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Novell/SUSE Prime for Aquisition?
Ho Kooshy Fly writes "Supposedly Novell/SUSE looks like a good buyout target now. The likes of the obvious, IBM and the less obvious Cisco might be interested in integrating in the new Novell/SUSE company into their portfolio." Lucent, AT&T, and HP are also mentioned as possible buyers, but it's important to remember that it's all still just speculation.
IBM seems to be content NOT having an OS.
And face it, the only thing that could kill Suse quicker than Novell would be IBM marketing.
The opposite of progress is congress
Just imagine: AT&T back in the Unix biz, and batling in court with SCO. That would be very interesting indeed. Probably not pretty for SCO, though.
I'd think owning a combination of network/operating system technologies would be beneficial to an OEM that deals heavily in selling machines to businesses, particularly point-of-sale terminals.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
We need novell to have significant Linux client support. It should work to support both Linux and Windows clients to novell working together nicely. This way, companies could roll out Linux (SuSE) clients without windows licenses, and people could use them for accessing the internet, editing office documents, etc.
This article is merely pure speculation. And nothing more. Unless that guy who runs Canopy still has a significant Novell share holding, and wants to get a bit more richer quickly, by somehow getting the speculation out there that Novell itself might be ripe for takeover.
As the article states, the only obvious candidate to take Novell over is IBM.
The reason I feel Novell wont be going anywhere soon is because you need these middle sized computer companies to exist. You can't have companies the size of Microsoft and little companies and nothing inbetween. Sure, IBM could afford to gobble up Novell, but then again so can Microsoft. Or other companies.
Besides, in my somewhat limited experience I have not seen company A purchase company B, only to be swallowed up whole by company C within weeks of these things happening.
It's a whole game of chess, except in this game there is something preventing a 'checkmate' (usually the government) and it is usually advantageous in a chess game to have all your pieces, not just your queen and your pawns.
Mark.
Other than the obvious anti-SCO move by taking Novell, I don't see that much for IBM. To me, it seems that IBM is in a better position by having Novell as a "friend" in this dispute rather than a subsidiary. I've seen the bit about Novell's contract with SCO regarding the sale, and it does put them in a great position. They could still exercise that right to the benifit of IBM without being purchased.
Sun is also an interesting bit-player in this drama too. Didn't they ink some deal with SCO regarding rights/licensing?...they could strengthen their hand by purchasing Novell.
Any move by MS to take Novell might be blocked on antitrust grounds. HP would be the best bet for action as an MS proxy, another wierd longshot proxy for MS might be someone like DELL. That's just speculation though, but the alignment is right and a deal like that couldn't be blocked outright on antitrust grounds.
How about SCO?...laugh...yeah, the've got LOTS of new money from MS, that might get the noose from around their necks. Do they have enough money to really buy their way out?
All this movement makes me really glad that the kernel is GPL. I've seen TOO many companies bought by MS just to put them out of business. I believe that this is what scares MS the most about Linux, they can't simply buy the company and shut it down.....
Whatever happens, it should be interesting for all of us to watch. We can be somewhat relieved that nobody can take our kernel's (and the rest of the work too) away from us.
to beat SCO. That's a done deal.
It may be, however, that IBM wants "the whole package". That is, Novell and SCO, and all their combined trademarks and patents. They'd have the whole Unix kit and kaboodle, in addition to some nice file system, network protocols, directory, client management etc. tech. to add to their portfolio.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
One word: eDirectory
One feature that Linux lacks in the datacenter is a directory. eDirectory is what used to be known as NDS. Novell ported it to Linux a few years ago...
I am the sysadmin for a NetWare shop. Having a replicated, partitioned directory tree is wonderful. It's one of those things that "just works".
- Bunny
IBM might like the idea but look if they do, Ximian is dead. I really hope they dont because IBM would have too much influence on the Linux community
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
i dont think so. red hat is stronger than you think. while novell's recent press is astoundingly good news for novell, it will only have short term effects on red hats stock. they are in a prime position right now, how long will it take novell to start selling enterprise systems with its new OS? red hat is not going to sit and wait, they are going to do everything they can to maintain their grasp on the enterprise market and will make moves to secure more lucrative contracts before novell gets a chance to really start pushing its new OS. (a little side note: 5yr chart of RedHat and Novell.
IBM owning Novell is less obvious, as Novell lost their claim to the UNIX rights, in the early parts of this bout. Nonetheless, Novell is no trivial force and is a well-known name in the markets SCO is aiming at (low-end business). IBM is better-known in the high-end of the spectrum.
From a muscle-flexing standpoint, things look very different. SCO pulls the licenses for IBM's AIX and SGI's IRIX. Both companies ignore it. IBM gorges of Novell and SuSE, barely noticing.
Which giant would you be the more scared of?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Spare me, a bunch of analysts one of whom is Laura Didio speculating on the purchase of Novell? I know this is Slashdot and I know there are alot of rumors propogated from here but the simple fact remains that Novell isn't attractive yet, they have to produce a product. Minus their existing infrastructure and you still have the same Novell as a year ago.
