Investment company BayStar Capital has confirmed ties between two Linux foes, saying Thursday that a Microsoft referral led to $50 million in BayStar funding for the SCO Group.
"Yes, Microsoft did introduce BayStar to SCO," a BayStar representative said Thursday, declining to share further details and repeating the firm"s earlier position that Microsoft did not actually invest money in the deal. Word of the Microsoft matchmaking surfaced last week when open-source advocate Eric Raymond published a leaked memo about Microsoft"s help in the BayStar investment. SCO Group confirmed the authenticity of the memo but said its author, S2 Strategic Consulting"s Mike Anderer, misunderstood the situation. Open-source fans leaped on the memo as evidence that Microsoft is aiding SCO"s attack on Linux.
Linux threatens Microsoft"s business--chiefly in hampering the growth of Windows on higher-end computers called servers, but also in Microsoft"s desktop computing stronghold and in "embedded" computing devices such as electronic ticket dispensers, where Microsoft is trying to expand. SCO argues that the Linux operating system infringes on its Unix intellectual property, and the company says businesses should pay to use Linux, a claim that advocates of the open-source OS vehemently deny.