11.29.10

^{Gemini version available ♊︎}

Novell’s Last Week – Part VII: NOVL Goes Dark as Many Lawsuits Filed by Shareholders

Posted in Finance, Novell at 11:15 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Novell is under an investors siege for signing a bad deal with AttachMSFT

Robert Pogson has had a terrible week and news from Novell was only part of the problem. As he put it in his blog:

M$ buying Novell through a third party controlled by M$ is interesting. It is obvious that they did not buy Novell directly to avoid anti-competition considerations but it seems a smoke-screen. It will be interesting to see how ugly GNU/Linux can be made when M$ manages things. They could just shut Suse down or diversify. It will be interesting to see how they sell two products that are so different.

The “anti-competition” part should warrant a lawsuit; but with this whole AttachMSFT loophole it won’t pass muster.

Novell is practically dead as a company and it will not report its results as it promised several weeks ago. It just won’t have to face this embarrassment. The stock is still publicly traded for the time being and financial news which mentioned Novell over the past week may include (not a complete list by any means):

Novell was mentioned a lot because of the deal with AttachMSFT. It also got sued by shareholders, from more than a single direction in fact. As one site put it, “Law Offices of Howard G. Smith Announces Investigation On Behalf of Shareholders of Novell, Inc. in Connection with the Proposed Acquisition of the Company by Attachmate Corporation” (there are many such investigations, not just one, e.g. from Finkelstein Thompson LLP [1, 2], Abe Shainberg, and Brodsky & Smith LLC). As Jupitermedia put it (in a blog post):

Not everyone is happy about Attachmate’s bid to acquire Novell for $2.2 billion. In fact, the deal has now attracted at least two (and likely many more to come) legal ‘investigations’ which could ultimately result in class action law suits.

One of the investigations is being led by Weiss & Lurie, a national class action and shareholder rights law firm while a second investigation is being run by Kendal Law Group, led by former federal judge Joe Kendall.

Both groups are going to examine whether or not Novell has breached its fiduciary duty with the proposed Attachmate deal, by not getting the best deal possible for Novell’s shareholders.

There should be antitrust action, not just this form action where money is the central issue. Novell’s board got filled with Microsoft-friendly people over the years, as we covered at the time it happened (multiple examples), so the sale of company assets to Microsoft is not at all shocking. It’s a fine example of entryism and market distortion. █

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Permalink Mail Send this to a friend

ᶃ Gemini Space

Below is a Web proxy. We recommend getting a Gemini client/browser.

Black/white/grey bullet button This post is also available in Gemini over at this address (requires a Gemini client/browser to open).

✐ Cross-references

Black/white/grey bullet button Pages that cross-reference this one, if any exist, are listed below or will be listed below over time.

▢ Respond and Discuss

Black/white/grey bullet button If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

What Else is New

Links 24/03/2023: Microsoft's Fall on the Web and Many New Videos

Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 23, 2023

IRC logs for Thursday, March 23, 2023
Links 24/03/2023: Social Control Media Bans Advancing

Links for the day
Links 24/03/2023: GNU Grep 3.10 and Microsoft Accenture in a Freefall

Links for the day
Links 23/03/2023: RSS Guard 4.3.3 and OpenBSD Webzine

Links for the day
Experiencing 15 Years of LibrePlanet Celebration Firsthand as a Volunteer: 2023 - Charting the Course

Article by Marcia K Wilbur
[Meme] Grabinski the Opportunity

Reports of European Patents being invalidated (judges do not tolerate fake patents) have become so common that a kangaroo court becomes a matter of urgency for the EPO‘s Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos; will the EU and the EPO’s Administrative Council go along with it, helping to cover up more than a decade of profound corruption?
Union Syndicale Fédérale Cautions the EPO's Administrative Council About Initiating an Illegal Kangaroo Court System for Patents (UPC) While EPO Breaks Laws and Sponsors the Ukraine Invasion

Union Syndicale Fédérale (USF) is once again speaking out in support of the staff union of Europe's second-largest institution, which lacks oversight and governance because of profound corruption and regulatory capture
Investigation Underway: Sirius 'Open Source' Embezzled/Stole Money, Robbed Its Own Staff

In light of new developments and some progress in an investigation of Sirius ‘Open Source’ (for fraud!) we take stock of where things stand
[Meme] Sirius 'Open Source' Pensions: Schemes or Scams? Giving a Bad Name to Open Source...

