Royal Bank of Canada Cashes Out of SCO; SCO Begins Layoffs

jbell99999 is the first one to submit news that the Royal Bank of Canada is divesting itself of SCO stock. They're selling part of their preferred stock to Baystar, which has already indicated that they want to redeem their shares, and converting the rest to regular stock, which they can presumably sell on the open market. In other SCO news, Versicherung writes "The Santa Cruz Sentinel is reporting, SCO is laying off 10 percent of its worldwide workforce. The cuts come less than a month after the company brought on a new chief financial officer and just before the company ended its second fiscal quarter April 30." See also stories at Eweek and Linuxinsider.com.

Oblig. Simpsons Quote

[Big Toe]

Haha!

Thank "The Doors."..

[pegr]

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again

Quite appropriate, don't you think?

So the moral of this story....

[LordPhantom]

....is Canadian shareholders are wiser than the US ones?

who?

[name773]

man those linux people must be real meanies... harming an innocent nice company like sco. ugh.

10%?

[Anonymous Coward]

As Chairman Mao says, "the journey of a thousand li begins with one step."

--------
Free mobile porn [steamymobile.com]

Finally!

[tweakt]

It's about damn time... I guess they couldn't keep the air in the stock price any longer.

10 Percent of their workforce!

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, that's a lot of attorneys out of work!

start with...

[el_diavalo]

they should start the layoffs with darl and all those damn lawyers... adaptation of an old joke - what darl mcbride and 1/10 of the sco lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? - a good start.

Smilin' like the Enzyte Guy

[wowbagger]

This news has me smilin' like the Enzyte Guy!

Bre-X

[Jason1729]

The subject says it all (at least to any Candians reading this).

Jason
ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]

ha!

[Saturninus]

That will teach SCO to screw with Linux!

What do you bet...

[Anonymous Coward]

... that none of those layed off are lawyers?

Lay-offs abroad?

[BuddieFox]

"The Santa Cruz Sentinel is reporting, SCO is laying off 10 percent of its worldwide workforce."

I guess they are laying of lawyers in Germany then? :)

Oblig. Star Wars reference

[3Cats]

Minion to Darl:

".. We've analysed their attack sir, and there is a danger. Should I have your ship standing by?"

3C

SCO Imitates Art

[yorgasor]

I came across this old Calvin and Hobbes strip and wondered if this [yorgalily.org] is how SCO's planning meeting went

I can't help feeling...

[Phidoux]

... that MS is going to end up buying SCO. Then MS will probably GPL Unix, drop all the IP suits and end up trying to look like the good guys.

To get more customers

[Salo2112]

1. Stop suing them.
2. Then start selling an actual product.
3. Profit.

I can't wait to see how Laura Didio spins this one as a plus for SCO.

Reminds me of Apocalypse now...

[freeze128]

Utah. Shit. I'm still in Utah.

Re:Thank "The Doors."..

[daeley]

People are strange when you're Darl McBride
Linux looks ugly when you're alone
IBM seems wicked when you've just sued them
Wall Street is uneven when your stock is down

When you're Darl
Lawyers come out of the rain
When you're Darl
No one won't curse your name
When you're Darl
When you're Darl
When you're Darl

Re:Ding Dong...

[grub]

Did Netcraft confirm it? Poor SCO, truly an American icon.

Burn SCO Group BURN!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

burn, burn (2x)
burn, burn, burn...

open up
now open up

you lied, you faked
you cheated, you changed the stakes
magnet Toss that pie in the sky
unrehearsed, let the bubbles burst
all in all, a three-ring circus
of unity with parody
tragedy or comedy
problably publicity

open up, make room for me
now open up, make room for me

lose myself inside your acchemes
go for the money, honey
not the video screen
be a lying CEO, blah blah blah
go the whole hog be bigger than God

burn SCO Group burn, taking down LindonTown
burn SCO Group burn, down to the ground
burn SCO Group burn, burn Darl McBride burn
take down LindonTown, burn down to the ground

down, into the ground

burn, burn, burn
burn.....

Re:10%?

