SCO Avoids Nasdaq Delisting, But Problems Remain

Troubled software vendor SCO Group has avoided having its shares pulled from the Nasdaq stock exchange -- for now at least.

The company said Tuesday that it received a letter from Nasdaq officials indicating that it has fulfilled the requirements for maintaining its listing.

Earlier this year, Nasdaq officials threatened to pull the listing because SCO's share price had fallen below the $1-per-share mark for 30 days. Because SCO shares subsequently traded above $1 for at least 10 days, Nasdaq has lifted the delisting threat, SCO said.

Last week, SCO reported a second-quarter loss of $1.1 million on revenue of $6 million. The company is in the midst of several costly legal fights over rights to Unix and software code contained within the Linux open source operating system.

The company sued IBM in 2003 for allegedly contributing SCO intellectual property contained within SCO's Unix offering to the Linux community. It has also sued Novell, AutoZone, and DaimlerChrysler.

The open source software community denies SCO's claims that Linux infringes on SCO's intellectual property.

To date, SCO has spent more than $11 million pursuing its legal actions. In its most recent full quarterly report, the company conceded that a failure to prevail in court could put it out of business.

"We may not prevail in our lawsuits with IBM, Novell, and others, which may adversely affect our ability to continue in business," SCO stated in the filing.

In midafternoon trading Tuesday, SCO shares were up 2.3% to $1.32.