Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

[Posted September 15, 2010 by corbet]

The New York Post has a brief and vague article stating that Novell has worked out a deal to sell itself to two companies. "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."

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 15, 2010 17:15 UTC (Wed) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (8 responses)

The WallStreet Journal has the rumour that the buyer of the GNU/Linux part might be VMware Inc.

I don't know much about VMWare Inc., but at first glance they seem ok. Not too likely to pull an Oracle.

Anyone got more info?

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 15, 2010 17:36 UTC (Wed) by AlexHudson (guest, #41828) [Link] (1 responses)

They're a likely purchaser. They do some Gtk+ work, have various free software repos etc., but very much the mixed-mode org that Novell are.

They probably love the idea of SUSE Studio for easy VM creation and stuff, not sure I could see them really being the sort to support an enterprise distro per se.

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 15, 2010 22:56 UTC (Wed) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

Why? Having their own enterprise distribution is a logical step for them.

They've seen the writing on the wall that virtualization solution are going to become commodity soon. So they bought Gallium3D and they are right on track to deliver complete working virtualized 3D/OpenCL solution, which should allow them to stay relevant for several more years.

Now they'll probably want to focus on server side. Imagine, that you could buy license from VMWare and build your own cluster with superior monitoring solutions and fine-tuned for speed.

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 15, 2010 17:36 UTC (Wed) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

Vmware company predominately makes it's money from selling proprietary virtualization solutions, obviously.

They have made a number of important contributions to Linux over the years and made a few buy outs that I am aware of.

They've done some work on Gnome, to what extent I don't know. The biggest latest thing is that they purchased Tungsten Graphics and are now largely responsible for Gallium3D, which is the modern graphics stack for Linux with the capabilities of supporting multiple APIs on a single GPU (were currently Linux requires a set of GPU drivers to provide graphics APIs for a single GPU)

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 15, 2010 17:37 UTC (Wed) by kragil (guest, #34373) [Link]

WSJ is a lot more trustworthy than the Post, so thanks for the info.

VMware do some cool stuff with Gallium, but I am not sure how this plays out. VMware is very proprietary, but so was Novell. It will be interesting to see what happens with the MS-Novell collaboration and I guess IBM will now like Red Hat even more .. fun news.

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 16, 2010 17:09 UTC (Thu) by leoc (guest, #39773) [Link] (1 responses)

VMWare is in turn owned by EMC^2, so they are probably the company to be looking at if the rumour is true.

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 17, 2010 15:03 UTC (Fri) by jwarnica (subscriber, #27492) [Link]

Which may mean that it isn't "VMWare Inc." offering, but EMC. I would think it would make more sense to EMC to have Novell-Linux as a direct subsidiary, and the place they pool their low-level Linux people.

I really don't know about the details of the OSs on EMC gear; they at least make Linux device drivers, I'm sure. The "management" shelves may run Linux, controlling the "controller" shelves running something very special. Of course, I don't know if that hardware distinction exists :)

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 16, 2010 21:54 UTC (Thu) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (1 responses)

> Not too likely to pull an Oracle.

Actually, that mightn't have been a good analysis. Smart people said more or less the same thing about Oracle a few months ago :-/

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 17, 2010 11:14 UTC (Fri) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has a good article about the links and disagreements between WMware and Microsoft:

http://blogs.computerworld.com/16978/vmware_is_buying_novell

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 15, 2010 20:29 UTC (Wed) by jengelh (guest, #33263) [Link] (1 responses)

Wonder what that means for openSUSE...

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 15, 2010 21:58 UTC (Wed) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]

And I'm curious about Mono... where will it end up?

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 15, 2010 23:05 UTC (Wed) by oompah (guest, #70141) [Link] (7 responses)

Novell has lots of IP including *nix property. It is not the largest asset on their balance sheet but in the hands of a patent troll, it's a HUGE potential threat. Is there a way to save the I.P. for the community?

What about the copyrights?

Posted Sep 16, 2010 0:50 UTC (Thu) by gjmarter (guest, #5777) [Link]

I wonder which buyer would get the copyrights which SCO is still disputing in an appeal. And what are their plans for continuing in the litigation?

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 16, 2010 1:26 UTC (Thu) by elanthis (guest, #6227) [Link] (4 responses)

They own the copyrights to UNIX. Copyrights are not patents. Violating a copyright requires actual copying of the material, not just use or application of an idea. The only way to use the UNIX copyrights offensively is to go after someone who actually really did copy the UNIX code into another product without a license. Linux has already proven itself clean in a court of law, and there's not many people left to go after who don't have a license for sure (IBM, HP, Microsoft, etc.) or are derived from the open source fork and its legitimate license (the *BSDs).

In other words, the UNIX copyrights are worthless aside from the (likely nominal) fee collected from licensees.

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 16, 2010 4:09 UTC (Thu) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link] (3 responses)

Linux has already proven itself clean in a court of law,

Isn't the lawsuit which would decide this once and for all, SCO vs IBM, still on hold? SCO will probably lose badly if it ever goes forward, but nevertheless it is technically too early to say the matter is proved in court. (Disclaimer: IANAL; this is from information gathered from too many hours on Groklaw)

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 16, 2010 9:18 UTC (Thu) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

Who cares enough to spend the money to complete the lawsuit. The whole thing was a ridiculous farce from the beginning and even bothering to bring it up now gives it far more credit then it deserves.

Hell bringing it up when it was happening was giving it more credit then it deserved. It was not even funny, all it was was just the actions of a once decent software company going into nuclear meltdown after IBM completely f*ked them over and they got taken over by a failing Linux corporation. It was just sick all around.

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 16, 2010 20:05 UTC (Thu) by Ed_L. (guest, #24287) [Link] (1 responses)

No. The lawsuit that decides this once and for all is SCO vs Novell. Novell has (a) openly stated that Linux does not infringe their UNIX copyrights, and (b) simultaneously and in good faith openly distributed OpenSUSE. For going on seven years now. I'm not a lawyer, but from any practical point of view it just doesn't get any more decisive than that. If after the appeals process is over the courts with finality rule that Novell retained the UNIX copyrights at the time it openly distributed OpenSUSE, its over. Which is why SCO vs IBM is stayed pending that final determination.

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 17, 2010 15:09 UTC (Fri) by jwarnica (subscriber, #27492) [Link]

So declaring that some action isn't wrong, and continuing to do that action for 7 years while the courts are at work means that *poof* it isn't wrong?

It is still an open question. We have a good idea what the decision will be, but until the decision has been made, the decision hasn't been made.

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 16, 2010 8:08 UTC (Thu) by stijn (subscriber, #570) [Link]

Agreed. I think this is a dark cloud of doomsday dimensions. Anyone feeling more optimistic?

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 16, 2010 7:57 UTC (Thu) by gedeon (subscriber, #21965) [Link] (1 responses)

I wonder if that strategic buyer could be Microsoft... After their deal with Novell, it does not seem that improbable.

Novell Inc. reaches two-part sale deal (NY Post)

Posted Sep 16, 2010 10:12 UTC (Thu) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

I think it's unlikely.

The existence of Novell allows Microsoft to say they're working with GNU/Linux rather than shutting it out, and so they can say that c# and .Net are open standards with multiple implementations.

Microsoft probably want to continue having Mono developed by a separate company.

If Microsoft is involved in this purchase, I'd guess their role would be to assist a MS-friendly company (as Novell was) in buying Novell's GNU/Linux wing.