A federal judge on Thursday gutted SCO Group's $5 billion, Linux-related lawsuit against IBM - renewing debate about the Utah company's future.

Concluding a six-week review, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball upheld federal Magistrate Brooke Wells' June decision to strike down two-thirds of SCO's allegations. The Lindon-based software company contends IBM violated its contract and copyrights when it allegedly leaked SCO-owned Unix code into the freely-distributed Linux operating system.

SCO spokesman Blake Stowell and the company's attorneys declined to discuss the case or its ramifications. But most analysts saw the ruling as a potentially mortal legal blow.

Salt Lake Tribune