Monthly Archives: January 2004

Did Microsoft Give SCO a Loan in the Guise of License Fees ?

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A fellow GrokLaw poster has found this letter filed with the SEC and this discussion on the Yahoo Finance board regarding the implications of what it says.



An
earlier letter filed at the SEC says that their bankers, MK, will charge SCO a 6% fee for any equity investment, and a 1% fee for any “senior debt” investment (apparently a loan, the investor is first in line if they go under).



Then in this letter they say they will charge SCO 6% for Sun’s investment and 1% for Microsoft’s investment.



To me that seems an admission that the MS payment was not straight revenue, but instead “senior debt”, in effect a loan!



Of course, if this is the case, and SCO go under when they loose to IBM, then MS will be the first in line for the pickings (if there’s anything left to pay IBM).

January update

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Well it’s been a busy time, we’ve been to Adelaide as VPAC sent me to Linux.Conf.Au 2004 which had to be one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to. I don’t seem to have been alone in that, as one of the keynotes (either Maddog or Bdale, can’t remember which now!) said that it had to be one of the top 3 Linux conferences worldwide.

Unfortunately I missed the IPv6 mini-conference that I was meant to attend as I came down with Chickenpox on the Saturday I arrived in Adelaide! Donna looked after me a treat though, dosing me up on vitamin C, Lysine, various multi-vits and keeping the nasty things covered in a gel to help them heal. Thanks to all that I was out of the infectious stage (though I looked a mess) by Wednesday morning and was able to go to the conference proper. The organisers already knew as Donna had gone and registered for me on the Monday morning. I count myself a very lucky man to have Donna for my wife!

Of course, the highlight of the conference was the dunking of Linus Torvalds and a host of speakers for charity. Linus’s dunking alone raised over AU$6000 dollars!

For a brief conference report, read on!

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