New Vision, Leadership to Shape Future of SCO Unix Technology, Supported by Near-Term $25 Million Investment to Drive Innovation, Talent Acquisition
LAS VEGAS, NV, April 11, 2011 – UnXis, Inc. announced today that the sale of The SCO Group, Inc. operating assets and intellectual property rights to UnXis has been approved by the bankruptcy court in Delaware, creating a new company dedicated to the advancement of the reliable, scalable, secure UNIX operating system and software solutions. Following the court’s decision, UnXis now owns all intellectual property rights and assets related to SCO free and clear of any encumbrances and retained obligations of the previous holders, clearing the way for the advancement of the company and technology under new leadership.
The new company is led by visionary CEO Richard A. Bolandz who over the past twenty years has led competitive strategy, corporate development and technology commercialization at Qwest Communications, where he served as Chief Information Officer, MCI Communications, and UNISYS Global Outsourcing & Infrastructure Services.
UnXis is committed to investing substantial capital over the next 18 months into product and technology development, as well as building upon its world-class management, sales and customer support team. UnXis intends to retain the SCO team, which embodies a remarkably committed culture and depth of experience, while doubling resources in the areas of customer relationships with distributors, VARs, ISVs, integrators and hardware manufacturers, as well as customer support and product development.
Under the sale terms, UnXis retains all customer contracts, the rights to the UNIX and UNIXWARE trademarks and installed base of over 32,000 customer contracts in 82 countries, including major enterprise customers in finance, manufacturing, retail, quick-serve restaurants, consumer electronics and state and federal government.
Asked about the company’s strategy Bolandz said, “Our first commitment is to our customers, VARs and channel partners to support their existing needs as well as a whole new generation of hardware, software and requirements of the cloud.”
“With today’s development, we have cleared the way for a rebirth of the UNIX operating system that for nearly 30 years has reliably powered mission-critical information systems around the globe,” said Bolandz. “With the purchase of these valuable assets complete, we can now focus 100 percent of our attention and energies on bringing state-of-the-art technology capabilities to the Unix platform, improving customer service and support, and capitalizing on the robust and secure SCO UNIX operating system for today’s cloud-based systems.”
The company will focus on three immediate priorities:
-
Industry-Leading Technology
Harnessing the unmatched reliability, scalability and security of Unix, the company has a dedicated vision to serve SMB, enterprise and OEM customers through development of solutions supporting new generations of hardware, software and cloud computing technologies that are backward-compatible with all existing products. It is committing to a quarterly release schedule to provide enhanced capabilities to meet the evolving needs of its customers including the introduction of technology applications in cloud computing, 64-bit computing, biometric authentication, VMWare, IPV6 and virtualization.
-
Collaborative Operating Model
The company is committed to collaborating with each customer across SCO’s vast footprint spanning 82 countries to provide the best, customizable technology solution and support to drive their businesses forward. It is investing in the areas of customer relationships with distributors, VARs, ISVs, integrators and hardware manufacturers, as well as in customer support and product development capabilities. Through strategic partnerships with large system integrators including Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton and Unisys, the company plans to build industry-leading consulting and support services ensuring leading-edge operations and UNIX operating systems on new and existing hardware platforms.
-
Best and Brightest Talent
The company is making an enormous investment in talent with some key strategic hires as well as doubling resources in engineering, technical support and customer relationship management. Building on the legendary SCO software engineering team, a remarkably committed culture with exceptional depth of experience, the company aims to resume its technology leadership by attracting the best and brightest engineering talent.
“This new company has a much more collaborative vision in terms of involving customers and developers at all levels to drive the development of an entirely new generation of mission-critical software,” said Co Founder and MerchantBridge partner Eric Le Blanc. “It has what it takes – visionary leadership, solid financial backing, and incredibly rich technology assets – to realize UNIX technology’s full potential as the most reliable, secure and scalable operating system for the global enterprise and SMB markets.”
About UnXis Inc.
UnXis, Inc., a new company formed by Stephen Norris Capital Partners and MerchantBridge Group created to acquire all the operating assets and intellectual property rights of The SCO Group, Inc. Led by a team of visionary and accomplished technology and businesses executives, UnXis, Inc. intends to invest in the future of the UNIX operating system, harnessing advanced technologies that will build upon the operating system’s unmatched reliability, dependability and security for mission-critical and cloud-based applications. For more information please visit unXisco.com.
This is great news for the channel and our SCO customers of which there are plenty. Can’t wait to offer them new features and product roadmaps so they too can plan out their businesses.
Wish you folks well. Can you make any comment regarding the status of the litigation surrounding SCO vs IBM, et. al., please?
UnXis Inc. has no involvement whatsoever in the litigation matters SCO vs. IBM.
My First unix flavor was SCO way back in the day. Glad SCO is still alive and wish all involved good luck. Live long and prosper SCO.
Hello World. Hi Deepak and everybody else that I haven’t talked to in a while. SCO UNIX has always been a solid platform. Google “David Gloria UNIX” and see what comes up if you don’t remember me. Still supporting a few systems these days. I wish the new ownership all the best.