THE SCO NAME, long synonymous with Unix on the Intel platform, is being revived.
Caldera International on Monday at its GeoForum user show in Las Vegas announced it is changing its name to The SCO Group,
or simply SCO, pending shareholder approval.
Caldera had formally acquired SCO in May 2001, after announcing acquisition plans in August 2000. SCO had forged a reputation
as a provider of Unix on the Intel platform in the 1980s and 1990s when it was originally known as The Santa Cruz Operation.
The renamed company will maintain headquarters in Lindon, Utah, and offices in Santa Cruz, Calif., original home of SCO.
Approval of the new name by shareholders is anticipated in approximately two weeks.
Switching the name enables the company to build on brand equity, said Reg Broughton, senior vice president of worldwide
operations at SCO, in Santa Cruz.
"We thought it was a good time to go back to the SCO brand," he said.
An analyst concurred. "I think what [SCO is] is trying to do is capitalize on the name recognition that The Santa Cruz Operation
had for its Unix products, and one could argue that Santa Cruz Operation was better known as a Unix supplier than Caldera
was," said Al Gillen, research director for systems software at IDC in Framingham, Mass. Some 95 percent of Caldera revenue
now comes from Unix sales, not Linux, he said.
However, sales of SCO's Unix product line have faced a "fairly rapid state of decline the last couple of years," based on
IDC's research, Gillen said.
"The problem is, they're facing challenges in the channel front from Microsoft and they're facing price competition from
Linux," said Gillen.
But Broughton was confident about Unix's future in the face of competition from Windows and Linux on the Intel platform.
"What we're finding is many of our customers are very happily deploying Unix. They're also deploying Linux but not necessarily
for the same platforms," Broughton said. Unix has been popular for running back-end infrastructure applications while Linux
has been used for applications such as point-of-sale systems, he said.
Gillen noted the change back to a previously used name is not without precedent, with Borland having taken a similar path.
Borland had changed its name to Inprise and then back to Borland.
Also unveiled by SCO Monday were plans to upgrade three operating systems -- SCO Open Server; SCO UnixWare, formerly known
as Caldera OpenUnix; and SCO Linux, formerly Caldera OpenLinux -- during the next six months.
In announcing the name change, the company said it is drawing on the brand recognition of SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare
product lines. Also renamed were the Caldera Partner Program and Caldera Global Services programs, which become TeamSCO and
SCO Global Services, respectively.
SCO's OS upgrades include SCO OpenServer 5.0.7, which will feature the latest hardware drivers and USB support to boost
connectivity to peripherals, according to the company. Also to be featured are updated development tools for easier integration
and an updated version of Merge 5.3, which allows customers to use Windows 98 and Windows Me client emulation on SCO OpenServer
and SCO UnixWare. Version 5.0.7 is due to ship in the first quarter of 2003.
The new version of SCO UnixWare, Version 7.1.3, also will provide updated USB support as well as improved networking performance
and driver upgrades. New network applications and development tools for the release also are planned. The OS is expected to
be available by December.
UnixWare originally was offered as an SVR4 Unix platform for Intel from AT&T, Bell Labs, and Unix Systems Laboratories.
Afterward, it was sold to Novell, which in turn sold it to SCO.
SCO Linux 4.0, powered by UnitedLinux, is to be available in November. UnitedLinux is a jointly developed single Linux distribution
from SCO, Connectiva, SuSE, and TurboLinux.
In other announcements Monday by SCO:
* The company detailed a new update service for SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare, to be called SCO Update. Customers will
receive quarterly electronic delivery of software updates, new features, drivers, security virus alerts, and other benefits,
according to the company. SCO Update is expected to begin in December for SCO UnixWare and in early 2003 for SCO OpenServer.
* SCO announced a licensing agreement with Vista.com, through which SCO gains exclusive rights to resell the Vista.com commerce
Web site creation and hosting service to technology channel partners. The service is being called SCObiz.
* The company detailed a buy-back program called SCOx, which enables company partners to sell technologies and services
leveraging SCO software back to SCO, to enable these partners to gain liquidity.
* SCO announced that Sean Wilson has been appointed as senior vice president of corporate development. Prior to joining
SCO, Wilson had served as vice president of strategic relations at Ikon Office Solutions.
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