LAST week we wrote about Novell spending money on proprietary software assets whilst showing its GNU/Linux developers the door (it's not over yet). It turns out now that what's mostly widely reported in the press was not the only acquisition. According to later reports, this was a dual acquisition:

Two Acquisitions for Novell Boost Security

[...]

Novell also has acquired a perpetual source code licence to ActivIdentity's single sign-on solution, SecureLogin. The product has already been available to Novell customers, but will now be better integrated with Novell’s identity management solutions.

This news also appeared in ITNews.

Novell today announced two new acquisitions designed to extend its identity and access management capabilities.

[...]

Novell also announced that it has acquired a perpetual source code licence to ActivIdentity's single sign-on solution, SecureLogin.

The entities acquired are very small and the financial details not disclosed.

Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) has quietly bolstered its ID governance portfolio after acquiring the technology assets of a tiny British company and signing a 'perpetual' licensing deal with California-based ActivIdentity.

[...]

Novell said it will use the Fortefi assets in its Novell Privileged User Manager, which will be due sometime in the second quarter.

The two products:

Novell acquired the technology assets of Somerset, UK-based Fortefi, a provider of compliance and ‘privileged user management solutions'. Essentially, Novell is getting two Fortefi products, namely Command Control and Compliance Auditor.

This stuff might just be folded into Novell's existing products.

Novell plans to use the firm's Command Control and Compliance Auditor products to introduce the Novell Privileged User Manager in the second quarter of 2009.

It is possible that, amid difficult times, the feeble ones just sold out cheaply to Novell. But it any event, this was not significant and it is completely irrelevant to Novell's open/mixed source strategy. ⬆