Confusion over Novell patent deal

There has been some confusion over the recently announced purchase of patents from Novell. The Federal Cartel Office (The Bundeskartellamt) recorded a final "withdrawal" on the offer from the Microsoft-led CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium that includes Oracle, Apple and EMC, to purchase nearly 900 Novell patents. Various media reports concluded that the $450 million deal, which had raised concern in the open-source community, had been cancelled.

Microsoft employees have now confirmed on TechFlash and ZDNet, that this is a misunderstanding. Apparently the withdrawal is merely a formal step to allow time for the Attachmate acquisition of Novell to complete. CPTN will still buy Novell's patents.

(trk)