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Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 10:43 AM EST
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As you know, SCO has its teleconference later today, at 5 PM Eastern, and I believe it should be fascinating. Their listen-only mode
URL is http://ir.sco.com/MediaRegister.cfm?MediaID=14111, but you have to have either RealPlayer or Windows Media Player or a reasonable facsimile. You also have to provide them your email address. We'll let you know what happens, if you don't wish to provide them with your email info, and who could blame you?
The news from the Microsoft-EU antitrust case is that there will be word tomorrow on whether the sanctions against Microsoft will be suspended during an appeal. And get this: Microsoft is asking the EU Commission: "Could we talk?" "Microsoft renewed its offer Monday to resume negotiations with the European Union in their five-year antitrust battle, saying it would do so immediately after a court rules this week on whether to suspend an order forcing the software giant to change its business practices." Meanwhile, it keeps stressing, according to the Chicago Sun Times, that the judge will probably rule against them. When PR sounds like that, it doesn't necessarily mean that is what they really think. It could just be spin. If they are victorious, they look even better. If not, they can remind all the reporters that they already told them that only 17% of all cases in the last decade have been suspended during an appeal, and that minimizes the negative impact.
While we wait, you might like to read a few items from Dion Cornett's Open Source Wall Street. Here's what Dion has to say about SCO: SCOX continues to trade up into year-end
The SCO Group (SCOX: Market perform) reports Q4 and year-end results Tuesday 5pm EST with our and consensus estimates both at $10.8M with a $0.18 loss and $43.6M with a $1.29 loss respectfully. Even though revenue is expected to drop 55% year-over-year, $10.3 million of last year’s Q4 revenue of $24.3 million came from one-time licensing deals. Discounting this one time effect, we expect revenue to be down 23% year-over-year but up 2% sequentially, with a smaller operating loss largely attributable to headcount reductions. Despite the improvements in the core business, we still believe that the Company’s stock price going forward will continue to be driven more by legal events, and, for the next two weeks, portfolio management. Beyond year-end window dressing, we believe that the next catalyst for the shares will be a potential January hearing of IBM’s (IBM: not rated) partial summary judgment motion. Separately, SCOX filed Change in Control Agreements with the SEC last week giving company officials immediate vesting in the event of a take-over or acquisition. We believe that this measure is relatively routine: it does not necessarily denote a pending event. Yes, it continues to trade, but who is doing the trading?
Interestingly, he rates Red Hat as Outperform. ("Red Hat reports earnings on Wednesday at 5pm EST. We expect Q3 revenue and earnings of $52M and $0.06, in line with consensus. We are confident in RHAT’s fundamentals given a seasonal rebound in western Europe, steady overall Linux server growth, deeper penetration amongst a broader group of OEM’s and modest expectations for retail, consulting and embedded revenues.") And here are two more bits of news you may be interested in:
IBM deepens relationship with Great Wall Computer
After announcing its deal with Lenovo, Great Wall announces a new joint venture with IBM called International Systems Technology (IST) to manufacture and sell IBM’s eServer xSeries and OpenPower servers in the Asian Pacific market. While our expectations for RHAT and NOVL sales in China are modest given the Chinese governments support of Red Flag, the joint venture is likely to help undermine Microsoft’s (MSFT: not rated) Windows’ monopoly in the region and large international Chinese enterprises may still use RHAT or NOVL for global consistency.
Recent studies indicate lower TCO and fewer bugs for Linux
Two (2) separate studies released last week provide support to our belief that the Open Source development model results in superior code. First, Cybersource reported that, given a 2-year TCO, Linux can have up to a 36% cost savings over Windows. Secondly, Stanford University Computer Science Research Center announced last week the completion of a 4-year study that indicated that Linux has .17 bugs per 1000 lines of code for a total of 985 bugs compared to 2030 bugs per 1000 lines for proprietary code, a 100:1 advantage. Speaking of bugs brings to mind malware. You probably heard that Microsoft has bought an antispyware company, and there were rumors that they'd clean up your computer with the new software, if you crossed their palm with silver. That's a fine business. Cause a problem and then make people pay you to fix it. I dare say it's recession-proof. Anyway, it seems the new purchase has hit an IP snag:
"Sunbelt Software on Friday confirmed reports that it has exclusive rights over certain aspects of the anti-spyware programs Microsoft gained in its acquisition of Giant Company Software on Thursday.
"The exclusive rights claimed by Sunbelt mean only Sunbelt can legally create and distribute software development tools for Giant's programs. If legitimate, the claim means Microsoft would need permission from Sunbelt before letting software partners build links to Giant's programs, which are designed to combat spyware and spam. Without such links, the software may not work well with programs from third parties." You have to admit, it made you smile just a little, didn't it? Of course, the lawyers that set up the deal aren't smiling, I'm guessing.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 10:49 AM EST |
You know the drill.
PJ, can you create a XMas thread on 25th?
I am sure most of us want to post their best wishes.[ Reply to This | # ]
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- OT here - Authored by: Peter H. Salus on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 10:57 AM EST
- OT here - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 11:04 AM EST
- OT here - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 11:28 AM EST
- OT here - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 03:55 PM EST
- A Fatal Blow to Shrinkwrap Licensing? - Authored by: utahbob55 on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 11:44 AM EST
- Title - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 11:58 AM EST
- ROTFL! - Authored by: ssavitzky on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:57 PM EST
- lol - Authored by: Darkelve on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 01:07 PM EST
- OT here. Linus on Solaris. - Authored by: midav on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 11:59 AM EST
- Free beer - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:18 PM EST
- OT: Ralph Yarro Gone - Authored by: fjaffe on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:21 PM EST
- OT here -- Mr. Yarro - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:27 PM EST
- PJ deserves a rest.... - Authored by: tiger99 on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:33 PM EST
- Speaking of spyware ... - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:46 PM EST
- Walmarks advertising a Linux Laptop. - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 01:19 PM EST
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| Authored by: ssavitzky on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 11:01 AM EST |
please.
