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microsoft paid novell, not the other way around

microsoft paid novell, not the other way around

Posted Oct 14, 2007 4:43 UTC (Sun) by paulj (subscriber, #341)
In reply to: microsoft paid novell, not the other way around by corbet
Parent article: Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed Against Red Hat and Novell - Just Like Ballmer Predicted (Groklaw)

Or Novell are giving Microsoft a kick-back on each copy of SuSe MS sell, i.e. a referall fee, paid for from the margins on the unit sold. Which wouldn't be an uncommon or sinister arrangement really.

Or not?


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microsoft paid novell, not the other way around

Posted Oct 14, 2007 7:47 UTC (Sun) by njs (subscriber, #40338) [Link]

Or not. Novell is apparently paying MS a percentage of *all* Suse revenues, including for copies that Novell sold all on their own and MS had nothing to do with -- at least as far as I can tell from the last line of their SEC filing[1], which is admittedly a bit vague.

[1] http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/758004/00007580040...

microsoft paid novell, not the other way around

Posted Oct 14, 2007 14:53 UTC (Sun) by paulj (subscriber, #341) [Link]

If this agreement concerned any other two parties, ones not affected by contraversy and suspicion, most people'd conclude that if the Novell-like party were paying based on *all* their sales, that this was agreed because:

- The MS-like party are to spend money marketing Linux and Windows virtualisation /generally/

- The Novell-party should see a general increase in sales (to whatever extent) from such spending, beyond just those sales it sees in direct referrals from the Microsoft-like party.

That'd be the most reasonable explanation if it didn't involve MS..

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