Here is a quick mention of a rebuttal to the article "Payback time for Novell".

...Novell had to cause significant harm to the GPL in order to be paid. And that is what Microsoft was after.

Microsoft wants to invalidate the GPL by making further contributions via the GPL distasteful for developers. Now, I doubt that IBM would be so convinced or confused. IBM as a Linux contributor can most likely deal with it. But, Microsoft is out to cause harm to the thousands or more of individual contributors who depend upon the GPL to protect their rights and interests. And it is those contributors that are being attacked by the Novell-MS deal.

You may wish to read the entire text @ lamlaw.com.