Ironically it is expected to cost Santa Cruz Operation Inc more than the $4m it paid to Microsoft Corp in royalties last year to remove the Xenix compatibility code from its Unix operating system after being released from its contract by Redmond following a European Commission ruling (CI No 3,304). However there’ll be greater saving in the long term as the $4m represents around 10% of SCO’s research and development budget. With the EC’s ruling under its belt SCO says it’s now looking at what other action it can take; one option might to be to try and claw back royalties paid to Redmond since acquiring Unix from Novell Inc back in 1995.
