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Feature: Management

SCO Group admits errors in its 2004 financials

By Chris Preimesberger on March 03, 2005 (8:00:00 AM)

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SCO Group, whose stock is in danger of being de-listed from the Nasdaq Exchange, admitted Thursday that it has made a number of accounting mistakes during the past year -- so many that it announced that it will have to completely restate its numbers for the quarters ending Jan. 31, 2004, April 30, 2004 and July 31, 2004. SCO did say, however, that "the impact of the anticipated corrections does not impact the Company's previously reported net loss or its earnings per share for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2004."
In an emailed statement released immediately after the markets closed Thursday afternoon, SCO Group said that "due to certain accounting errors, the Company's financial statements for the quarters ending January 31, 2004, April 30, 2004, and July 31, 2004, should no longer be relied upon and should be restated."

Naturally, those numbers will also affect the Q4 statement for the three-month period ending Oct. 31, 2004, and its annual report -- which is nearly two months late.

SCO Group had said last month, upon missing two deadlines to file the Form 10-K annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, that it has yet to file its annual report because it is reviewing its handling of stock options as a form of compensation. The company did not mention accounting problems as the reason for the deliquent report.

Here is the text of the press announcement:

The SCO Group, Inc. Announces Restatement
of Financial Statements to Correct Certain Accounting Errors

No Impact to Net Loss or Earnings Per Share
for the Fiscal Year Ended Oct. 31, 2004

LINDON, Utah, March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The SCO Group, Inc. (the "Company") (Nasdaq: SCOXE) announced today that on February 28, 2005, on management's recommendation, the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors concluded, and KPMG LLP, the Company's independent auditors agreed, that, due to certain accounting errors, the Company's financial statements for the quarters ending January 31, 2004, April 30, 2004 and July 31, 2004 should no longer be relied upon and should be restated. The impact of the anticipated corrections does not impact the Company's previously reported net loss or its earnings per share for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2004 or its aggregate cash and available-for-sale securities balances as of October 31, 2004. As of today, the Company currently intends to restate its previously issued financial statements for the above-mentioned quarters of fiscal year 2004 to correct the accounting for the following items:

  • For the first, second and third quarters, the Company expects to reclassify amounts related to certain shares of common stock that the Company may have issued under its equity compensation plans without complying with the registration requirements of federal and applicable state securities laws from permanent equity to temporary equity in the amounts of approximately $272,000, $231,000, and $557,000, respectively. The Company may make a rescission offer to holders of certain shares and expects an amount to be classified as temporary equity until the completion of a rescission offer or until the Company no longer has an obligation to the holders of such shares.

  • For the first quarter and the second quarter, the Company expects to reclassify accrued dividends related to the Company's previously issued Series A and Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock from equity to current liabilities in the amounts of approximately $879,000 and $1,619,000, respectively. In October 2003, the Company issued shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock in connection with its $50,000,000 private placement, which shares were subsequently exchanged for and replaced with shares of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock. When the Company repurchased all outstanding shares of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock in July 2004, the Company's obligation to pay dividends on such shares terminated. The accrued dividends were never paid and ultimately were recorded in equity upon the completion of the repurchase transaction. In addition, the dividends were properly captured in the calculation of earnings per share in the periods above.

  • For the first and second quarter, the Company expects to restate approximately $233,000 of stock-based compensation expense which was recorded in the second quarter, but incurred in the first quarter. There will be no change to the total stock-based compensation expense for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2004.

    As soon as the Company completes its analysis and KPMG LLP completes its review procedures and audit work with respect to the Form 10-K, the Company will file amendments to its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the above-mentioned periods and will file its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 31, 2004.

    As previously announced, the Company submitted a request for a hearing with the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel. The Company has received notice that its request has been accepted and the hearing is scheduled for March 17, 2005.

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    on SCO Group admits errors in its 2004 financials

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    Hmm I think they have lost.

    Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 04, 2005 07:40 AM
    They are fighting up hill and now there balance sheet is showing it.

    #

    Can anybody explain this?

    Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 04, 2005 05:01 PM
    This is a genuine question - no snide remarks please.

    I am only just starting accounting so I don't fully understand what is going on here?

    One thing suggested here is an error in a stock options expense between two quarters. I guess this resulted in an overstatement of profit in first quarter 2004? which was subsequently posted to the 2nd quarter results? I assume that this is ultimately not important as long as any issues are resolved by financial year end? However, even this relatively small amount would have improved the stated position of SCO?

