Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell General Manager: Microsoft Won't Bid for Novell, But You Can Never Say Never

Movell and Nicrosoft



Summary: Novell senior cannot deny Microsoft takeover, but she thinks it is unlikely. What about Dell?

MORE rumours about Red Hat longing to be bought by Oracle are still circulating, but this has been heard for quite some time and nothing ever happened. In fact, Red Hat talks about hiring more people because its sales are increasing as an independent company. But meanwhile, there are also a couple of new Novell interviews that are worth attention. The first is with Novell's Heystee, who is working very closely with Microsoft. These are marketing people. Asked about the possibility that Microsoft would acquire Novell, she replied frankly:

Heystee does not expect Microsoft to make a bid for Novell.

"You can never say never, but it's certainly not something that I would see,["] she told iTnews.


Let us assume that Microsoft may never buy Novell. But how about one of Microsoft's close allies? How about Dell for example? Dell is supporting Novell's SLE and it also joined the Microsoft/Novell deal just under 2 years ago. It was never made clear what it means exactly (in practical terms). A respected writer from CRN is now putting out there the possibility that Dell, a hardware company for the most part, may buy Novell.

Novell Novell's market cap right now stands at about $1.3 billion. Dell could offer double that, in cash, and walk off with an interesting partner channel and a very strategic Linux distribution business. Dell rival HP has shown signs of building some nice offerings using Novell's SUSE Linux; this would throw a cute little monkey wrench into that.


That would be a bizarre deal which might not interact quite so well with IBM and also have Dell inherit the WordPerfect lawsuit against Microsoft, not to mention UNIX.

Looking at Novell, it's in bad shape, financially speaking at the very least. Its last quarterly report was exceptionally poor and the only good news was that the CEO received a massive bonus. Ron Hovsepian has actually just spoken to NECN, but it's a video. Here is the summary (one among at least two).

Every week on CEO Corner we go one on one with New England's top CEO's to learn the secrets to their success. This week Maryanne Kane is joined by Ron Hovsepian, CEO of Novell.

In this segment, Hovsepian talks about why the company chose to move from Utah to Massachusetts. Hovsepian talks about his priorities as the company moves forward during the recession. He's expecting many exciting inventions down the road.


Here is another advertised analysis of Novell (NOVL) and here is the preparation for Novell's next report, which should not be terribly impressive. Novell has not struck a single major SUSE contract since its last report back in January.



Unless Novell can pull some major deal, it won't be pleasant. But Novell is probably preparing its report already, so it's inevitably grim. Those layoffs which Novell's CFO recently hinted at might just come into effect, just like those over at Novell's partner. Novell's expenses massively outweigh the revenue, i.e. it still operates at a significant loss without foreseeable prospects of reversal.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

What 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI' Could Learn From Jimmy Kimmel About the 'Streisand Effect'
Lawyering up is risky and is usually doesn't work
 
Slopwatch: FUD and Plagiarism (Working Against Linux) Promoted and Rewarded by Google News
Shame on Google News
Reminder: We're Unloading Some Publications to Tux Machines
About 15 years ago I was struggling to keep up with TechDirt
The E-mail Protocol is for Text
bad netiquette
Gemini Links 26/09/2025: Slop in OpenStreetMap and MOPML (My Own Private Markup Language)
Links for the day
Links 26/09/2025: More Provocations Against NATO by Russia (Near Alaska, USA), Microsoft Booster Accenture Has Mass Layoffs
Links for the day
Links 26/09/2025: Hardware, Security, Health, and Nuclear Armament
Links for the day
Links 26/09/2025: "Digital Fatigue" and Slop Frenzy (Hype) Ruining Work Productivity, Culture, Languages
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Unwilling to Disclose or Explain How 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI' Pays for His SLAPPs Against Us (He Cannot Afford These), So We Are Escalating
Escalated in the British authorities
Linux is Replacing Apple
Apple is money down the drain. Not only are the gadgets overpriced; they cost a lot to maintain and keep going over time
"We don't have that kind of relationship with Microsoft. The only public key that every UEFI firmware is guaranteed to have is Microsoft's, and only Microsoft owns the private key."
This is how to sabotage GNU/Linux distros that Microsoft does not control
Slopwatch: linuxconfig.org, linuxsecurity.com, and Google's Promotion of the Worst and Most Prolific Slopfarms
Over in Google News it has been quite chaotic this past day
Gemini Links 26/09/2025: Reading RSS Feeds, ROOPHLOCH 202
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 25, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 25, 2025
Links 25/09/2025: More European Airports Shut Down Due to What Seems Like Russian Drones
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/09/2025: Amiga Revived and Hackers (UTF-8)
Links for the day
Purchasing Concert Tickets in 2025 in Manchester: The "Modern" Experience
I recently spent a couple of days here testing the "terrain" in order to better understand how large public venues, for concerts rather than sporting events like football, currently "work"
Links 25/09/2025: French Unions Want Another Strike, Super Typhoon Ragasa Kills Many
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Secure Boot' and Shim as Barrier or Obstacle to New GNU/Linux Users Trying to Escape Microsoft
Just as intended all along
Lovers and Haters
Always beware hate preachers and demagogues (or how they frame issues or whose fault they distract from)
Focusing on What People Have in Common Instead of Killing and Cancelling One Another
Men and women of both "wings" stand to gain a lot by working together on common interests
'Cancel Culture' Isn't About Enforcing Ethics (and It's Done by People on the Right, Not "The Leftists")
Smarter folks would leave social control media
Russia's Attack on Europe (and NATO) Will Worsen Censorship and Corruption in Europe
Can we still debate issues that predate the invasion of Crimea?
Lawyers Should Permanently Lose Their Licence (and Worse) for Using Chatbots in Legal Work
They not only waste people's money and time. They pollute the literature with falsehoods. They commit perjury. [...] Brett Wilson LLP sent the Judge nearly 1,000 pages of material (mostly mine, copied without proper permission) shortly before a short Hearing, which lasted less than an hour
GAFAM and MATA (Mythical, Metaphor) as Explained by analognowhere.com
They're instruments of suppression that sponsor the oppressor
We've Already Mentioned Who Nowadays Funds Garrett's SLAPP Against Us (Not Garrett), Let's Examine Who Sponsored His Litigation Partner (Other Than Microsoft Salaries There's a Buddy of Bill Gates)
it's alleged that the Serial Strangler from Microsoft got money from him
Florian Müller: Using Software Patents to Attack Software Developers, Agitate Against Patent Reform
He also promotes attacks on the German Constitution and laws
Reliance on Typepad Seems to Have Doomed the Voice of Software Patents and Patent Maximalists in PatentDocs
Follow the money
UEFI 'Secure Boot' is Potential Mayhem to the Environment (Older and Leaner Distros Stop Working)
creating new problems, disguised as "solutions" to problems that do not exist
Sometimes 'Cancel Culture' Backfires Badly
There's no such thing as "too much" coverage
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 24, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Links 25/09/2025: Jimmy Kimmel Returns to Air (With Limitations) and London Stansted Airport Latest to Have Incident (Fire)
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Fake Articles, SPAM With Slop, and Google News Directs People to Read Slopfarms
why does Google News insist on still linking to prolific slopfarms?
Gemini Links 25/09/2025: New Game for Gemini Protocol, Eleven, and Network Solutions Woes
Links for the day