09.19.07
SCO’s Novell Debt Marks Its Last Mile
SCO is at Novell’s mercy at the moment. Watch the most recent disclosures from SCO.
The rulings may also cost SCO a lot of money. The court said that SCO would have to pay Novell for past licensing deals it had struck with Sun Microsystems Inc. and Microsoft. This could amount more than $30 million, SCO said in its SEC filing. That’s more than the $10.4 million in cash now held by SCO.
It remains to see if Novell will ever exploit this ownership in a malicious way. Looking at the long term, Novell could be acquired and be aligned against its current goals. Never say never. Companies change hands and they subsequently change focus
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.