Shares of SCO Group Inc. fell nearly 72% Monday on news that a judge in the U.S. District Court for Utah sided with Novell Inc., saying the Waltham, Mass., provider of Linux-based infrastructure software owns copyrights covering the Unix operating system. SCO, a small company based in Lindon, Utah, had argued that it was the rightful owner of the copyright to Unix. The company still has a lawsuit on this issue pending against IBM Corp., and it has threatened to sue others. SCO sued IBM in March 2003, alleging IBM had violated Unix licensing agreements and introduced part of its Unix source code into Linux. Of course, SCO won't retreat quietly over Friday's ruling, with an appeal likely.

For now, though, Novell can breathe a sigh of relief. The company celebrated on Monday by buying Orem, Utah-based Senforce Technologies Inc., a provider of endpoint security management technology, for undisclosed terms. Senforce was backed by vSpring Capital, Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, American River Ventures, Rocket Ventures and EsNet Group. —Cheryl Meyer

See Aug. 13 story from Forbes.com
See. Aug. 13 press release from Novell.com
See April 14, 2004, story from TheDeal.com