Caldera Goes Back to the Future

While emphasizing its commitment to Linux, leading open-source proponent Caldera announced Monday it would change its name to The SCO Group, reflecting the company’s Unix line.

The Lindon, Utah, company said the name change would build on market awareness of its SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare products, and allow it to more easily market its Linux products.

“For more than two decades, the SCO name has been synonymous with reliability, stability and cost efficiency,” Darl McBride, SCO’s CEO and president, said in a statement. “Now, the coexistence and collaboration of Unix and Linux systems from a single source offers our customers and channel partners a powerful choice of solutions, backed by a name that powers millions of servers around the world.”

In August 2000, Caldera bought the server software and professional services divisions of Unix veteran Santa Cruz Operation.

Caldera has been an open-source proponent, release a beta version next month.

While the company went out of its way to saying the decision did not reflect any uncertainty in the Linux market, the industry’s takeoff has been mixed. According to research done by IDC, the Linux market in 2001 actually shrank by 5 percent. Linux companies like Red Hat and VA Software have seen their once astronomical market caps decimated, as expectations for Linux’s immediate prospects returned to earth.

However, IDC forecasts Linux is on course to continue its solid growth, with spending on Linux operating environments increasing at a 28 percent annual clip, reaching $280 million by 2006.

The name change is subject to approval by shareholders. If approved, the company plans to use “SCOX” as its stock symbol.