Stephen L. Norris

Stephen L. Norris is an American businessman, investor, and financier. He was one of the co-founders of The Carlyle Group, an American private equity firm. He was later owner and founder of Stephen Norris Capital Partners and the chairman of Gulf Capital Partners.

Education Norris received a BS (1972) and a JD (1975) from the University of Alabama. He received an LLM from New York University (1976). he became a corporate vice president. He was a principal strategist and advisor for Marriott's public and private financings, limited partnerships, acquisitions, and divestitures from 1981 to mid-1987. Norris and Carlyle's other partners all said they had been moving in different directions in recent years. There was also an unnamed Middle East partner in the proposed deal; the Associated Press reported that Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia was involved.

After a few months of due diligence investigation of SCO's operations, finances, and legal situation, Stephen Norris Capital Partners considered a different course of action, instead proposing to purchase SCO assets outright.

Neither of those plans went forward,

That plan did not move forward either. In April 2010, SCO's mobility software assets were sold to its former CEO, Darl McBride, for $100,000. In September 2010 the SCO Group put up the remainder of its non-lawsuit assets for public auction. Thus in February 2011, another proposal was made, this time for $600,000, with this iteration of UnXis being backed by Norris, MerchantBridge, and Gerson Global Advisors.

Some industry analysts were unsure of why Norris and his partners were wanting to acquire the SCO Unix software assets. In 2008 Ryan Paul of Ars Technica noted that "UnixWare, SCO's flagship product, hasn't seen a new release in four years."

In early March 2011, the bankruptcy court approved the sale of the Unix computer operating system to Norris's new company UnXis, since the only other bid submitted was for $18. The sale closed in April 2011, with Stephen Norris Capital Partners and MerchantBridge being the final buyers, and UnXis was formed in substance. MerchantBridge had 25 percent ownership of UnXis and Gulf Capital Partners had another 25 percent. and some service contracts for existing SCO Group customers. and UnXis was indemnified from any legal costs of ongoing litigation. Its CEO was Richard Bolandz,

Other ventures In July 2014, Norris joined the board of the Florida-based company Global Digital Solutions.