Unix operating system vendor The Santa Cruz Operation Inc managed to show a profit for its fourth quarter, but still ended up reporting a net loss of $14.7m for the year, compared with last year’s $15.2m loss. Net profits for the quarter – which SCO said had been driven by the changes to its business model put in place in the previous quarter – reached $2.7m, but were still down 40.7% from the $4.5m profit the company reported in the same period last year. Revenues for the quarter were down 6.1% to $48.6m. And revenues for the year, including a reserve of $16m to reduce distributor inventory levels and prepare for electronic licensing and distribution, were down 11.2% to $171.9m. During the year, SCO introduced UnixWare 7, based on the technology it acquired from Novell Inc and the basis for its future products as its original OpenServer business fades away. It hopes its newly announced agreement with IBM Corp (see separate stories) will give UnixWare an additional boost. Meanwhile, SCO is trying to establish a separate line of business through its Tarantella application broker software. SCO said the fourth quarter was a healthy rebound, and pointed out that its gross margins were increasing, operating expenses were under control and that it still had $50m of cash in the bank
