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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...)
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
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
Look at the name of the analyst - Laura Didio.
Maybe you remember her from her SCO kernel source code news?
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?
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)
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.