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Attachmate To Acquire Novell For $2.2B Cash
wiredmikey and a few others wrote in to let us know that Novell has agreed to be acquired by Attachmate Corporation for $6.10 per share in cash, in a transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion. The Boston Globe reports that the deal also includes the sale of some intellectual assets to a consortium organized by Microsoft. Attachmate plans to operate Novell and SUSE as separate business units. Here is the press release.
Attachmate To Acquire Novell
Whoooooooooooooooooo?!
Summation 2
My guess will be the items that were relevant to the MSNovell patent deal, to remove that need for MS to provide protection for those that have used SuSE..
Time will tell I suppose.
- This sig deliberately left blank. Nothing to see, move along.
The question is...what "IP" has been sold to Microsoft? Novell's sale has been widely expected for a long time now.
Attachmate's strategy for the economic downturn was to lay off most of their development staff while still collecting maintenance from all their customers. And they only had to follow that strategy because the private equity group that owns them had sucked a ton of money out of the company by saddling it with a gigantic debt.
I don't feel very good about the prospects for sane, customer focused management from this particular company.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
I guess there goes the whole ecosystem. Not the Novell being sold part, but the "intellectual properties" (patents, copyrights, patents) going to the M$-led group. It looks like there could be potential litigation out of that group who would want to maximize their "gain". I think the time is NOW to ban all software patents! Any more delay or foot dragging will kill the IT industry.
Think about it: Novell hold the copyrights and trademarks to UNIX. They would make for a nice addition to Microsoft's portfolio, don't you think?
"Slashdot - the one place on the internet where guys brag about how small it is." - that IT girl
In other news Attachmate's website appears to be unable to handle the extra load caused by this announcement. Things are not looking well.
A libertarian shat on my carpet once. Claimed the free market would sort it out. -Ford Prefect(8777)
I wouldn't be surprised if this sparked other bids. Not a super hot company by any means but at a 9% premium (low for tech acquisitions) I wouldn't be surprised...
Another one (that made a deal with MS) bites the dust.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
I for one would be wondering whether this move was intended to acquire the Unix copyrights that Novell owns (as determined by the SCO case). The idea here is that SCO was stopped largely because they didn't actually have copyright on what they claimed infringement for.
Not that there weren't lots of other reasons why the case didn't hold water, but this does look like potentially a way to get the whole thing started up again.
I am officially gone from
Attachmate sell terminal services like xservers and an ssh server/client... they can only really sell these things because windows lacks them by default.
By encouraging their users to go to linux would that not kill a fair majority of their market just because people can get linux to do that from anywhere?
I am amazed at how - once again - Novell blundered and lost the opportunity to capitalize on something. Back in '05 I thought Novell and SUSE (SLED, SLES...) would have a viable future competing against Wintendo and Unix. However, I noticed way back in '08 that they were slipping and I eventually jumped ship myself (over to Ubuntu) and gave up trying to persuade my server room staff to switch to Novell.
Too bad.
Kind of reminds me of 1995...
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
you know this was probably thrown in there somewhere. Now what could Novell have in "assets" which Microsoft would want so bad as to put a consortium together? Is Gnome getting handed over to Microsoft along with any remaining GroupWise customers maybe.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Microsoft is involved, so that is not good news. SuSE is dead, or soon will be.
What's going to happen to the UNIX copyrights, and will this IP sale be the stick that they will continue to try to beat Linux with?
Software patents? OMG, in the hands of Microsoft?
One can theorize that this is Microsoft's way of trying to get Google. Windows Phone 7 needs a way to beat Android, and I'm sure the whole Linux copyright, patent BS will be focused on the mobile phone market.
What are the implications to Mono from this sale? Is this an Oracle/Java situation, or is it worse?
Maybe the Attachmate CEO just ran out of shit to kill and has moved on to companies.
From Wikipedia:
Jeff Hawn—the president and CEO of Seattle-based Attachmate who lives in Austin, Texas—has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for authorizing the slaughter of 32 of his neighbor's bison that wandered onto his Colorado ranch. Hawn pleaded guilty in November to criminal mischief and animal cruelty. Hawn and hired hands shot and killed 32 bison, which had wandered onto and near his property from a neighboring ranch in Park County, Colorado — including cows carrying calfs. In Colorado, bison are allowed to wander under open-range laws.
The arrest warrant said most were left to rot.
Hawn, plead guilty to criminal mischief and cruelty to animals and was released free on a $15,000 bail. The Denver Post reports that the judge sentenced Hawn to 10 days in jail.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I started my career in I.T. with Novell, but I left it behind when I saw the writing on the wall. I had been wishing for a miracle for the company like Google acquiring it, since IMHO a easy intuitive GUI driven directory service is lacking in the Non-Microsoft world. Especially one that plays well with other operating systems. Yes you can use other operating systems in an AD environment, but not as "out of the box" as Novell IMHO. Oh well... I guess we will see.
There is nothing good that can come out of this. I repeat NOTHING good.
I see Ballmer gleefully giddy in his chair.
I have to wonder if the antitrust against Microsoft case that Novell was going to appeal will still happen.
I'm sure that Novell could have found some way to transfer ownership of those items to the public. If Novell had wanted to.
