13 Mar 2004

Microsoft and SCO: A Beautiful Friendship

This last week brought confirmation of the large financial stake Microsoft has taken in the SCO Group’s legal attack on the freedom of free software. Eric Raymond first published at opensource.org a leaked memo to SCO’s Chris Sontag from one Mike Anderer of S2, a “strategic consulting” firm, detailing $86 million of investments in SCO arranged or facilitated by Microsoft, including a $50 million investment by Baystar Capital. The memo was subsequently acknowledged by SCO to be genuine; Baystar Capital conceded that it had been advised or encouraged by Microsoft to make the investment, but said that neither Bill Gates nor Steve Ballmer had been the Microsoft executive who made the call, as though there weren’t anyone else at Microsoft fool enough to have gotten involved in such a risky move.

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permalink | columns/lu | 2004.03.13-00:00.00