Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Caldera Businesses

SCO Layoffs Begin 30

Posted by kdawson from the slow-motion-train-wreck dept.
StevisF sends us to the Salt Lake Tribune for this news: "SCO Group Inc. says it is planning to lay off 16 of its 123 employees and has asked a federal bankruptcy court to keep their identities secret because it fears they could be harassed."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

SCO Layoffs Begin More

SCO Layoffs Begin

Comments Filter:
  • This is proof of the adage that it's better to have a horrible ending than horrors without end.

    Laying off about 15% of the workforce is never a good sign, and asking that they be kept anonymous (did they ask the employees to sign non-disclosure agreements about their employment status? I hope they'll be able to get unemployment if they did!) would be funny if it didn't seem so pathetic.

  • Start? They never stopped. (Score:5, Informative)

    by stefanlasiewski ( 63134 ) <slashdotNO@SPAMstefanco.com> on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @06:55PM (#21003211) Homepage Journal
    This isn't the beginning of the layoffs.

    Not too long ago, the SCO Group (Caldera) had hundreds of employees in several offices in the US and overseas. The SCO Group has had many layoffs since 2001. Someone even went to the trouble of graphing the history:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SCO-2001-2006-headcount-by-department.jpg [wikipedia.org]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCO_Group#Charts [wikipedia.org]
  • Harassment would only really be a concern depending on what those employees did for the company. If they were some of the few legitimate tech people then if anything people would be more inclined to pity them, maybe buy them a beer...
  • the most un-read story on slashdot, ever.

    But something did strike me about this story which I wanted to share. . .

    I find it amazing that such a small group of people, 123, could cause so much trouble for so many years. Luckily they were few enough to fall beneath the tide of the collective free-time efforts of the entire good-will internet. Job well done. I hope none of that 123 get hired ever again. --But that's a slim hope in this world. Typically, bombing out in a psychopathic organization is like p

    • Re:Wow. I'm about to comment on. . . (Score:4, Insightful)

      by daviddennis ( 10926 ) <david@amazing.com> on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @11:00PM (#21005419) Homepage
      I don't see any reason to be vindictive against those who worked on a pioneering version of microcomputer Unix, from way before the time it got cool. For a long time, I'm sure this was a source of great pride, and it's tough to give up on a company that's been handing you your paycheck for eons.

      The lawyers, alas, have already gotten rich off this and I don't think destroying them is within our power. Darl McBride and the top executives have probably managed to funnel money out of the company by selling stock. Anyway, they'll be last to be laid off, for sure.

      D

      • Sure, but the people who are now at SCO are neither the original Santa Cruz Operation, which became Tarantella, nor the people from Caldera, which eventually turned into the SCO group. The people in charge, and as far as I know, pretty much everyone else at this point, are new people who had nothing to do with SCO Unix or Linux.

        • I'll bet most of the people laid off were in some way related to the actual product, though. The product's on life support - thanks in part to the litigation - and the litigation itself goes to the bitter end.

          D

      • You have to be familiar with "Utah County Ethics": money made by any means is ethical.

        They are not just hiding the names, they want the compensation packages kept secret. Now Daryl and his cronies can place whatever cash the company has remaining into their parachutes before bailing, and the creditors (and public) will never hear a word about it, and that cash will be "off the table" for creditors to grab.

        Nobody goes after laid-off employees. How stupid do they think the judge is? Lots of people lost lot
      • "Darl McBride and the top executives have probably managed to funnel money out of the company by selling stock" ...Why does this remind me of Enron?
    • I find it amazing that such a small group of people, 123, could cause so much trouble for so many years.

      The lawsuits were mostly handled by the SCO group's legal team, which was probably run by an external lawfirm working on contact.

      it proves you're one of the boys

      You're speaking about certain executives within the SCO group.

      Outside of the executive team, SCO Employees mostly maintained the legacy SCO products (Unixware, OpenServer), and probably had very little to do with the 'trouble'. Their mistake was n
  • has asked a federal bankruptcy court to keep their identities secret because it fears they could be harassed."

    More likely this is simply a nice move to try to protect the ones that get laid off. I mean, "ex-SCO employee" is not exactly a gem on your resume. Anyone considering an ex-SCO must consider two things... (1) you were involved with SCO and all their crap till the bitter end, and (2) you were too stupid to get while the getting was good.

  • I kinda feel sorry for the employees. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by tetrahedrassface ( 675645 ) on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @10:50PM (#21005367) Journal
    I tagged this as "burnbabyburn". If you are an employee of SCO this has to be scary for sure. Most SCO employees probably have kids and families and are good people. We have and continue to blame the management. Employees don't control this situation and never did. They are probably helpless, and clueless. Hopefully our community can look past these things, and recognize this. At least I hope we can. We all have to eat.

    Don't blame employees for managerial fuckups.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by merc ( 115854 )
      I must strongly disagree with you sir. I might have bought into this argument in 2003 but the current staff and employ of SCO are perpetuating a lie -- a scam of defraud and deceit that would give satan a boner.

      Any person investing in SCO or working for SCO, at this point (and in my opinion mind you), deserves any and all consequences forthcoming. It matters not to me their personal status as they had ample opportunity to consciously endure working for these small-minded greedy twits.

      Thousands of people i

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Eivind ( 15695 )
      Except the honourable thing would be to -long-ago- jump ship.

      "I was just working there" ain't much more convincing than "I was just following orders", neither of which gets you off the hook if you're helping evil.

      Unless you hold that it's reasonable to stay lojal to your employer no-mater-what the company is up to, and *then* later to turn around and claim "I was just working there, it's not my fault." That argument ain't particularily valid when working there is very much optional.

      I wouldn't hire an ex-SCO

  • Hmm, how to express our sympathy... (Score:3, Funny)

    by straponego ( 521991 ) on Tuesday October 16, 2007 @11:18PM (#21005553)
    ...pelvic thrusts, I think.
  • the l*wy*rs.

  • "has asked a federal bankruptcy court to keep their identities secret because it fears they could be harassed."

    That's great. At least /somebody/ can get some privacy.

Slashdot Top Deals

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." - Bert Lantz

Close