Editing SCO Group (section)

=== Vultus acquisition and a change in SCOx ===
The SCOsource division got off to a quick start, bringing in $8.8&nbsp;million during the company's second fiscal quarter, which led to the SCO Group turning a profit for the first time in its Caldera-origined history.<ref name="nyt-profit">{{cite news | date=May 29, 2003 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/29/business/technology-software-company-s-battle-over-unix-produces-profit.html | title=Technology: Software Company's Battle Over Unix Produces Profit | author-first=Steve | author-last=Lohr | newspaper=The New York Times | page=C6}}</ref>

In July 2003, the SCO Group announced it had acquired Vultus Inc. for an unspecified price.<ref name="dn-vultus"/>  Vultus was a start-up company, also based in Lindon, Utah,<ref name="dn-vultus"/> and the Lindon-based [[Canopy Group]] was a major investor in Vultus just as it was the SCO Group.<ref name="cnet-vultus">{{cite news | url=https://www.cnet.com/news/sco-scoops-up-web-services-start-up/ | title=SCO scoops up Web services start-up | author-first=Martin | author-last=LaMonica | publisher=CNET | date=July 22, 2003}}</ref>  Vultus made the WebFace Solution Suite, a web-based application development environment with a set of browser-based user interface elements that provided a richer UI functionality without the need for Java applets or other plug-ins.<ref name="dn-vultus">{{cite news | url=https://www.deseret.com/platform/amp/2003/7/23/19736996/sco-purchase-of-vultus-also-includes-webface | title=SCO purchase of Vultus also includes WebFace | newspaper=Deseret News | date=July 23, 2003}}</ref><ref name="cw-vultus">{{cite news | url=https://www.computerworld.com/article/2804829/sco-fuels-web-services-play-with-acquisition.html | title=News SCO fuels Web services play with acquisition | author-first=Amy | author-last=Bennett | agency=IDG News Service | work=Computerworld | date=July 24, 2003 | access-date=December 26, 2021 | archive-date=December 26, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226221908/https://www.computerworld.com/article/2804829/sco-fuels-web-services-play-with-acquisition.html | url-status=dead }}</ref> Indeed, in putting together WebFace, Vultus was a pioneer in [[Ajax (programming)|AJAX techniques]] before that term was even coined.<ref name="vultus-ajax">{{cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120201210845/http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail1010.html | archive-date=February 1, 2012 | url=http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail1010.html | title=AJAX Progress and Challenges | publisher=IT Conversations | date=March 1, 2006}}</ref>

The acquisition of Vultus resulted in a shift of emphasis in the company's web services initiative, with an announcement being made in August 2003 at SCO Forum that SCOx would now be a web services-based Application Substrate, featuring a combination of tools and APIs from Vultus's WebFace suite and from [[Ericom Software]]'s Host Publisher development framework.<ref name="scox-substrate">{{cite news | url=https://www.computerworld.com/article/2571426/sco-to-push-web-services-with-ericom-alliance.html | title=SCO to push Web services with Ericom alliance | author-first=  Robert | author-last=McMillan | agency=IDG News Service | work=Computerworld | date=August 18, 2003 }}</ref>

A year later, in September 2004, this idea materialized when the SCOx Web Services Substrate (WSS) was released for UnixWare 7.1.4.<ref name="pr-wss"/> Its aim was to give existing SCO customers a way to "webify" their applications via Ericom's tool and then make the functionality of those applications available via web services.<ref name="pr-wss">{{cite press release | title=SCO Extends Partnership with Ericom Software through Release of SCOx Web Services Substrate (WSS) on SCO UNIX(R) | publisher= PR Newswire | date= July 19, 2004 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/448628760 | id= {{ProQuest|448628760}} | via=ProQuest}}</ref>  However, as McBride later conceded, the SCOx WSS failed to gain an audience,<ref name="iwk-meinc"/> and it was largely gone from company mention a year later.<ref>SCO Forum breakout session schedules list a number of WSS and Ericom sessions in 2004; only Ericom sessions and no mention of WSS in 2005; and no mention of either in 2006 and later.</ref>