"Hey, Steve, just because you broke into Xerox’s store before I did and took the TV doesn’t mean I can’t go in later and steal the stereo."

--Bill Gates, Microsoft

Summary: Novell employees to become Xerox staff (outsourcing revisited)

XEROX has announced that it is buying ACS, which works closely with Novell in the sense that Novell employees are moved there.

Novell claimed that the exact number would be "156 Novell professionals" when it signed the agreement with ACS, but the following report from Utah claims that less than 100 "employees" are affected.

The deal comes just five months after ACS and Novell Inc.'s Provo office formed a strategic alliance in which ACS took over computer operations. Nearly 100 Novell employees went to work for ACS.

The following article provides some more background information about Novell and ACS.

Office equipment supplier Xerox Corporation is to buy Dallas based data center management and business process outsourcing firm Affiliated Computer Services in a cash and stock transaction valued at $6.4 billion.

[...]

In June this year Affiliated Computer Services said it would take over the running of Novell's data center operations in Provo, Utah as part of a global services deal which will see the outsourcer take Novell's data center products to market. Under the IT outsourcing arrangement, around 150 Novell data center staff will move to ACS, including the infrastructure and application development and maintenance services operations. ACS will also take over Novell's global SAP roll out by providing consulting and applications development and system integration services in a $135 million, five-year contract.

The above article speaks of "around 150 Novell data center staff." We have already explained the role of Novell offshoring in its cost-cutting moves. ⬆