...is "What IP did Microsoft acquire in this deal?" If they've acquired the UNIX copyrights, we could very well see the zombie corpse of SCO rise from the grave to terrorize the world again.
maybe google can switch to BSD. Isn't that one safe from the copyrights issue?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
They will attach themselves to you and then mate
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Darl McBride
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
Just sent two tweets to Miguel de Icaza about this:
@migueldeicaza So does it mean you will be somehow now working for Microsoft
@migueldeicaza Sorry meant to add a question mark... And how about IP rights for Mono? What does it mean copyrights-wise? Not worried?
And here's his answer:
@2green Dont know the answer to that.
Wow.
This sucks...
They wanted to improve 3270 terminal handling.
I read the headline and my first thought was "wait...the company that wrote Extra? They're still around?" Then all those nightmares of HLLAPI programing came back and I sat under my desk and cried.
From the first paragraph of the press release:
With Novell owning Mono, the free software community will have to watch this.
What patents did Novell have in that area?
It's unlikely that MS will have acquired the copyrights for Mono. It serves them better to have a "third-party" implementation which they can show to the competition authorities and standards groups.
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
What next? Apple buys Microsoft?
What patents did Novell have that are worth US$450 and a first-paragraph mention in a buy-out press release?
Novell was a major contributor of patents to the OIN patent pool.
(Mono probably isn't the main worry - it was Microsoft's patents that were posing a threat there, not Novell's.
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
Nothing of value will be lost.
PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
I read this on another site. I have not yet checked for myself.
NOVL has now filed its 8K. The IP deal is for 882 patents.
A quick search of the Patent-Pair Assignment database indicates that this likely every "friggin" patent Novell owns. That is Patent-Pair has 1711 entries with Novell as an assignee, but since these include duplicate application and granted patents, as well as other stuff, the total patents sold down the river to Redmond likely represents everything touched by Novell.
Would you risk your next big project to run on Mono? Is Java the lesser evil again?
what does this mean for my version 3 CNE?
Someone should have told them they could download a Linux distro for free.
Here's a link to the actual SEC 8K: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/758004/000119312510265964/d8k.htm
The kernel yes, but the pain might be in the applications.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
competing against Wintendo and Unix.
Please don't say "Wintendo". It insults Nintendo fans. :p
Hot news for you: Linux is many more places than Microsoft's products. You just don't know it. Millions of electronic devices use it. Yes, millions. Mostly invisible to you because it just works. When it **has** to work, there's some kind of Unix used.
Windows has a niche and does a good job defending it. It's an "okay" desktop. Mostly they use the desktop like a cancer that bores into an office environment. Straight server applications? Expensive in most ways and comparably weak. It's below average-ness doesn't stop it from being sold because Microsoft knows the customer is not the geek, but the boss of the geek's boss who doesn't know anything about the geek's job.
It looks like this deal keeps NetWare customers going for sure and forces the SuSe business to pay for itself. That will likely chop the head count of the group working on SuSe.
Flame on!
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Given that the UNIX code is old enough that no one is looking at it now (if they ever were when working on Linux), the fact that Novell released Suse under the GPL which means that even if there IS any UNIX code in Linux (not likely), it's still safe.
I'm done. I'm going back to Weapons Systems.
The work's grim, often tedious, frequently frustrating.
But at least you get to kill idiots instead of coddle them.
Regards;
So not only are you battening down the hatches for the present when you lay them off, you're mortgaging your future by destroying the core intellectual base for the stuff you have.
The buyers in this case and most others are not planning for a future. They are extracting as much wealth as possible as quickly as possible with no regard for a future that will never be. If it blows up in 2, 3, or five years is only a matter of finding more suckers to take money from while Novell's business prospects end.
People with a mindset like yours are not valued because you are not looking to extract maximum value today with only a pretty presentation and pro-forma statements. You might add a little value to a pillager's target that is with certainty headed to bankruptcy and dissolution, but that's about it.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20101122005908/en/Kendall-Law-Group-Investigates-Novell-Acquisition-Shareholders
(came across that link in a Groklaw comment)
The monkies will continue to fling poop as usual.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Most applications written for Linux are ported to BSD with absolutely trivial amounts of effort. As a matter of fact unless you're planning on doing really low level stuff, the majority of Linux users could sit down to a FreeBSD system and not even know they weren't running Linux, as most of the apps are the same.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Novell bought by an online dating service?
Attachmate also made terminal emulation for Unisys 1100/2200 series mainframes. They did print ads referring to themselves as "The Perfect Mate" (for your mainframe) with very pretty girls to assist the emotional connection to the "perfect mate" message. Also, at conferences, the best looking ladies were in the Attachmate area and at their (free booze) receptions.
Being a systems programmer, I wasn't in a position to make purchasing decisions, and I also wasn't married. So neither my morals nor integrity were compromised by allowing myself to be schmoozed by those stunningly pretty girls. I have nothing but fond memories of Attachmate.
Also, their terminal emulation was top notch, though a little pricey compared to hungrier vendors.
The question is...what "IP" has been sold to Microsoft?
Probably 127.0.0.1.
Bet the security on that thing is awful if it's running IIS. Watch me give Microsoft a taste of their own medicine by hacking their si1-0$%#$I)%^%)#%
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Attachmate Linux?
sounds like the linux distro for australian couples...
This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
For "Attachmate", read "Microsoft".
Help stamp out iliturcy.