As for Attachmate, they're getting a business with a market cap of $2.09 billion, and over a billion dollars in cash and assets for $2.09 billion. DiDio was a little surprised that Attachmate got SUSE, and not Microsoft, unless the SUSE intellectual property is among the 882 patents. She added that perhaps it's better that Attachmate appears to have SUSE, because if Microsoft was known to be acquiring SUSE outright, "that would put them in anti-trust hell."
ITIC is just completing its annual server hardware and OS reliability survey and found the the quality of SUSE Linux product and reliability remains incredibly high, much better than the supposed leader, Red Hat. She expects Microsoft will continue to work closely with Attachmate on the SUSE business.
While there are some grounds for optimism, DiDio says Attachmate will also have to be very careful because Novell's profit margins, return on assets and return on equity are all suffering. "I think it's smart of Attachmate to say it will have two units, who knows how this is going to play out."
Charles King, principal analyst, Pund-IT Research, says Novell has a number assets that could prove valuable to broadening Attachmate's lines of business. "The SUSE Linux assets are the most obvious points, but the company's virtualization and security solutions could also offer platforms for new service offerings. And while Novel's traditional products and platforms are a shadow of their former selves, they could provide the means for developing new social networking-style solutions for the company's staunch clients."
Short term, King says the deal is good news for Novell's customers and partners, but longer term is problematic. " SUSE has always run a poor second to Red Hat, and with the corporate market for Linux becoming increasingly fragmented (most folks expect Oracle to recommend their own Linux to Sun customers) pickings could become notably thinner in this part of the business. In my opinion, it's critical that Attachmate put together some sort of roadmap for Novell ASAP. Otherwise, clients may start looking for greener pastures."
