The SCO Group, Inc. has reached an agreement with a private equity firm that plans to provide the embattled software company as much as $100 million and make it private after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Stephen Norris Capital Partners (SNCP) and partners from the Middle East have promised Thursday the money, in order to see SCO's legal claims "through to their full conclusion."

The company should exit bankruptcy "in the coming year," the company said.

"We saw a tremendous investment opportunity in SCO and its vast range of products and services, including many new innovations ready or soon to be ready to be released into the marketplace," said Stephen Norris, managing partner of the firm Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners. "We expect to quickly develop these opportunities, and to stand behind SCO's existing base of customers and partners."

SCO filed for federal bankruptcy protection in September last year after a disastrous ruling by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball ordered that Novell Inc. owns copyrights covering UNIX and not SCO, dismissing SCO's Linux claims against IBM and others.

There are several harsh demands in the deal with SNCP: SCO CEO Darl C. McBride, who has led the company since 2002, would be required to "resign immediately" once the deal is completed. Also, SCO will be on the offensive again against all its former litigants such as IBM.

"Not only will this deal position us to emerge from Chapter 11, but it also marks an exciting future for our business. This significant financial backing is positive news for SCO's customers, partners and resellers who continue to request upgrades and rely upon SCO's UNIX services to drive their business forward," said Jeff Hunsaker, president and chief operating officer of SCO.

The SCO Group, Inc. was formerly called Caldera Systems and Caldera International. Caldera Systems, based in Utah, was founded in 1994 and acquired several UNIX properties from the Santa Cruz Operation, including OpenServer and UnixWare in 2000.

The SCO Group alleges that "Linux contained SCO's UNIX System V source code and that Linux was an unauthorized derivative of UNIX". However, in February 2005, Judge Dale Kimball, the judge in the SCO v. IBM case, has ruled that "SCO has not offered any competent evidence to create a disputed fact regarding whether IBM has infringed SCO's alleged copyrights." SCO's ownership of the UNIX and UnixWare Copyrights was denied by the August 10, 2007 ruling by the same judge, who ruled that "Novell is the owner of the UNIX and UnixWare Copyrights."