SCO Terminates CEO Darl McBride

Darl McBride, the SCO chief who spearheaded the firm's controversial lawsuits against IBM and Novell, has been "terminated" from the firm and, at the same time, SCO's new management reiterated its plan to continue its anti-Linux cases.

In a statement, the SCO Group said it is working on a restructuring plan and will continue its intellectual property litigation behind the effort of attorneys Boies, Schiller & Flexner. SCO also said it plans to emerge from bankruptcy.

"As part of the restructuring, the company has eliminated the chief executive officer and president positions and consequently terminated Darl McBride," the firm announced Monday afternoon. The developments followed an analysis directed by its Chapter 11 trustee, Edward Cahn.

As its new management team, SCO listed Jeff Hunsaker, chief operating officer; Ken Nielsen, chief financial officer; and Ryan Tibbitts, general counsel.

The company said it is finalizing its restructuring plan to "reach cash flow breakeven for core operations within the next month" and expects to reach that goal through a modest reduction in SCO's workforce and includes some "non-workforce related changes."

In addition, the firm said it is "looking to raise additional funding and sell non-core assets to bolster working capital" so bankruptcy trustee Cahn can preserve cash to "pursue litigation against, among others, IBM and Novell" as well as to carry out other activities.

The litigation case received new life in August when an appellate court overturned a 2007 decision that favored Novell. The six-year litigation was pushed by McBride, who had worked for Novell for several years. SCO has angered much of the Linux community by arguing that some of SCO's Unix software is used in Linux products in violation of SCO copyrights.

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