SCO seeks to auction off assets

SCO has submitted a plan to bankruptcy court that would allow it to auction off core assets in order to get enough operating capital to finish its legal battles.

The plan to sell off its OpenServer product line and well as its Mobility Assets mobile business division using a public auction.

It says that investment groups have already expressed interest in buying these assets.

"We believe that with this approach, it will maximise customer and shareholder value and expedite the investor process," said Jeff Hunsaker, president and COO of SCO operations, in a statement.

"One goal of this approach is to separate the legal defense of our intellectual property rights from our core product business.

"The auction process is expected to ensure that the future revenue from the OpenServer and mobile businesses stays with those assets and provides an uninterrupted path forward for our customers, products and employees."

If the court does not approve the plan the company says that it will continue in business as usual, but to save money by cost cutting and releasing new products.

This year SCO plans to release SCO UNIX Virtual product lines for VMware and Hyper-V to support legacy SCO applications and it also expects to ship FCmobilelife and FCtasks for the iPhone.

"This is an important step forward in emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy," said Darl McBride, chief executive officer of The SCO Group.

"Following the adverse summary judgment ruling in August, 2007 in the Novell litigation, SCO was forced to protect its business, shareholders and customer base.

"Since then, we have worked diligently to prepare a plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection and move our products and customers forward.

"We believe this plan helps us reach that goal."

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