[artwells]

How do you say "off a short pier" in Chinese?

This really shows you something about SCO...

[Anonymous Coward]

In Santa Cruz, for example, they sliced their tech staff by like 80% or something.

And they said that these layoffs were "to help us focus on our core business" ...

Re:Bre-X

[Eggplant62]

You got it. Being a Canadian myself I would like to bask in the glory of us as a whole being smarter, better, more educated, more richeous etc., but...

unfortunately, we can't spell for shit.

Re:Where have you been?

[SoSueMe]

Read the bottom of the "News" item.
"Source: The SCO Group"

That's why it began with: "The SCO Group, Inc. ("SCO") (Nasdaq: SCOX - News), a leading provider of UNIX-based solutions and the owner of the UNIX operating system,....

I almost choked when I read the first line.

Re:SCO Imitates Art

[daeley]

Even their stupid business plans have prior art.

Gotta Love Layoff Logic

[PetoskeyGuy]

Managerial Aptitude Test

Q. Your the captain of a ship commanding 100 sailors. Your carrying valuable cargo you need to sell for the owner of the ship. It appears there is a hole in your ship and water is coming in fast. What's do you do?

A. Find out what's wrong and fix it
B. Tell the sailors to start bailing water and sing something happy while they do it
C. Start looking around for at the other ships pilot since this once hasn't got long
D. Move the Cargo to your personal dingy and set sail
E. Tell everyone "This is not happening, everything is normal, the ship cannot be sinking, we take precautions, you know" and remain calm. (Erik the Viking)
F. Start throwing sailors into the sea until to lighten the load?

Final request

[gearmonger]

Will the last lawyer out of the building please turn off the lights?

Re:10 Percent of their workforce!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, no - you've got it wrong. No attoneys were fired.

I think their workforce USED to be 90% attorneys.

With 100% attorneys, they're a prime example of the new breed of IT company. The IT industry used to be heavy on the technical side, but the new trend is to be heavy on the (protection of) information side.

(the above is meant to be funny)

Re:Where have you been?

[AKnightCowboy]

In Santa Cruz, for example, they sliced their tech staff by like 80% or something.

How will this affect the release schedule for the next minor versions of the Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernels? I've been anticipating Linux 2.6 settling down a bit before I switch and this news of SCO reducing it's tech staff by such a huge amount causes me to question investing so much of my time and energy into upgrading.

If SCO ceases to exist, will Linux still be available!? Will they open source the code so that a group of volunteers can saddle up and take the reins from this dedicated staff of SCO developers who have put so much time and effort into making Linux the great operating system that it is? Inquiring minds want to know the answers to these questions damnit.

Re:Oblig. Star Wars reference

[space_biker]

What!!!! In our moment of Triumph!!!!

Of course, The Simpsons reference is valid

[Orion Blastar]

as apparently Mr. Burns is running SCO and has a whole team of Homer Simpsons working for him. :)

Re:Thank "The Doors."..

[Anonymous Coward]

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Torvalds is a thief and a liar

Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
Try to set the source on fire

The time to litigate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our company become a funeral pyre

Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
Try to set the source on fire, yeah

The time to litigate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our company become a funeral pyre

Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
Try to set the source on fire, yeah

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, our lawyers couldn't get much higher

Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
Gotta stop Linux or I'm fired
Try to set the source on fire
Try to set the source on fire
Try to set the source on fire
Try to set the source on fire
Try to set the source on fire

Re:Bre-X

[overloadhz]

Spelling issue aside, your point is well taken. However there is more than a hint of moral ascendancy in your comments. Thanks, we all needed your "cautionary message" to reinvigorate our sense of white American guilt...

Re:Thank "The Doors."..

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. "The Doors" are hitting them in the ass on the way out.

So long!

Risk vs Reward

[Greyfox]

Too bad Darl probably won't suffer too badly for driving the company into the ground like this. The risk/reward of being a CEO should be more along the lines of:

Stock goes up => Big Bonus

Stock goes down => We get your liver

Re:So the moral of this story....

[slam smith]

Well if you look at it in another way.