    As the the remaining share options and dividend stuff? What is that all about? Is this another example of refactoring money benefit the 'view of SCO' for the sake of potential shareholders and what was the timing?

    Apart from using the media for share price 'pumping' in previous years we now seem to be seeing a company which issues 'garbage' intermediate quarterly statements which are of no real value to investors. These financial attitudes seem to completely undermine basic accounting principles. Is what they are doing actually legal? Would you want to audit their accounts?

    By the way we now clearly know who their auditors are!! Perhaps you might want to think about who you you might use to audit your accounts in future?

    #

    Re:Can anybody explain this?

    Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 04, 2005 10:12 PM
    The impact of the anticipated corrections does not impact the Company's previously reported net loss or its earnings per share for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2004 or its aggregate cash and available-for-sale securities balances as of October 31, 2004.

    Translation: Hang on to your hats. FY2005 financial statements are going to be ugly.

    #

    Re:Can anybody explain this?

    Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 04, 2005 10:48 PM
    Sure. Not that what I am saying is the case with SCO, this is in general. Often numbers are based on projections and expectation. So when the numbers are done, they add up what they really did spend, payables (have to pay), received, receivables (should receive a check for soon), loans and on and on. Part of that is often lawsuits. They have to be listed for both against the company and actions from the company. All of this goes into a statement of their financial health that is filed. They are then put online at the SEC.


    As an investor I would look at that statement. Are they a good investment and make me money or am I throwing money out the window? There is also an annual report. I have a file cabinet full of them for my investments. These can be very well done and could last 100 years to being poorly done on acidic paper. They have statements from the company and what they plan on doing generally. Sometimes those statements of what they plan on doing are later revised. "We will introduce the new superblaster chip this fall that will be a blockbuster!" "Superblaster microbes will cure (something bad) and will be introduced this summer!" "We purchased patent # nnnnnnnn and that will allow us to collect X million bucks!" These are like some of the things I see.


    I have to guess in SCO's case but I have a feeling it has to do with the revenue that they never got from trying to extort money from Linux end users. It could also have to do with loosing long time customers. Another posibility is the fact they have lost court cases or a combination or all of these factors. It could also have to do with something else like shoddy, perhaps criminal accounting like with Enron or MCI. I hope it is criminal activity and I hope they are prosecuted for it.


    My personal opinion is that they are in big trouble. Whenever a company restates one of these statements it almost guarantee's a lawsuit. I don't think I have owned any SCO stock but if I did I would expect to get mail on a class action suit against them soon. The result would be something that I can't possibly use but the lawyers get millions for. Usually I get a coupon for something nobody wants.


    If you plan on continuing with accounting, I encourage you to always be honest. Those reports stay forever and if you do something wrong it can bite you years later. If you don't know, find out. Look it up or get competent help. Your boss may be wrong. As with the cases in the courts right now, they may be intentionally or even criminally wrong to help their situation. One executive right now is accused of falsifying numbers because he had at least one loan that was secured by his stock. Stock goes down, they may foreclose on him. He is arguing that he didn't know of the accounting problems and in fact he was buying more stock. I have a feeling that nobody will believe him.


    For SCO, time will tell. I'll throw them an anchor if I can.

    #

    SCO has some of the most creative and imaginative

    Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 05, 2005 01:31 AM
    ...people in the industry.

    Unfortunately it takes more than lawyers and accountants to succeed in the software business.

    #

    how long for wrong numbers?

    Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 05, 2005 04:29 AM
    I read this and all I can think is that it took... what? 2? 3? years to learn that SCO lies about numbers?

    je.saist

    #

    How long to uncover M$ problems?

    Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 08, 2005 06:00 PM
    It's taken over 3 years to get this far with SCO, which every one knew about from the beginning.


    How long will it take to uncover <A HREF="http://www.billparish.com/20011128msftupdate.html" title="billparish.com">the IT sector's Enron</a billparish.com>?

    #

    Se-heth!

    Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 05, 2005 10:25 PM
    Unixware is going to rule forever and we Linux crunchies are going to cry to our mommies....right?

    #

    numbers numbers

    Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 06, 2005 10:49 AM
    I think sco got their numbers mixed when they were counting infringements in the kernel and the what they thought their stock is worth. 0000000000000000.00000000000

    I can't wait to see this company go down and I hope they go down hard.

    I just hate to see the innocent people it will take down with it.

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    The "sco group" link on ther bottom is wrong.

    Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 09, 2005 04:21 AM
    BTW, The link leads to www.scogroup.com, it is a financial company. SCO's website is still www.sco.com. We should get it right.<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:)

    #

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