..from: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-5198152.html

Who shot SCO?

By Rupert Goodwins ZDNet (UK) April 23, 2004, 5:55 AM PT

COMMENTARY--There's been nothing like it since Dallas hit our screens quarter of a century ago. Colorful characters, plot twists and suspense? Check. Good versus evil, powerful men versus noble innocents, billions of dollars in the balance? Yep.

We even have judges, guns and mysterious briefcases: as pure drama, l'affaire SCO cannot be faulted. Yet there may be a bigger surprise at the end than anyone guessed.

Whoever's writing the script threw in a doozie last week: Daddy wants his money back--or does he? Baystar, the group of capitalists that on Microsoft's tip-off gave SCO $20 million to establish control over Linux, publicly said that it wanted out (see below for more details). And then it shut up.

That statement alone was a crippling blow to SCO, whose share price promptly shed nearly half its value. If one of the two major backers for the expedition thinks the game is up, why would judges, juries, investors and customers think any different? SCO's reaction was typically loud, self-pitying and blisteringly ironic--Baystar hasn't told us what the problem is exactly, it said. And if we don't know the details, how can we respond? For a company that has consistently fought to avoid revealing any substantive details of its own legal claims, this is rich stuff indeed.

[...] ----------------------------------- ..from: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5197398.html?tag=nl

BayStar: SCO needs new management

By Stephen Shankland CNET News.com April 21, 2004, 9:00 PM PT

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After nearly a week of silence, BayStar Capital said Wednesday its move to retrieve a $20 million investment in SCO Group is part of an effort to induce major changes at the Linux litigator--including new senior management and a withdrawal from the Unix product business. BayStar, whose funding in October was paired with another $30 million from the Royal Bank of Canada, said it hasn't been happy with SCO's response to requests it has made in recent months. BayStar has invested in about 400 companies over the years, but only with SCO has it resorted to a request to have its shares redeemed.

SCO contends that the increasingly popular Linux operating system infringes its Unix intellectual property, an argument that is central to its lawsuits against IBM and AutoZone and that is supported by BayStar. But to make SCO's case stick, the company needs to change its management, focus on its legal case and communicate in a more "sensible, businesslike fashion," BayStar spokesman Bob McGrath said.

"We think they need to strengthen the senior team to get people with experience and background in the legal issues," McGrath said. If SCO addresses BayStar's concerns, McGrath added, the investor is open to reversing its redemption request.

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