Novell's management dumps company

Yesterday, Novell's management found the buyer they have been looking for. Good luck to Hovespin and the rest of Novell's ex-management team. Now that they've put this computer BS behind them they can get into that really profitable business they've always dreamed of. Look for them to be selling Florida timeshares. Then again, they may be content to take it easy and lay of the beach for the rest of their lives. Afterall, they could be set for life and retire. It's a sure bet that management will get a big slice of the $2.2B sale price and the $450M from Microsoft.

This looks like Novell's final white flag. It looks like they flat out gave up and surrendered because they were unable to compete. Too bad their imagination is so limited. RedHat and IBM continue to see free software/open source software as a vehicle to drive sales of services. Let's see if new management can do something with Suse, or if it withers and dies. It's hard to say, because customer relationships are very important. If it is rough transition, then it could be a windfall for RedHat as Suse's enterprise customers exit in droves. It definitely looks like Attachmate could have overpaid, especially considering the big spoonful of bad will that spiked the deal at the end. Whatever good will was leftover from Novell's benevolent actions in SCO vs. "world" lawsuits has just evaporated.

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