Bonum Certa Men Certa

Another Microsoft Partnership That Killed: Novell Left Broken, Managers Who Signed the Microsoft Deal Vanish

Assured self-destruction by liaison with Microsoft (Novell's legacy explained)

Rabbit skull



Summary: Novell gets absorbed by a Microsoft Gold-certified Partner, its GNU/Linux distribution is taxed by Microsoft, its patents are owned by Microsoft (through a consortium), and the people who signed this deal with Microsoft are no longer with the company as they became redundant

NOVELL'S top management was dismissed and let go some weeks ago. No more massive bonuses and wages, eh? Party's over and guess whose party it is. Microsoft must be having champagne this month, despite all of those other failures. Microsoft thrives in annihilation of competitors, not in creating something of substance. It has also just collected Novell's patent portfolio, with which it can extort remaining competitors.



Anyway, Novell's CEO has not yet found a new job. He is still associated with a company though:

Director Ann Taylor Inc

Retail industry

1998 – Present (13 years)


It is the fashion industry in a sense. How odd a fit. If the LinkedIn page is simply out of date, then it does not explain lack of announcements from elsewhere in the news. Mr. Hovsepian must be out of work and who would hire a man who drove Novell into the ground? We decided to check who in Novell is going where, but only among the public figures and managers. We respect privacy, but when one has a lot of impact on the rest of society, then professional privacy is less deserved. Take Hovsepian for example. He did a lot of damage and he has lied to the public repeatedly since he became CEO, affecting not only Novell. He should not be immune to criticism.

Watch what happens to him upon his departure. Hovsepian did very well for himself (tens of millions of dollars in years with Novell) while many other people lost their jobs and Microsoft got some new FUD against GNU/Linux. The legacy of this CEO is probably the worst any Novell CEO ever left behind. There is not even a "Novell" anymore. He helped Microsoft kill it.

Other staff moving from one company to another can be seen here:

Travelzoo hired Glen Ceremony from eBay, where Ceremony is corporate controller, effective June 15. C urrent Travelzoo CFO Wayne Lee will depart the company at the end of July. Meanwhile, Rearden Commerce appointed Rick Simonson to a newly created CFO postion and as president, business operations. Simonson previously filled the CFO slot at Nokia. All three companies believed they are positioned for growth and hope the new CFOs will help them get there.


And from CFO.com: "Online travel service Kayak has hired its first CFO, Bill H. Smith. Smith was previously vice president of global finance for Novell, where he worked for 13 years."

According to this press release, "Adam joins Prinova from Novell, where he was Director of Software Testing and Customer Escalations for Data Center products. He started his testing career with 724 solutions, followed by PlateSpin Ltd., a Toronto-based software company where he was a valuable contributor to the company's successful acquisition by Novell for $205 million."

More about Hale leaving, as we mentioned about a week ago, can be read in [1, 2]. The announcement can be found in a belated press release about Sophos.

What generally appears to have happened is that Attachmate axed many of the managers, leaving inside its guts just the remnants of what might be useful to this close partner of Microsoft (and the patents went to Microsoft through CPTN). This press release helps shed light on what was done and there were many articles about it recently [1, 2, 3].

There are many items from Novell that appear to have been neglected. Despite this type of announcement from a partner (also here), GroupWise is hardly mentioned anymore. We could only find some articles about GroupWise abandonments in recent weeks, including more shameless Microsoft advertisements from Shane O'Neill (see this), who is still advertising Microsoft, as usual.

Adrian Bridgwater promotes Novell's gift to Microsoft and the SD Times, as usual, does so too. Yes, we are talking about Mono. This is the type of legacy Novell has left us stuck with amid its destruction of yet another suicidal competitor. Attachmate can now use SUSE to compete with Red Hat and insist that users of GNU/Linux pay Microsoft a patent tax, which is an integral part of SLE*.

Microsoft dirty tactics



Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

All That's Left of MSNBC (Microsoft-NBC) is Microsoft NOW
When plutocrats and large corporations (even deep in debt) buy all the communication channels
Accessibility Isn't Overrated
Making things simpler typically means better accessibility
 
