Funny thing, they seem to have filed that 8-K asking for an extension until the close of business on the day that the MS deal was to be announced. Coincidental?

Cash. They got (much needed) cash for the “IP” that MS was using without license.

And all it cost them was the loss of some of the street cred they got from buying suse and ximian (not from any inherent street cred). But that was mostly with people who don’t write the cheques anyway.

How did the deal put Microsoft in the drivers seat?

their complete inability to make anything out of the open source software that has dropped into their lap

Yes, they have done absolutely nothing for open source software, never given back to the community, and Suse hasn’t been upgraded since version 9.2. That was sarcasm by the way.

to the bleeding of their Netware, eDirectory and Groupwise businesses in favour of Windows Server, AD and Exchange – that other posters have pointed out here for years – the prognosis is looking terminal.

Ah, probably the only bit of truth in the otherwise nebulous cited post. This is the problem Novell has. It has been the problem since Exchange began to gain in popularity. Exchange and Windows mean AD. That vendor lock in is what is doing Novell’s proprietary business in right now and you could say that marketing and sales have been a no-show as well.

I’ll fix that post.