Novell acquired by Attachmate

[maflynn]

Ars is reporting that Attachmate has purchased Novell and just prior that sale Novell sold some patents to MS.

It looks like an end of an era, I remember Novell networks back in the day, but MS over took them, and then they tried to reinvent themselves with Linux which largely failed. I wonder what will happen with Suse now that attachmate owns them

 

[KnightWRX]

Attachmate is just a VC firm, not a technological company. This probably means that aside from the IP Novell sent Microsoft's way, not much will change for now. What usually happens in these deals is that the company is liquidated on a per-asset basis to the highest bidder, so you might see SuSE go one way, while other Novell products (eDirectory, NetWare, GroupWare, etc..) will each go their seperate ways to other firms.

 

[maflynn]

Doesn't attachmate make software once like extra a terminal software

 

[KnightWRX]

That's a branch of Attachmate Corporation. They also own NetIQ. The mothership is just a VC firm. For all we know, they might hold on to what's left of Novell post IP sell-off and try to make a little profit off of that, but it just seems weird that they would buy a technology company and yet not get the 882 patents. In this day and age, patents is what keeps you in business. Smells more of a acquire to better liquidate at a profit.

From the press release, it seems they are already seperating SuSE from the core Novell. Maybe they just wanted SuSE too, or maybe they just wanted the Novell part. Interesting days ahead for any Novell customers.