Novell ditched over 80 per cent of its shareholding in the Santa Cruz Operation yesterday, and looks set to get rid of the rest. The networking company sold 1,363,750 shares, leaving its stake at just 300,000 common shares. And SCO CFO John Luhtala said he plans to buy the remain shareholding as soon as SCO has released its earnings figures, due on 20 July. Novell's early interest in SCO and its line of Intel-based Unix products clearly made sense when it was trying to beat back Windows NT. But with Linux now spearheading the competition with Microsoft's product, SCO has moved further away from the limelight -- though it's management remain as bullish as ever -- and Novell's waning interest comes as no surprise. ®