A Question About the Novell-Microsoft Deal (Groklaw)

"how come two public companies can make a deal that seems to me to be material and yet keep pieces of the deal secret?"

Are you kidding me? After *years* of going through previously confidential contracts between public companies, Groklaw is now openly wondering why the terms of contracts are kept confidential?

"How is the public to know whether to invest in either company, if we don't know what the deal's terms are with specificity? Are investors supposed to just guess?"

YES. Investors don't have all the information ever written down on paper unless it's a significant sized investment, in which case due diligence is carried out and welcomed by all the parties involved. Standard stock investors? They have to make as informed a decision as possible based on previous experience with the companies involved and other similar enterprises.

Groklaw knows nothing about investment practise.

The whole article is worth a read by those who actually know about this sort of thing as the sheer greeness is hilarious.

Netware customer switches to Microsoft rather than SuSE? So what? *No one* in business expects a 100% switchover rate when it comes to customers upgrading their old systems. So why the astonishment when someone does that? Again, a lack of business experience showing there.

As for her sources.... Here's Sam Varguess (honest typo, but kept intact as it seemed appropriate):

"The extension of the deal indicates one thing - all the money which has been pumped into Novell so far is not yielding the returns which either company hoped for and it is now time to further subsidise SUSE Linux."

Say what? MS and Novell pour *more* money into a failing enterprise rather than scaling it down? Er... no. Let's say that the MS/Novell deal was earning both of them a stack of money. Would they extend the deal (as they are now) or scale it back?

If you're going to comment on business-related subjects, perhaps it's better to get someone in who actually has substantial experience working in one? This article reads like a lemonade stall owner screaming that the people with proper jobs are big meanies.