What Sirius ‘Open Source’ did to its staff is rightly treated as a criminal matter; we know who the perpetrators are
Sirius 'Open Source' Under Investigation for Pension Fraud, Several Pension Providers Examine the Facts

2 pension providers are looking into Sirius ‘Open Source’, a company that defrauded its own staff; stay tuned as there’s lots more to come. Is this good representation for “Open Source”? From a company that had many high-profile clients in the public sector?
Links 23/03/2023: Sparky 2023.03 Special Editions and SUSE Changes CEO (Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen)

Links for the day
Links 23/03/2023: Linux 6.2.8 and XWayland 23.1.0

Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 22, 2023

IRC logs for Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Apple 'Porn' Filter

Guest post by Ryan Farmer: Apple and US State Governments Developing System to Require People to Report Themselves for Watching Porn.
3.5 Years Later Gemini Protocol and Geminispace Are Still 100% Community-Controlled

Community-centric alternatives to the World Wide Web have gained traction; one of them, Gemini Protocol, continues to grow in 2023 and we're pleased to report progress and expansion
Windows Falls to 16% Market Share in India (It was 97% in 2009), Microsoft Layoffs Reach India Too

This month’s picture from the world’s most populous nation does not look good for Microsoft (it looks good for GNU/Linux); anonymous rumour mills online say that Microsoft isn’t moving to India but is actually firing staff based in India, so it’s a case of shrinking, not offshoring. When even low-paid (much lower salaries) staff is discarded it means things are very gloomy.
Links 22/03/2023: GNOME 44 “Kuala Lumpur”

Links for the day
Microsoft Has Also Infiltrated the OSI's Board of Directors After Rigged Elections

Weeks ago we warned that this would happen and for the third or fourth time in 2 years the OSI’s election process broke down; today the Open Source Initiative (OSI) writes: “The polls just closed, the results are in. Congratulations to the returning directors Aeva Black…” (Microsoft employee)
Links 22/03/2023: Official Thunderbird Podcast Starts

Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 21, 2023

IRC logs for Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Many More Microsoft Layoffs Later Today

Yesterday we shared rumours about Microsoft layoffs being planned for later today (there were 3 waves of layoffs so far this year). There are several more people here who say the same. How much noise will Microsoft make in the “media” in order to distract? Will the chaffbot "ChatGPT" help create enough chaff?
Links 21/03/2023: JDK 20 and GNOME 43.5

Links for the day
Germany's Lobbyists-Infested Government Sponsors the War on Ukraine via the European Patent Office (EPO)

The chief UPC ‘judge’ is basically seeking to break the law (and violate constitutions, conventions etc.) to start a kangaroo court while dodging real courts, just like Vladimir Putin does
[Meme] The Meme That Team UPC (the Collusion to Break the European Laws, for Profit) Threats to Sue Us For

António Campinos and Team UPC are intimidating people who simply point out that the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is illegal and Klaus Grabinksi, shown above, strives to head a de facto kangaroo court in violation of constitutions and conventions (the UK does not and cannot ratify; Ireland hasn’t even held a referendum on the matter)
Microsoft is Sacking People Every Month This Year, Even Managers (While Sponsored Media Produces Endless Chatbot Chaff)

Lots of Microsoft layoffs lately and so-called ‘journalists’ aren’t reporting these; they’re too busy running sponsored puff pieces for Microsoft, usually fluff along the “hey hi” (AI) theme
3 Months Late Sirius 'Open Source' Finally Deletes Us From the Fraudulent 'Meet the Team' Page (But Still Lists Many People Who Left Years Ago!)

Amid fraud investigations the management of Sirius ‘Open Source’ finally removed our names from its “Meet the Team” page (months late); but it left in the page about half a dozen people who left the company years ago, so it’s just lying to its clients about the current situation
Amid Fraud at Sirius 'Open Source' CEO Deletes His Recent (This Month) Past With the Company

Not only did the Sirius ‘Open Source’ CEO purge all mentions of Sirius from his Microsoft LinkedIn account; he’s racing against the clock as crimes quickly become a legal liability
Web Survey Shows Microsoft Falling Below 15% Market Share in Africa, Only One Minuscule African Nation Has Windows Majority

A Web survey that measured Microsoft Windows at 97% in Africa (back in 2010) says that Windows has become rather small and insignificant; the Microsoft-sponsored mainstream media seems to be ignoring this completely, quite likely by intention...
Rumours of More Microsoft Layoffs Tomorrow (Including Managers!), Probably Azure Again (Many Azure Layoffs Every Year Since 2020)

Amazon is laying off AWS staff and Microsoft has been laying off Azure staff for 3 years already, including this year, so it seems like the “clown computing” bubble is finally bursting