SANTA CRUZ, CALIF. (03/24/2000) - Unix vendor The Santa Cruz Operation Inc.
(SCO) last week announced it would split into three divisions, a move the company claims will boost its Linux and Internet prospects.
Each unit will develop its own partnerships and technology, as well as establish profit and revenue goals, says SCO President Doug Michels.
SCO last week also announced that revenue would be "significantly lower" than the $250 million previously estimated for the second quarter.
The reorganization will probably not affect customers in the short term, SCO officials say. The product lineup will stay intact for now, although the company plans to push harder into the Linux and Internet services marketplace.
SCO also will more actively promote its Tarantella software, says Mike Orr, president of the new unit that will focus exclusively on selling that product.
Tarantella acts as a cross-platform intermediary between application servers and the clients they support. Enterprise users most likely would use Tarantella to support legacy application integration with thin clients, Orr says.
SCO will continue to manufacture its popular UnixWare operating system for the Intel platform through a new Server Division headed by David McCrabb, former head of sales. Work with IBM on a project called Monterey to create a 64-bit Intel-based Unix flavor will continue. There are also plans to port SCO's clustering and management products to the Linux platform.
The firm also will spin off a professional services unit, which will have the task of building Linux- and Unix-based Internet networks. The company has signed agreements with several Linux distributors to provide customers with consulting services. The services arm will be headed by Jim Wilt, senior vice president of products.
This reorganization makes sense, according to Daniel Kusnetsky, senior analyst with IDC, a Framingham, Massachusetts, consultancy. He says it will speed decision-making and changes at SCO.