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SCO's Linux litigation architect angles for SCO's mobile biz

Former CEO strikes back

Desperate to fund its seemingly-endless legal battle for Unix copyrights against Novell and others, SCO Group has found someone willing to buy the bankrupt company's mobile assets - and it's none other than Darl McBride, the former SCO chief executive sacked as a result of his ruinous crusade to claim Unix.

Groklaw has flagged up that SCO's Chapter 11 trustee, Edward Cahn has proposed to punt the shell-of-a-company's mobility biz to Mobility Inc. Holdings (MIH), a firm created by McBride for the sole purpose of buying the assets, for the chump change value of $35,000.

The sale of SCO's mobility business would include source code to HipCheck, a smartphone app for remote monitoring of Unix and Windows systems, and Shout mobile voice messaging tools. It also includes 12 servers, 13 domain names, and 10 developer smartphones. MIH's down payment would be $5,000, with the remaining paid upon closing.

According to court documents, the terms do provide for MIH to pony up a maximum of $60,000 in "income participation" payments to SCO in the (extremely unlikely) event that revenues generated from the mobility business reach over $1m in a year.

The filing states that after McBride offered to buy the mobility group, SCO's trustee group compiled a list of 12 "targets" that might also have an interest in buying the biz. It said that over a two-week period, the group attempted to email or telephone ("or both") the targets, except for one that could not be reached.

In the end, none of the targets indicated real interest in purchasing the SCO's mobility wing. As Groklaw astutely points out - the trustee group will likely to have spent more than $35k on the billable hours just for pitching and concluding the sale.

A potential alternative source of cash for SCO Group arrived in early February, with an offer from majority shareholder Ralph Yarro to lend the company more than $2m for its pending legal cases. It would seem that one way or another, SCO will cling to life to see its Unix lawsuit through to the end. ®

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