Last Shot for SCO Group

But the buy-side source wondered why SCO would spend more than $100 million and not end up with a legal right to defend its technology. The buy-side source said a favorable ruling for SCO in the Novell case could mean end-users would ultimately have to pay SCO a license fee, which could push up shares.

On the other hand, both Kramer and Meeker, who have read the Novell contracts, said they believe SCO faces an "uphill battle" in the case.

"The question of the rights SCO ended up with when it made its purchase from Novell is really a complicated question, because there's all this history around it in terms of AT&T's(T) release of Unix as a proprietary product and before that as basically an open-source product, even though it was not called that," Meeker said. AT&T is the developer of the original Unix code, which it sold to Novell.

"I think if you look into the facts that underlie what happened ... it is not difficult to draw the conclusion that SCO didn't buy anything worth anywhere near what it paid," Meeker added.

A second motion to dismiss hearing in the Novell case has been scheduled for Jan. 20. The hearing could offer yet another clue whether SCO is on a death march or headed for a comeback.

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