End to UNIX battle in sight?

SCO has ‘terminated’ Darl McBride from his position as chief executive according to its latest SEC filings.

The company announced that the role of chief executive has been abolished and McBride is no longer with the company. His departure, after seven years, could bring a final end to SCO’s legal woes over UNIX.

"On October 14, 2009, The SCO Group, Inc.,... announced that the Company has eliminated the Chief Executive Officer and President positions and consequently terminated Darl McBride," said the filing.

The company now looks to be ruin by the chief operating officer Jeff Hunsaker and chief financial officer Ken Nielsen, as well as court appointed administrators.

The statement said that the company was looking at selling off some assets of the company to provide capital and will be undergoing a complete restructuring.

"The company expects to finalise details of the restructuring and to reach cash flow breakeven for core operations within the next month. The savings are a combination of non-workforce related changes and a modest reduction in SCO’s workforce," it said.

McBride’s seven year tenure of the SCO Group saw it go from a successful software development company to a firm run by administrators and seeking bankruptcy protection.

The company’s decision to sue IBM over the use of SCO’s code in Linux sparked off a six year legal case, which has seen multiple court defeats for McBride. Nevertheless he always vowed to continue the legal fight.

SCO will continue the appeals process in its long-running case over UNIX rights and would continue to support its existing product line the filing said.