SCO Losses Continue Despite Cost-CuttingSCO Losses Continue Despite Cost-Cutting

The SCO Group Inc. on Wednesday reported a narrower loss in the second quarter, but said revenues also declined due to competition in the Unix server market.

The Lindon, Utah, company said that net losses for the quarter ended April 30 was $1.96 million, or 11 cents a share, compared to $14.73 million, or $1.04 a share, for the same period a year ago. Revenues fell to $9.3 million from $10.1 million a year ago.

The revenue was due primarily to "continued competitive pressures on the company's Unix products and services," SCO officials said in a statement.

To help improve its competitive position, the company plans to release later this month the SCO OpenServer 6, a multi-year, multimillion-dollar development effort that SCO says is "the most significant upgrade in the product's history." The product is scheduled for release June 22 in a New York launch event.

SCO has filed a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against IBM, claiming Big Blue distributed SCO's proprietary Unix code in the open-source Linux operating system. That suit is pending.

SCO is also seeking licensing fees from companies using Linux, and has threatened legal action.

"We have continued to focus our UNIX business on commercial success in the market place and look forward to launching SCO OpenServer 6 later this month," Darl McBride, president and chief executive for SCO, said. "At the same time, our SCOsource business remains committed to pursuing our legal strategy in the courtroom, and we are well-positioned to see our litigation through to its conclusion."