= LINDON, Utah, Feb. 14 PRNewswire-FirstCall -- The SCO Group, Inc., traded over the counter in the (Pink Sheets: SCOXQ - News), a leading provider of UNIX® software technology and mobile services, today announced that Stephen Norris Capital Partners ("SNCP") and its partners from the Middle East have agreed to provide up to $100 million to finance a plan of reorganization for The SCO Group Inc. ("SCO"). As part of the financing, SNCP will take a controlling interest in the company, while taking it private. As a result, SCO is poised to emerge from Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the coming year. The Board of Directors of SCO has unanimously determined that this financing and plan of reorganization is in the best long-term interest of SCO and its subsidiaries, as well as its customers, shareholders, creditors and employees. =

APRIL 1 -- The SCO Group is preparing to reverse its flagging fortunes by launching a Unix infringement lawsuit against itself, according to documents obtained by this reporter.

[...]According to confidential documents, Caldera may have inadvertently shared intellectual property it gained after the purchase of Unix with its own open-source developers. If true, that would be a violation of its own Unix license, and as such, would expose the company to legal charges and potentially huge damages.

[...]The revenue from the suit would be offset by legal fees, and may be potentially covered by SCO's liability insurance, McMushroom believes. Any additional costs would most likely be treated as an extraordinary charge against earnings. But in any case, he expects SCO to come out ahead.

I'm provoked into asking these questions by an accelerating and dangerous trend infecting boardroom and office suite discussions. That trend is the pea-brained "ethics-ification" of business decision making and implementation: CEOs are supposed to be Chief Ethics Officers; CIOs should be Chief Integrity Officers. How noble. How politically correct. How silly.

Ethics, Shmethics; Mar.15 2005 Issue of CIO Magazine

Suppose that once your major CRM system implementation is completed and rolled out in a year, your company plans to outsource maintenance and support. There's a better than 60 percent chance that you'll lay off two-thirds of the IT workers who were involved. Is it "unethical" for you not to fully disclose the details of their possible future (or lack thereof) as they work feverishly to make deadline? I don't think so; do you?