Novell Inc. announced Monday that it has agreed to an acquisitionby Seattle-based Attachmate Corp. for US$2.2 billion. The move, which brings theNovell and SUSE brands to Attachmate, clears up Novell’s future after years ofspeculation.
The company has also agreed to sell select intellectualproperty assets for $450 million to CPTN Holdings LLC, a Microsoft Corp. led technologyconsortium.
Attachmate, which is owned by three private-equity firms, sellssoftware to help business deal with legacy applications, including a variety ofterminal emulation and interoperability tools. The company also sellsapplication security monitoring tools under its NetIQ brand, a division itacquired in 2006 for $495 million.
Jeff Hawn, chairman and CEO at Attachmate, said the acquisitionof the Novell and SUSE brands will add significant assets to its currentportfolio.
“We have great respect for Novell’s business, its employeesand its commitment to customers,” he said in a release. “Moreover, we lookforward to maintaining and further strengthening Novell and SUSE solutions tomeet market demands.
The Novell and SUSE brands will be run as two separate businessunits alongside the Attachmate and NetIQ divisions.
After announcing the deal, Attachmate’s Web site was downand further information was unavailable.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of2011 pending regulatory and Novell stockholder approval.