SCO as dead in the IT waters because of its two-year-old legal attacks on alleged Unix code infringement inside Linux, CEO and President Darl McBride pumped up his company's core resellers with the message that SCO will prevail.
"There's a lot of folks out there trying to say that SCO's claims are not even alive," McBride told a crowd of several hundred here in the convention center at the MGM Grand Hotel. "Until we get into the courtroom, you're going to continue to see the spread of FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt] about SCO's legal case and our viability as a company."
Since 2003, when SCO filed its original lawsuit against IBM alleging infringement of massive amounts of System V Unix code (see "SCO sues IBM for $1B in intellectual property fight"), the company has been demonized in much of the IT world and hit by tough fiscal times as income shrank and legal bills soared.
But with those legal fees now capped in a deal with its attorneys, SCO's financial picture is brightening, McBride said. "This is a sustainable model at this point," he said.
A trial date has been set in the IBM case for February 2007, and SCO's legal team is now preparing for expected depositions from IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano, McBride said. "We do look forward to having our claims heard in that case."

SCO CEO and President Darl McBride Image Credit: Todd Weiss

McBride said his company is operating profitably and has been generating cash for the last five fiscal quarters, with core Unix profitability expected by the end of the fiscal year. "We're not just focusing on litigation; we're focusing on innovation as well," he said.
Since June, SCO has been shipping its reinvigorated SCO OpenServer 6 Unix operating system (see "SCO begins shipping OpenServer 6"), which underwent three years of development to provide new features to customers. The software, called Legend, aims at modernizing the company's core product, which targets small and medium-size businesses. It supports file sizes up to 1TB, increases memory support from 4GB to 64GB, and adds new security features and performance enhancements.
Throughout his address today, McBride attacked Linux as having a "volunteer fire department support model," which he said isn't as robust or reliable as SCO