Not only that but Gartner is usually off with things like this; infact Gartner is usually off with many things regarding Linux in specific. Laura Didio?? The Analyst who said Linux had stolen code in it?? Come on.. stuff like this needs not be on the frontpage. Sure slashdot used to be a rumor mill but at least the rumors make some sort of sense. This is tabloid nonsense.
Patents are an issue, but support lifecycle is a bigger issue -- IBM customers have major expectations of IBM. Any given release of "IBM Linux" would have to be supported 7+ years and major features backported to it.
There's no way that IBM could get away with RedHat bullshit about killing support after 12 months and breaking things all the time with new glibcs or whatever. Keeping RedHat and SuSE around allows IBM to point the finger and keep their own costs down.
An OEM acquisition of NovellSuSE would NOT be the end of Red Hat. Red Hat enjoys very healthy with all major OEMs. If one of them bought the SuSE, *ALL* the other OEMS would immediately drop their two-LinuxOS strategy and go solely with Red Hat.
Something similar happened when Pepsi bought up Pizza Hut and KFC. The CocaCola reps went around to all the other pizza joints and chicken shacks and explained 'every pepsi you serve strengthens your competition down the street'. In short order, Pepsi lost every account except their in-house pizza huts and kfc outlets. The end result actually created _less_ revenue for Pepsi.
Red Hat would see an enourmous strengthening among the other 6 major OEMs. Moreover, the market would become wary of running an OS on anything but the servers produced by its hadware manufacturer overlords.
i am posting this anonymously for corporate reasons
If Apple wanted to prove they were serious about being in the server room, they could purchase Novell and incorporate the directory stuff into OS X. But they're probably not ready for such a thing.
I was recently at a Novell/IBM/VMware session in Omaha, NE last Thursday. Novell harped on nothing but their detication to Linux and how they are integrating Ximian with what they are offering. It appears they want to be one stop shop from client to servers. Also it appears they are accumulating quite the zoo (penguin, monkey, and chamelion). First, about Ximian. Red Carpet is here to stay. IBM uses it extensively in several of their deployments, and Novell will continue to fulfill those obligations. From the looks of it, Red Carpet is probably going to be on the Linux side what Zenworks is on the Windows side for desktop management. Mono is also going to be integrated, helping balance out dirXML. I did notice however that Gnome+Ximian additions is probably going to be the main desktop choice when Suse is fully integrated with Novell later on in 2004. KDE will still be supported, but will not be the preferred support choice. I found it very nice that Novell is doing support calls for Linux - any Linux - even if you aren't a Novell customer. Just have to pay up on the support calls - but the support will be there. I have found Novell tech support to be the best out of all the vendors I've had the (dis?)pleasure of talking with. For support for Suse and Redhat, it was repeated several times that both platforms will be supported equally. As for other distos, they said it was just a problem of having to code install routines for all the 150 or so products they have. They'll probably run, but just getting them installed is the hard part. Next I found it interesting that Novell is in the process of converting all their corporate workstations to running Linux this spring. This means moving all their management, Groupwise, Instant Messenger, etc to run on Linux. Novell has had several Linux products out for more than year or so. Linux Enterprise Services 2.0 is in beta, and was handed out on CD to try out. I think it can also be downloaded on their website (haven't checked though). One question was asked on SCO, the rep's response was that, "Novell is still asking that SCO give definite proof of their copyright and patent claims." The IBM reps that were there mostly harped on how good their hardware was in combo with VMware - basically marketing humdrum. The VMware stuff was interesting with their ESX and GSX products (such as migrating running virtual machines between physical boxes without bringing down the virtual machine) - but was also more marketing.
...but Novell has refused it all the times. The last time this was rumored (IIRC) was in '97 or so, when they alread had began to fall.
Seriously, I don't think they'll firt buy SuSE and then let someone grab them. Remember these guys are pretty fscking stubburn.
roy
Yes, it will most probably be IBM, and most probably be a gentle affair based on a growing partnership and sense of common purpose.
IT has come to its middle-age crisis point where some parties have more to lose than to win through further change. It's a defining moment when a young revolutionary becomes a reactionary dictator, but we're here.
On the side of stability, we have Microsoft, Intel, and HPaq. On the side of change, we have IBM, Nocel/Suse and the unwashed foss hordes. And in the middle, watching, we have Sun and a host of other players who still make too much money off Microsoft to abandon ship, but who can see the tidal wave coming.
The outcome is inevitable and I have gained many "troll" points by boring the patient Slashdot readership with my view of it: change is inevitable, driven by ever-cheaper technology both hard and soft, and those who try to resist change will simply be drowned by it.
In this case, it will be Microsoft that either embraces change (meaning specifically Linux and all it represents) or dies fighting it.
It is a defining moment in modern history. Enjoy!
Ceci n'est pas une signature
as much as i'd love to see AT&T or Lucent buy back the UNIX IP rights Novell retains ("Look, we gave you the UNIX thing, but you blew it. Sorry."), wouldn't they need, um, money to buy out another company? Lucent in particular seems laughable. i love the company, but they've got a ways to go before they're out of their existing hole enough to look at buying companies with quite substantial assets.
still, the irony would be rich...
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.