Links 20/08/2025: Oracle Layoffs in India, "AI" Scammers/Profiteers Admit It's a "Bubble", Softbank-Saudi (Oil) Control Tech Companies
Links for the day
Social Control Networks Give You False Metrics to 'Addict' You To Them
Leaving social control media may seem hard, but the same is true for any other addiction
A Lot of What Happened in Twitter Was Bots, Botfarms, and Troll Farms. It's Even Worse Now (Under X.com) and People Are Noticing.
Last month we said the same was happening in YouTube
Microsoft May Have Become - at Least Partially - Like a Boiler Room Scam
Giving imaginary salaries using imaginary tokens based on imaginary value (with restrictions on conversion to cash)
In Vietnam, Microsoft's Search Engine "Market Share" Fell to Almost 0%, CocCoc More Than 5 Times Bigger
Why are people still investing in this company?
The Register MS, Paid to Promote "AI" Hype, Does "Sez" (Says) Pieces
every bubble-funded "news" site tries to make it a story about "AI"
Many Companies Are Run by Liars Who Ride Other People's Money
Or steal it
Before CoreAI There Was Builder.ai
GitHub isn't about "AI" (just a bunch of lies and storytelling for shareholders' patience)
Microsoft Windows in Croatia at New Lows
We've been keeping track of this trend for a while
Using the Best Tool/s for the Job: RSS Feeds and RSS Readers
Use RSS feeds. Reject those "modern" Web things
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 19, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/08/2025: Neovim, XML, and Alhena 5.2.9
Links for the day
The Register's Slopfest
Remember when The Register UK (yes, UK) had better standards?
Latest Version of Windows (Vista 11) is a Failure 4 Years After Its Fake 'Leak'
Vista 11 became more scarce this month
Improving Our Archives
Our old archives are still accessed a lot. Making them better is well worth the investment.
Things One Learns as a Litigant in Person at the UK High Court
Don't fear the official manuals
Slopwatch: Lots of Fake Articles From Fake "Linux" Sites and About "Linux"
Google says it's committed to "AI" (it means slop, not AI); that seems like an excuse to dodge accountability
Links 19/08/2025: "Eavesdropping on Phone Conversations Through Vibrations" and Air Canada in Chaos
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Niche Spaces and "AI Pasta Sauce"
Links for the day
Links 19/08/2025: "NASA Is Giving Up on Climate Change Science" and "Earth's Continents Are Drying Out at an Unprecedented Rate"
Links for the day
Microsoft said “GitHub and its leadership team will continue its mission as part of Microsoft’s CoreAI organisation.” But it's just an empty shell created earlier this year.
In short, it's not too clear what Microsoft has just done except dumping GitHub - i.e. mostly a Web site that loses a ton of money (it always lost money) - into some mysterious new bucket
Phil Wyett evidence & Debian Zizian plagiarism, modern slavery tendencies
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
IBM Layoffs in MCC, or Marketing, Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
IBM and Microsoft inflate their share price by circular financing
In Many Countries People Move Away From Vista 11
Vista 11 has been available for download for 4 years already, but adoption has been poor
Desktops/Laptops Fall to All-Time Lows in the UK, So Why Does British Media Quote a Famous Criminal on "End of the Smartphone Era"?
mobile usage (for Web access) has never been higher, based on an Irish surveyor, statCounter
The Groklaw Web Site Has Been Hijacked by Scammers
Groklaw.net isn't a safe site to access at this time
The Register MS gets Lazy, Uses Slop
Unlike 3-D renderings or "Classic" CG, slop images aren't quite original and definitely not fair use
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 18, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 18, 2025
Online Safety Act Does Not Tackle the Worst (and Biggest) Culprits
if our governments are serious about tackling online harms, then they need to look closely at GAFAM and social control media giants
Chat Control (1 and 2) in the European Union Sends the Wrong Message
This is an EU law
Slopwatch: Google News and Serial Sloppers (Fake Articles About "Linux")
Calling out the culprits
Gemini Links 19/08/2025: Digital Legacy and Chat Control
Links for the day
English Law Misused by Americans and Irishmen Against Brits is Unfair
There's always a way to improve existing laws
Overly Maximalist, Expensive, Localised Patent Law is Dooming Western Companies, Argue 3-D Printing Champions
We've long warned (over 7 years already!) that China's approach to patents will impress WIPO by gaming the totals but will doom the West
Links 18/08/2025: "Microsoft Store" Gets Increasingly Hostile, "Cracking Abandonware DRM"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/08/2025: Summer "Gone" and Web Reposts in Gemini
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows in Gabon: Still Moving Down
What is this Unknown? Who knows...
Links 18/08/2025: LLM Reputation Damaged, Australia Catches Google Foul Play
Links for the day
Geeks Like GNU/Linux
The technical community seems to be consolidating and rallying around GNU/Linux
GNU/Linux is 486 in Ireland
4.86% that is
End of Reliable Media
it makes the world a worse place, it renders the Web a misinformation machine
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 17, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, August 17, 2025
GitHub Won't Last Much Longer
Many things at Microsoft are going to go the way of the Skype (or "dodo"). GitHub will be among those.
We've Never Used Large Language Model (LLM)
we just never used an LLM
"Secure Boot" is a Security Problem, Not a Solution
These people don't try to improve security but to undermine security
Gemini Links 18/08/2025: Retro and Endless Escape from the WWW
Links for the day