Novell deal completed - Update

Attachmate and Novell have announced that the deal which sees Attachmate acquire Novell for $2.2 billion (at $6.10 per share) was completed on 27 April. The deal was able to go ahead after the $450 million Novell/CPTN patent deal was modified and cleared by the US Department of Justice last week. The patent deal was adjusted to see Microsoft being made to sell on patents it is acquiring to Attachmate and all the patents being made available under a GPLv2 or OIN licence.

Sources familiar with the company's plans said that Novell's security, identity and data center products would move to the company's NetIQ unit, while a new SUSE unit will take the company's Linux business. This will leave a Novell business unit handling collaboration and endpoint management products. The new SUSE business unit will be headquartered in Nuremberg and will be headed up by Attachmate's Nils Brauckmann.

It is also believed that many of Novell's senior management are leaving the company to pursue other opportunities; these include Ron Hovsepian (Novell President and CEO), Dana Russell (CFO), John Dragoon (SVP and CMO), Markus Rex (SVP and General Manager open platforms) and Javier Colado (SVP global sales).

Update - John Dragoon has confirmed he is leaving the company in a posting on his Novell blog.

Attachmate began its life as a terminal emulation software company in 1982. It is a privately held company which is owned by private equity firms Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo. The Attachmate business unit of the group still develops terminal emulation software.

(djwm)