SCO Group has announced that it has arranged $100m financing from Stephen Norris Capital Partners to exit bankruptcy, go private, and continue its litigation against IBM, Novell and AutoZone. “SNCP has developed a business plan for SCO that includes unveiling new product lines aimed at global customers. This reorganization plan will also enable the company to see SCO’s legal claims through to their full conclusion,” states the release.

Not surprisingly people are already trying to work out where the money leads to. Groklaw reckons its found a link to Bill Gates via Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al Saud. Dana Blankenhorn isn’t convinced.

Meanwhile, Steven J Vaughan-Nichols notes that while SCO will continue with its new business plan, CEO Darl McBride will no longer be at the helm.

“Buried in the proposed MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between Unix vendor and Linux litigator SCO and SNCP (Stephen Norris & Co. Capital Partners) is the note that “upon the effective date of the Proposed Plan of Reorganization, the existing CEO of the Company, Darl McBride, will resign immediately,” he writes.

Anyone thinking that means the company might let up on its acquisition strategy is mistaken. “In Section 7 of the motion… SCO’s attorneys explicitly state that the ‘Primary purpose and intended results of the Plan, and the financing commitments provided under the MOU, is to encourage and promote an early and favorable resolution of the Novell/IBM Litigation’,” he adds.

“The MOU also spells out that as part of the ‘Proposed Plan of Reorganization, SCO will continue to pursue aggressively the Company’s claims in the Novell/IBM Litigation and other pending litigation, including The SCO Group, Inc. v. AutoZone.’ There is no mention in the legal documents of any intention to devote any resources to SCO’s software businesses. “