Management Toolkit

Embattled SCO picks new financial head

Matt Hines CNET News.com

Published: 22 Apr 2004 09:10 BST

SCO Group on Wednesday reshuffled its executive ranks, hiring a new chief financial officer and reassigning the previous CFO to corporate development.

New CFO Bert Young, a former LANDesk Software executive, joins SCO at a difficult point in the company's history. During the past year, SCO has conducted an expensive legal campaign that contends Linux software infringes on the company's Unix copyright holdings. The fight has increasingly dug into SCO's coffers, with the company spending $3.4m (£1.9m) on litigation in its most recent quarter alone.

Last week, one of the company's major investors, BayStar Capital, said it would attempt to recover $20m it had invested in SCO. The investment company cited an alleged breach of contract related to financial disclosures. The move is considered a serious threat to the $50m war chest that SCO raised for its fight against Linux, and the company's stock price has fallen by nearly 30 percent since Thursday, when BayStar announced it would try to get its money back.

Young most recently worked as vice president and CFO at desktop management applications maker LANDesk, where his responsibilities included communication with the company's shareholders. Prior to LANDesk, Young served as CFO for several other companies, including Talk2 Technology and Whittman-Hart. Young also worked previously as the chief information officer for sanitation and recycling giant Waste Management.

SCO said that as a result of Young's arrival, former CFO Bob Bench will become vice president of corporate development. Bench has been the company's top financial executive for the past three and a half years. He plans to retire from the business later this year.

"These changes in senior management responsibilities will allow significant focus on efficient internal operations, development of our current product lines, and the addition of technologies and products through acquisition and partnering," SCO chief executive Darl McBride said in a statement.