Canadian investment in SCO - 30 million
American investment in SCO - 20 million

Canadian Population ~ 30 million
American Population ~ 300 million

So on a per capita basis Canadians are 15 times more responsible for the SCO mess

:-)

Re:A bad thing?

[PsiPsiStar]

You're also one of those people who wrote the assembly instructions for my bunk bed, and my 1040 form.

If the amount on line C is non-zero and greater than the amount on line B subtract the amount on line A from line D and write on line E.

Re:Hallelujah!

[KnightStalker]

They need to get rid of that senior management that thought of this stupid scheme

Unfortunately, they can't lay Ballmer off...

Didio's next comments:

[schon]

<voice style="Ditiot">
"I think this is great for SCO - RBC decided that it loved them so much, that it chose to convert 10,000 of its' A-1 shares to common stock, at over TWICE the market rate! How much more of a vote of confidence can you get?

"Their total relinquishment of any controlling interest in SCO is a full ringing endorsement of the current SCO management and business direction.

"Combine this with the fact that the balance of their A-1 shares went to Baystar, a company that has come out in full support of SCO's legal case, means that this is all good news!"
</voice>

I feel dirty now.

Re:Bre-X

[MikeCapone]

unfortunately, we can't spell for shit.

At least we can do that in more than one language!

Re:Bert Young

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, yeah! With credentials like those, how could SCO refuse to hire him?

Re:Shareholders' lament

[Backov]

Alternatively, you could have watched lots of Bugs Bunny as a child, which is how I know that song.

Re:Bre-X

[Anonymous Coward]

Herr Generalrechtschreibungsmarschall

BayStar webmaster think strategy's upside down.

[ron_ivi]

I find it quite amusng that the strategy page of the baystar website [baystarcapital.com] is some upside down guys (looks like his head is in the sand) [baystarcapital.com] with the caption "look beyond".

Wonder if their webmaster's making fun of them. In addition the funny image, of course netcraft confirms baystar's running BSD [netcraft.com]. Does that mean they're dead?

Even Better...

[Anonymous Coward]

In A.D. 2003
War was beginning

Darl: What happen?
Blake: Somebody set up us the DDOS.
Mark: We get signal.
Darl: What!
Blake: Main screen turn on.
Darl: It's You!!
Linus: How are you gentlemen!!
Linus: All your IP are belong to us.
Linus: You are on the way to destruction.
Darl: What you say!!
Linus: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Linus: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....
Darl: Take off every 'IP claim'!!
Blake: You know what you doing.
Darl: Move 'IP claim'.
Darl: For great injustice.

Re:Not HaHa! - This may be a very bad thing.

[ErikTheRed]

You know, being under fire for violating antitrust laws and the like.

Google the following terms: Advocate, Follower, Toady, Cat's Paw, Pawn, Dupe, Patsy, Puppet, Stooge, Tool, Minion, Cohort, and Mini-Me.

Re:Bre-X

[jmt9581]

You can shit in more than one language?

..... No!

:)

Re:Canadians vs. Americans

[Bastian]

Americans have long thought they are smarter than Canadians because they have all sorts of things like numerous wars, less than five per cent of their original forest, and the Disney corporation.

Coincidentally, Canadians have long thought that they are smarter for the same reason.

(Apologies to Douglas Adams.)

Re:Bre-X

[Tsian]

Thank you, but thats Non!

The noise you hear

[BCW2]

is the pitter patter of tiny feet. The rats (investors) are abandoning a sinking ship. It will soon turn into a stampede.

Enjoy the show!

Re:Wise Canadian company?

[gnuman99]

It seems that RBC's investment motto is "Buy high, sell low". Just like Baystar's investment strategy [baystarcapital.com], it seems upside down!

Re:Thank "The Doors."..

[fucksl4shd0t]

Touch me Baystar
Can't you see that I am not afraid?
What was that promise that you made?
Why won't you tell me what MS said?
What was that promise that you made?

Now I'm gonna love you, 'till IBM stops the suit
I'm gonna love you 'till the suits descend from the news
from Big Blue