Novell shareholders approve sale of company

Approval has been given by Novell shareholders for the sale of the company to Attachmate. The merger deal, valued at around $2.2 billion dollars, hinges now on the sale of patents to CPTN, a consortium created by Microsoft, which wishes to buy over eight hundred Novell patents or patent applications. The patent sale will generate around $450 million dollars for Novell, making it more valuable to Attachmate.

According to Novell's announcement, shareholders representing 68 per cent of the shares in the company voted and 99 per cent of the represented shares' votes were cast in favour of the deal. Shareholders will expect to receive $6.10 per share on completion of the merger, which needs the CPTN patent sale to go ahead.

The CPTN deal is, though, currently being examined by the Department of Justice (DoJ) who placed a second request for more information about the patents and companies involved in the transaction. The second request came after the OSI and FSF asked the DoJ to intervene and examine the transaction more closely. CPTN Holdings LLC is a consortium created by Microsoft which also includes Oracle, EMC and Apple – the OSI and FSF believe that the patent deal could "be used to hide nefarious intentions."

(djwm)