Special Bulletin from Cool Solutions: Novell Acquires SUSE LINUX

[Jeremy Fowler]

-----Original Message-----
From: Novell eDirectory Cool Solutions [mailto:ndsmag at novell.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 7:45 AM
To: Jeremy Fowler
Subject: Special Bulletin from Cool Solutions: Novell Acquires SUSE
LINUX

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_________________________________

Novell Announces Agreement to Acquire Leading Enterprise Linux
Technology Company SUSE LINUX

Heads Up:  It's time to take a serious look at Linux.  Novell is
acquiring SUSE LINUX, and will thus become the world's largest
supplier of desktop-to-server Linux solutions and technical support. Now
you can get worldwide technical support for enterprise Linux solutions
from a company with over 20 years of operating system experience. With
this smooth move, Novell becomes the only major software company with a
Linux distribution and the worldwide technical staff to support it. Get
the details then take a short survey and let us know your take on it.

Novell today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire SUSE
LINUX, one of the world's leading enterprise Linux companies,
expanding Novell's ability to provide enterprise-class services and
support on the Linux platform. With the open source expertise of SUSE
LINUX and Novell's world-class networking and identity solutions and
support, training and consulting services, Novell will be able to
deliver Linux and all its components -- from the server to the desktop
-- and give organizations a secure, reliable and mature Linux
foundation.   Novell will pay $210 million in cash to complete the
acquisition.  The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and the
winding up of shareholder agreements.  Novell expects the transaction to
close by the end of its first fiscal quarter (January 2004).

This latest move follows Novell's August purchase of Ximian, a leader
in Linux server and desktop solutions, and further demonstrates
Novell's ongoing commitment to provide customers a full range of
Linux solutions. Both the Ximian and SUSE LINUX acquisitions affirm
Novell's commitment to promoting the open source model and developer
community.

Novell also announced today that IBM intends to make a $50 million
investment in Novell convertible preferred stock.  In addition, Novell
and IBM are negotiating extensions to the current commercial agreements
between IBM and SUSE LINUX for the continued support of SUSE LINUX on
IBM's eServer products and middleware products, and to provide for
product and marketing support arrangements related to SUSE LINUX.  Both
of these agreements will be effective when the acquisition of SUSE LINUX
by Novell is completed.

"Responding to customer demands for open, standards-based computing,
Novell has been dedicated to a cross-platform vision for four years now,
and Linux is an increasingly important part of that strategy," said
Jack Messman, chairman and CEO of Novell. "The acquisition of SUSE
LINUX will complete Novell's ability to offer enterprise-class Linux
solutions to our customers from the desktop to the server. No other
enterprise Linux vendor has the operating system experience and the
worldwide technical support capabilities that Novell will be able to
deliver. Novell is bringing our significant resources to bear to help
customers adopt Linux with more confidence, giving them the freedom of
choice Linux provides without the anxiety over whether an open source
solution can truly be relied on for mission-critical functions."

"Novell understands the power of open, standards-based computing, and
has been moving in that direction for some time," said Richard Seibt,
CEO of SUSE LINUX. "Novell's global reach, marketing expertise and
reputation for security, reliability and global enterprise-level support
are exactly what we've been seeking to take SUSE LINUX to the next
level. We've also been impressed by the incredible loyalty and
competence of Novell customers and business partners, and we're
looking forward to joining forces to help customers gain the benefits of
Linux and to help Novell continue to expand its role in the open source
community."

For More Information, see
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/nds/features/a_suse_nov.html 

Press Conference Invitation
Novell and SUSE LINUX will hold a press conference today (4 Nov) at 11
a.m. EST (5 p.m. CET) to discuss the transaction in greater detail. The
press conference can be heard live at http://www.novell.com/webcast.

Talk Back
What do you think about all of this?  Fill out this survey and you
could win a prize.
http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?G26XK7H2H21LNLQ3G9BVQ3MT 

See you soon at http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions 

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