More significantly it brings up time and money.  It raises the real likelyhood that upon final finding SCOX will be obligated to Novell for more money than it currently has in cash - and it asks that a trust be established and funds for those likely obligations be sequestered.   If granted, this is instant bankruptcy for SCOX.  And the time and money and equity issues mean that if Kimball does not rule quickly Novell will be able to appeal the lack of ruling.  

SCOX's problem is that there is almost no compromise position possible.  The potential obligations are several times SCOX's remaining assets, and there appears to be prima facie evidence for it's claims.

So my guess is that one way or another SCOX has less - possibly much less - than six months of life left.

Worse than immenent bankruptcy, Novell asserts that SCOX officers made representations and requests of them which essentially admit of prior knowledge that the various subsequent public and in court fiduciary and legal claims were false.  Ralph Yarro and Darl McBride are at real risk of legal prosecution and almost certain finding of guilt if Novell's claims are true and documentation of them becomes part of the legal record.

For these reasons I think Ralph will cave in and settle on very close to any terms IBM will give him which stands a chance of keeping him out of jail.  I think there will be a few days to a couple weeks of behind the scenes negotiation of which we will likely never know anything, then BOOM it's over.

One day soon we'll read a legal notice that SCOX has ceased operations and filed for Chapter 7.  One by one each of the legal cases will post an order of case dismissed by mutual agreement.

One of the first things the SCOX BK trustee will do is read and publish a statement that they can find no evidence that IBM had ever committed any malfeasance or misrepresentation with regard to SCOX in any of its contracts or dealings or any rights to any intellectual property under SCOX control; any statements made by prior management appear to have been made, at best, by misunderstanding or error.    Shortly thereafter Novell will issue a statement which is essentially a quit-claim for any SysV or prior unix code against any GPL (or other F/OSS license) use of such code.

But that'll be it.  We won't learn who fathered BobbySue's baby and whether  Tom and Ellie are doing it and if Tom is still doing Liz.   We won't learn what Sandeep told Darl and what Darl told Sandeep to say.  We won't learn if Ralph has the goods on Darl, or if Bert has the goods or just mutual "friends" with Ralph, or what if anything Ralph knew about Ray.

We won't learn who's quid got quod between MS and Baystar and who was the pro quo at RBC.   We won't learn if Michael Anderer supplied blondes, brunettes or redheads and to whom.   Lots of this will be known and kept via some very interesting depositions in the deep dark safes of IBM of course (largely what Ralphie will agree to for walking out with at least one still loosely attached testicle) but we'll never know.

For us it will just be the announcements.  SCOX has ceased operation... Chapter 7... dismissed by mutual consent.   And that'll be it.   We'll be in agony!

Of course SCOX is a public company and some of the financial details will become quickly known.  It's almost inevitable that SysV contracts and licenses revert back to Novell.  My guess is that the customer channels get thrown to RH to get their sign off on the settlement.

In the coming years some of the interesting inside material will come out.  There will be occasional articles.  It's possible someone not bound by the settlements will write a book detailing some of the noir of the inside of SCO these last two years and possibly some good guesses as to what was going on in the dealings, but very likely anyone with real knowledge of what was really happening will be bound by confidentiality agreements in the settlements.

IF there are criminal charges coming out of this we might see some of the juice coming out as evidence that way, but I have little belief that our "justice" system will go after SCOX ... and I suspect that Yarro IS smart enough to seek a settlement before anything approaching proof of criminal evidence is entered into the court record.  In other words don't hold your breath.

The point of this article of course is that the end of our little soap opera is coming.  Soon.  And as drama it will have it's high point, the cease operation announcement, cause for much celebration all around, but otherwise will be very unsatisfying.

Prepare for disappointment.