Microsoft Settlement Could Be Shot in the Arm for Novell
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Microsoft has taken another huge step in what has become a US$3 billion-plus campaign to rid itself of the legal fallout of its 2002 settlement of an antitrust case brought by the US government.
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The European Commission says it will go forward with its antitrust case against Microsoft, despite the software giant&#39;s recent settlements, which led to Novell and the Computer and Communications
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(InfoWorld) - Novell has published details of its landmark November 2006Â Linux partnership agreements with Microsoft. Novell published on Friday redacted versions of the three agreements it signed with Microsoft in its annual 10K filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, providing the public with itsÂ first detailed lookÂ into a deal that some see as critical to the future of Linux. The 10K filing had been delayed by an internal stock options review at Novell, which was concluded Wednesday. Under the terms of the agreements, Microsoft will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on licensing fees and sales and marketing costs over five years, including $240 million for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription certificates. For its part, Novell has agreed to pay Microsoft a percentage of revenue from open-source products. [ SEE ALSO:Â Microsoft, Novell defend pactÂ | Special Report:Â Microsoft takes aim at open source, LinuxÂ ] Linux advocates are expected to scour the documents for signs of how the agreement may affect Linux and whether anything in it will put Microsoft or Novell inÂ potential violation of the upcoming version 3 of the GNU General Public license (GPL). The GPL is used in licensing many components of the Linux operating system. Open-source advocate Bruce Perens said he would be looking to see exactly what Novell was given through the deal and whether there is any requirement for the Linux vendor to defend Microsoft's patent claims. "What I'm actually looking for is, to what extent was there a violation of faith?" he said. Microsoft has claimedÂ that Linux violates more than 235 of its patents, and because the deal offers patent protection to Novell users, it is seen as potentially driving a wedge in the Linux community. "Novell had a choice here, and Novell's choice was to be in the same boat with the rest of the free software community, or not," Perens said. Based on an initial reading of the documents, Perens said the deal does not appear to provide full patent protection to Linux users. "Novell did not get complete rights regarding Microsoft patents," he said. "For example, office productivity applications are specifically excluded. ... OpenOffice.org is excluded by name, WINE and Open-Xchange are excluded by name," Novell executives declined to be interviewed about the filings. "We've already provided the high-level comments when we announced the deal in November -- around making Linux and Windows work better together, the areas of tech cooperation, the covenants not to sue. All the customer-focus stuff that drove the deal," said Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry, via instant message. "The agreements provide more meat on the bones in support of those objectives." The patent agreement between the two companies seems to make it clear that Novell does not accept any of Microsoft's patent claims. Section 3.4 says, "Nothing in this Agreement shall imply, or be construed as an admission or acknowledgement by a Party, that any Patents of the other Party are infringed, valid or enforceable." Microsoft and Novell say the deal has helped push Linux adoption in the enterprise by promoting interoperability between the two platforms. Contrary to its image as a threat to open source and Linux, Microsoft is the chief source of Linux business for Novell, and the deal between the two companies has been a boon for SUSE Linux, said Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Novell's Linux and Open Platform Solutions, speaking earlier this week. "Microsoft was Novell's number one channel partner in the first quarter of 2007," he said. "We've seen 60 percent (first-quarter) growth in SUSE, year over year." Paul Roberts, a senior editor at InfoWorld, contributed to this story.
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Despite numerous out-of-court settlements with various state governments around the country, it appears Microsoft&#39;s legal woes aren&#39;t over yet.
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Microsoft Corp.  said on Monday it agreed to settle antitrust lawsuits with Novell Inc.  and an industry trade group, marking the end of a decade-long antitrust battle.
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Novell says its deal with Microsoft is helping its Linux business.
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Linux veteran may be in for a roller-coaster ride in what so far has proved to be a controversial partnership between software giant, Novell.
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Or Celebrity Deathmatch? Comment Microsoft and Novell have recently announced a set of agreements to build, market, and support a series of new solutions to make their products work better together.â¦
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Analysis If the antitrust lawsuit that Novell filed against Microsoft comes to court, it will reopen long-forgotten battles over technologies that most of us will even have trouble remembering.
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Novell Inc. NOVL.O on Monday said it  had reached a settlement with software maker Microsoft Corp.  MSFT.O over antitrust issues in which Microsoft will pay it  $536 million in cash, sending Novell shares 11 percent higher  in pre-market trading.
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WHAT MICROSOFT DID: Paid $536 million cash to rival Novell Inc. to settle potential antitrust complaints over Microsoft&#39;s alleged actions toward Novell&#39;s Netware operating system, which competes with Windows software.
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Blog: Novell takes a lot of heat for its patent deal with Microsoft, and rightfully so.  But there is much that the company is doing to advance the cause and state of open source in the industry.  In this second installment of the "Open Source @" Series, I talk
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Last year's surprise partnership between software titan Microsoft Corp. and leading Linux distributor Novell Inc. was supposed to be a kind of peace treaty. Instead, it's brought the open-source software community to the brink of civil war, over a provision that could help Microsoft sue other open-source software companies for patent violations.
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Microsoft has agreed to pay Novell $536 million, in return for Novell withdrawing from the European Union&#39;s antitrust case against the maker of the Windows family of operating systems.
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Novell agrees to pull out of a European Union lawsuit but says it will press for another settlement for damage to its WordPerfect software business.
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As it said it would, Novell (NOVL:Nasdaq - news - research) filed a federal lawsuit in Utah alleging that Microsoft (MSFT:Nasdaq - news - research) tried to eliminate competition in the office productivity applications market when Novell owned the
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November 10, 2004 - On Monday, Novell and Microsoft announced that the Redmond giant has agreed to pay $536 million in cold, hard cash to settle an antitrust dispute regarding Novell&#39;s Netware.