When I started in IT in the 1980’s, the big dog on the block when it came to business networking was not Microsoft. It was Novell. If you wanted a business network, you went to Novell. You didn’t go anywhere else. Novell has fallen from those heights since then and has been been a shadow of their former selves for some time. Now the New York Post claiming that ever popular “un-named source” says that the company is about to be broken up and sold:
A strategic buyer will buy the piece of the software provider that develops and delivers Linux SUSE systems, with a private-equity firm picking up much of the rest. Both deals are expected to close simultaneously and the company will be de-listed, according to one source, who noted that the talks are in a sensitive stage and could fall apart.
It’s really sad to see this company potentially end this way. They were so big in the 80’s and early 90’s. But Microsoft really took them down and they couldn’t find their way after that. But at least some of their products will live on to some degree or another.
Attachmate Buys Novell…. The Big News Lies Elsewhere
Posted in Commentary with tags Novell on November 22, 2010 by itnerdNovell has been sold to Attachmate for roughly $2.2 billion. Here’s the press release with the details. That should be the big news of the day. But the Boston Globe has the big news that you should care about:
Novell also said it has entered into an agreement for the concurrent sale of certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft Corp., for $450 million in cash, “which cash payment is reflected in the merger consideration to be paid by Attachmate Corp.,” a company press release said.
So, why would a Microsoft backed group buy some IP from Novell? There must be something really interesting there to make Microsoft want to dive in for it. We’ll soon see what they paid all that money for I suspect.
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