FT.com / Technology - Microsoft helps seal $2.2bn sale of Novell to Attachmate

The next chapter in this context will be interesting; tbd how much value evaporates, to prospective SUSE acquirers, in the Novell-minus-intellectual-property equation

Some leading tech companies, including IBM, have seen Suse as an important counterweight to both Red Hat and Microsoft, raising questions about its future following the Novell sale.

Attachmate said it would run Suse as a separate business unit after the deal, prompting several observers on Tuesday to suggest that it was paving the way for a later sale of the business.

VMware, which has emerged as one of Microsoft’s main rivals in corporate software, had been among those to express an interest in the Suse business as part of the Novell sale process, people familiar with the matter have said.

FT.com / Technology - Microsoft helps seal $2.2bn sale of Novell to Attachmate