---
The SCO method: open mouth, insert foot, pull trigger.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: jerven on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 11:03 AM EST |
The ratio of .17 to 2030 is a little more than 1:100. I expect that the 2030
should be 2.30 . After all it is pretty hard to include 2.3 bugs per written
line of shipped code.
Seasons greetings,
Jerven[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: gressil on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 11:36 AM EST |
Just provide the SCO with a mailinator
address
www.mailinator.com (Untested as this is
blocked at my work)
It's completely temporary and you never have to check
it again, and as SCO have only got 5.5 hours until the start I bet they aren't
competent enough to block it (Malinator aren't the only supplier of this service
anyway)
Chris [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: muswell100 on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 11:52 AM EST |
Of course it's ironic - and perhaps a bit amusing - that Microsoft, being the
Patent/IP fans that they are, should be slapped with yet another lawsuit over IP
infringement. Having said that, this seems to be only just the start of a
worldwide IP-lawsuit-merry-go-round which can only result in the IT Industry
eating itself, and where the only winners are the lawyers. I pray that Europe
continues to see sense where the powers that be in the US don't.
'Are you the victim of Patent Infringement? Just dial 0800-SUE-YER-ARSE...'[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: bstadil on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:11 PM EST |
| Just in that Poland in the nick of time had the guts to stall the rail-roading
of this
Link [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: edal on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:19 PM EST |
My shift doesn't finish until 5am CET so I should catch most of the action.
Popcorn has been prepared and I might start the backup jobs a bit early so I
don't miss the fun.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:42 PM EST |
There are (apparently confirmed) reports on the Yahoo board that the Canopy
Group has kicked out their CEO, Ralph Yarro.
Who is also the chairman of SCO's board.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: rm6990 on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:43 PM EST |
5PM Eastern you say? What time is that in Mountain Standard Time. I have 2 email
addresses, one for normal use and another for spam and crap like that, so I
don't mind watching.
---
(C) Copyright 2004 Ryan McGregor
The Above post is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0
License[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: tiger99 on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 12:49 PM EST |
| .. SCOX is slowly subsiding. Those who tried to get rich quick in the last few
days are surely in for a big disappointment. Of course, as I have demonstrated
before, I don't understand the stock market, but experts who have responded to
me previously have tended to confirm my suspicions that greed, randomness,
hysteria, ignorance, and an extreme degree of optimism may be some of the
factors involved. But I do expect that the picture will be rather different
tomorrow morning, sadly for some. They should probably salavge what they can of
their investments now, while they can. I wonder if Darl's conference call will
be from the company jet, en route to some banana republic where the financial
laws are rather less stringent, and where there is no extradition treaty with
the US. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Darkelve on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 01:02 PM EST |
if you don't provide them your email info and you listen to the conference
anyway, they will probably accuse you of hacking their website, having unclean
hands and sueing you!
Sorry, just couldn't resist that remark...[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 02:42 PM EST |
| MS has lots of money, Sunbelt will be no problem! [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 05:00 PM EST |
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041221/latu070_1.html
"The net loss attributable to common stockholders for the fourth quarter of
fiscal year 2004 was $6,516,000 ... as compared to a net loss attributable to
common stockholders of $1,568,000, or ($0.12) per diluted common share for the
comparable quarter of the prior year."
"Fourth Quarter achievements demonstrate continued progress at SCO,"
said Darl McBride
Heh. Compared to comparable quarter last year, the loss has increased * 4. And
thats progres???? *boggle*
[ Reply to This | # ]
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- 6.5million loss - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 05:05 PM EST
- 500K - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 05:14 PM EST
- 6.5million loss - Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 05:20 PM EST
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 05:22 PM EST |
| When did this happen? Was I asleep? [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: MathFox on Tuesday, December 21 2004 @ 05:34 PM EST |
There is nothing special about the numbers and plans in the SCO earnings
conference: SCO is losing money; mostly on legal costs. What is most interesting
is the way Darl is talking... sighing between words; he doesn't seem very
certain about the things he's saying. (Q&A continues)
---
When people start to comment on the form of the message, it is a sign that they
have problems to accept the truth of the message.
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, December 22 2004 @ 01:15 AM EST |
They may have exclusive rights to existing (Giant) products, but now that
Microsoft is pulling the strings, they'll produce something new and leave
sunbelt out in the cold. Sunbelt would be welcome to sue M$ but the legal costs
of doing so are probably beyond their means.
Put a fork in them -- They're done.
[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, December 22 2004 @ 08:04 PM EST |
<i>"The exclusive rights claimed by Sunbelt mean only Sunbelt can
legally create and distribute software development tools for Giant's programs.
If legitimate, the claim means Microsoft would need permission from Sunbelt
before letting software partners build links to Giant's programs, which are
designed to combat spyware and spam. Without such links, the software may not
work well with programs from third parties."</i>
So MS buys Sunbelt too. Next.[ Reply to This | # ]
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