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Novell Sale Delayed Due To Patent Investigation

Posted by Soulskill on from the something-is-afoot dept.

darthcamaro writes "Novell's $2.2 billion dollar acquisition by Attachmate isn't going to close as soon as first expected. A key part of the deal is the sale of 882 patents to a consortium of vendors led by Microsoft. The US Department of Justice is investigating the patent deal and is now pushing out the close until at least April 12th. Does this mean the deal is in trouble?"

3 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Here's what it means by Beelzebud · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It just means the proper people haven't been bribed yet.

  2. Re:What I can't figure out... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a shame that Unix has ended up being a football that greedy companies fight over now.

    It's a shame, but it's hardly surprising.

    UNIX and a lot of the concepts (and code) in it are the foundation for a lot of stuff that's used in modern operating systems. If you can own that, you can have leverage over most operating systems.

    Having Microsoft suddenly own the copyrights and everything else for UNIX would be bad for anybody that isn't them -- if every other OS had to pay Microsoft licensing fees, then they stand to gain quite a bit.

    Companies are generally greedy, especially once they're big enough that lawyers play a significant part in how they run their day to day stuff.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  3. Re:What I can't figure out... by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess the continuing fear is that Microsoft and other parties with some interest in squashing Linux will just continue tossing potshots at it via the copyrights. Yes, we all know the history of Unix and how things got to be where they are, but the Big Guys have never had a problem with creating their own fraudulent narratives.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.