Editing SCO Group (section)

{{short description|Defunct American software company}}
{{About|the owners of the SCO name beginning 2002|the original SCO company|Santa Cruz Operation}}
<!-- Specific dab to cover difference reader may be unaware of -->
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox company
| name = The SCO Group, Inc.
| logo = SCO Group logo.svg
| image = SCO Group offices in Linden Utah December 2002.jpg
| image_caption = Headquarters office in [[Lindon, Utah]], featuring the new SCO logo, pictured in December 2002
| type = [[Public company|Public]]
| traded_as = {{NASDAQ was|SCOX}} (later pink sheets as SCOXQ.PK)
| founder = <!-- none -->
| foundation = 2002
| location_city = [[Lindon, Utah]]
| location_country = United States
| locations = {{ubl|[[Murray Hill, New Jersey|Murray Hill]]/[[Florham Park, New Jersey]]|[[Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz]]/[[Scotts Valley, California]]|[[Delhi, India]]|several regional offices}}
| key_people = {{ubl|
[[Darl McBride]], CEO |
[[Ralph Yarro III]], Chairman |
Ken Nielsen, CFO |
Ryan E. Tibbitts, General Counsel |
Chris Sontag, head of SCOsource |
Jeff Hunsaker, President of SCO Operations Inc |
Sandy Gupta |
Andy Nagle
}}
| successor = [[Xinuos|UnXis/Xinuos]]
| fate = {{ubl|2011, sold off Unix and mobility assets, existed only via bankruptcy trustee|2012, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation}}
| defunct = 2012
| num_employees = {{ubl|340 (peak, 2003)|63 (2009)}}
| industry = [[Computer software]]
| products = {{ubl|[[UnixWare]]|[[OpenServer]]|SCOoffice Server|Me Inc. mobility products|SCO Mobile Server| HipCheck}}
| revenue = {{ubl|$79 million (peak, 2003)|$16 million (2008)}}
| net_income = {{ubl|$3.4 million (peak, 2003)|$−8.7 million (2008)}}
| homepage = {{URL|www.sco.com}}
}}
'''The SCO Group''' (often referred to '''SCO''' and later called '''The TSG Group''') was an American software company in existence from 2002 to 2012 that became known for owning [[Unix operating system]] assets that had belonged to the [[Santa Cruz Operation]] (the original SCO), including the [[UnixWare]] and [[OpenServer]] technologies, and then, under CEO [[Darl McBride]], pursuing a series of high-profile legal battles known as the [[SCO–Linux controversies]].

The SCO Group began in 2002 with a renaming of [[Caldera International]], accompanied by McBride becoming CEO and a major change in business strategy and direction.  The SCO brand was re-emphasized, and new releases of UnixWare and OpenServer came out.  The company also attempted some initiatives in the e-commerce space with the SCOBiz and SCOx programs.  In 2003, the SCO Group claimed that the increasingly popular free [[Linux]] operating system contained substantial amounts of Unix code that [[IBM]] had improperly put there.  The [[SCOsource]] division was created to monetize the company's intellectual property by selling Unix license rights to use Linux.  The ''[[SCO v. IBM]]'' lawsuit was filed, asking for billion-dollar damages and setting off one of the top technology battles in the history of the industry.  By a year later, four additional lawsuits had been filed involving the company.

Reaction to SCO's actions from the [[free and open-source software community]] was intensely negative, and the general IT industry was not enamored of the actions either.  SCO soon became, as ''[[Businessweek]]'' headlined, "The Most Hated Company in Tech".  SCO Group stock rose rapidly during 2003, but then SCOsource revenue became erratic and the stock began a long fall.  Despite the industry's attention to the lawsuits, SCO continued to maintain a product focus as well, putting out a major new release of OpenServer that incorporated the UnixWare kernel inside it.  SCO also made a major push in the burgeoning [[smartphone]]s space, launching the Me Inc. platform for mobility services.  But despite these actions, the company steadily lost money and shrank in size.

In 2007, SCO suffered a major adverse ruling in the ''[[SCO v. Novell]]'' case that rejected SCO's claim of ownership of Unix-related copyrights and undermined much of the rest of its legal position.  The company filed for [[Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code|Chapter&nbsp;11 bankruptcy protection]] soon after and attempted to continue operations.  Its mobility and Unix software assets were sold off in 2011, to McBride and [[UnXis]] respectively.  Renamed to The TSG Group, the company converted to [[Chapter 7, Title 11, United States Code|Chapter&nbsp;7 bankruptcy]] in 2012.  A portion of the ''SCO v. IBM'' case continued on until 2021, when a settlement was reached for a tiny fraction of what SCO had initially sued for.