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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.
Not HP/ComDEC! That is the place where tech goes to die. Besides, they would rather spend their money on new GulfStream 5's.
I don't see why IBM would want the combination of them. SuSE by itself I can see, but why would IBM be more interested with Novell as part of the deal? IBM has Notes, so it doesn't need GroupWise.
--Ben
Suddenly, they'd hold all of Novell's rights vs. SCO. Since they sold SCO those rights to begin with, SCO could quickly wind up in a pickle... :]
Especially since Novell has those rights to direct SCO to do whatever it wants with respect to the contract between SCO & IBM.
In other words, IBM buying Novell would draw the noose more tightly around SCO's neck (okay, true, that's overkill, but...)
That might be news to the MVS, OS/400, and other OS teams that IBM pays each month.
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.
Since Novell, as part of its sale of the UNIX licenses to SCO, retained the right to require SCO to "amend, supplement, modify or waive any right" under the license agreements (and if SCO did not comply, Novell could exercise those rights itself on SCO's behalf)....See http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=13 03_0_3_0_C
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.
If there was a buy out of Novell, it would definately spell the end of Red Hat. Imagine how strong of a Linux powerhouse IBM or Cisco owning Ximian, Suse, and Novell would be. Both desktop and server would benifit immensely. A little side note: check out these two stock graphs of Novell and Red hat, on the day Suse was aquired. Redhat Novell
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.
IBM would be duplicating a lot of software effort if they were to purchase Novell and it's tech portfolio. For example NDS and ZenWorks would compete directly with Tivoli.
SuSE might be useful as they have global acceptance which may help to sell more Linux products and solutions to the global marketplace vs. RHES.
HP probably won't buy it (yet). If they do it will be to take SuSE for use as their Linux solution provider, and to put down Novell to garner further favor from Microsoft- who also power their midrange backoffice offerings. But HP is still cooling down from the Compaq merger. It's too soon to look at Novell while simultaneously keeping it's current investors happy (they should be focusing on ops as is).
Maybe it'll be Oracle, to use as another pawn in their game to beat everybody else (read: Microsoft) no matter what the cost.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Please! IBM and HP buy a Linux company? 'Why buy a cow when milk is free' has been their attitude towards Linux for a while now. Besides, IBM will soon own a small share of Novell anyway--more than sufficient to do them good if there's anything to the stories of Novell having enough Unix IP rights left to protect any Linux with a Novell brand on it from SCO attacks.
As for the others, sorry, I keep an eye on all of them, and I haven't see any sign of any of them having any interest in getting into the OS business. AT&T & Lucent have their own problems to fix, and Cisco is finally coming around quite nicely by having stuck to their main business lines.
Steven
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
I'm wondering if they are trying to posture themselves as an infrastructure company, a solutions brand, not a hardware company.
Novell and it's assets (particularly app servers, resource management and clustering stuff) would make that a possibility.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Look at the name of the analyst - Laura Didio.
Maybe you remember her from her SCO kernel source code news?
you mean a P/390.... S/390 would pretty much destroy not only the desk you placed it, but most likely it will collapse the floor your desk was sitting on.
Just look at who's predicting that Novell will be aquired. It's Laura Dido, the same analyst that said SCO had a case. Why should anyone believe her now anymore than they did on the SCO code thing?
As IBM wants Linux to take over the world, the need to keep it somewhat at arms length. Big Blue will continue to dance with the penguin, but no one should expect IBM to invite Tux home to bed.
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.
IBM made a point a few years ago of emphasizing that they wanted to be a service company and work with all Linux distributions neutrally, not make their own. If they were to suddenly favor one distro so strongly, it would discard their neutrality, and I think that would hurt their current business model.
Infuriate left and right
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.
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.