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Novell/SUSE Prime for Aquisition?

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the big-ticket-companies dept.

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.

5 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Why no OEMs? by Sheetrock · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.




  2. IBM doesn't need Novell by Ayanami+Rei · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
  3. Re:Ripe why? by _Bunny · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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

  4. This could be interesting by jd · · Score: 3, Interesting
    IBM buying SUSE would be logical. After all, IBM paid to get SUSE certified under the common criteria. Owning SUSE would be a logical way to get some return on the investment, as well as improving their markets in Europe (where SUSE is strong).


    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)
  5. Re:What about Oracle or Lucent? by Art+Tatum · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.