Novell, Microsoft settle row
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Novell Inc. of Waltham is getting a half-billion-dollar check from Microsoft Corp. to settle an antitrust case that&#39;s never been filed.
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Software giant Microsoft Corp. opened its wallet again Monday to clear more of its courtroom problems, paying &#36;536 million to rival Novell Inc. and an undisclosed smaller amount to a trade group that had backed antitrust complaints by the U.S. government and the European Union.
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Microsoft Corp. settled legal disputes yesterday with two of its largest remaining antagonists, ensuring that its antitrust deal with the Justice Department will not be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and removing two active proponents of a case against the company in the European Union.
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InfoWorld - Executives from Microsoft and Novell defended their controversial business agreement to collaborate and promote integration between Windows and Novell&#39;s SUSE Linux operating systems on Wednesday, saying that Microsoft&#39;s sales organization is now the biggest channel for SUSE Linux and that the deal will help, not hurt the prospects of Linux in the enterprise.
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As software disputes go, Novell&#39;s decade-long antitrust claim against Microsoft was particularly drawn out. That made the $536 million payoff announced Monday especially sweet.
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(InfoWorld) - Novell on Wednesday said its deal with Microsoft is helping drive gains in its Linux business, but danced around questions concerning how that deal may be altered given coming changes in open source licensing.Novell made the comments during its quarterly earnings call with financial analysts where the company reported nearly a $2.2 million loss in income during its fiscal second quarter. Novell executives danced around questions concerningÂ its deal with MicrosoftÂ as it relates to the new GNU General Public License 3.0, which is expected to be approved as a final draft in June. In addition, Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian would offer no comment beyond Novell's already published public statement on Microsoft'sÂ recent claimsÂ that Linux infringes on 235 of its patents. During its earnings call, Novell focused on the news that its revenue was up 2.6 percent to $239.2 million from $233.1 million during the same quarter a year ago, and that the revenue numbers beat Wall Street's expectations of $235 million. Net income, however, showed a loss of $2.192 million compared to a profit of $3,342 million in the same quarter a year ago. Despite the numbers, Novell executives remained upbeat, highlighting an increase in sales around its Suse Linux software. Sales of Linux platform products produced $19 million in revenue, an 83 percent increase year over year. In addition, invoicing for Linux products was $29 million for the quarter, an increase of 114 percent. Novell said those increases were largely due to the strength of a wide-ranging business and technology partnership signed with Microsoft in November 2006. Microsoft helped account for $18 million of that invoicing, while non-Microsoft-influenced revenue was $11 million. "I am pleased by our results this quarter," said Ron Hovsepian, Novell's CEO. "Our Linux business delivered another strong quarter, workgroup [business unit] performed better than expected and identity [business unit] is recovering although it is still below plan. Novell said revenue for identity and access management was up 5 percent over the same quarter a year ago. But it was Linux and the relationship with Microsoft that Novell focused on, saying it provided a hefty bump to revenue. "Customer deals associated with the Microsoft relationship accounted for 25 percent of the Linux platform product revenue," said Dana Russell, Novell's CFO. Hovsepian said in the two fiscal quarters since signing the deal with Microsoft that Novell has invoiced $91 million in sales with $73 million occurring in the first quarter. He said that total was nearly 38 percent of the $240 million that was called for in the five-year deal with Microsoft. He also said that Novell expects to have 49,000 certificates for maintenance and support, which are handed out by Microsoft, activated this year. He added, however, that going forward Novell would no longer report that number. Instead, Novell will track progress by reporting the percentage of invoicing over the life of the contract. As part of the agreement, Microsoft had said it would distribute 70,000 coupons for Suse Linux Enterprise Server maintenance and support. In terms of the patent claims Microsoft has made in recent weeks, Hovsepian said Novell would focus on customers and said statements it made in an open letter to the Linux community would stand as its public comment. He also was mum on the effect of the forthcoming open-source GNU General Public License (GPL) 3.0, which couldÂ change the dynamicsÂ of the patent protection clause that is part of the agreement with Microsoft.Novell said in a 10-K filing it made with the Security and Exchange Commission last week that there was a risk factor in the "grandfather" clause that is currently part of the working draft of the GPL 3.0. Hovsepian said during a question and answer session that he would not answer questions about what effects the grandfather clause may have on Novell's contract with Microsoft saying any answer would be "broad speculation." Other numbers highlighted by Novell included revenue from its Identity and Access Management business unit of $23 million, a 5 percent year-over-year increase. The company reported that revenue from Systems and Resource Management unit was $32 million, a 4 percent drop over the same quarter a year ago, and that revenue from its Workgroup business unit dropped 4 percent compared to the second quarter of 2006 to $84 million. Going forward, Novell stated that it expects net revenue for 2007 to be between $925 million and $955 million. Those numbers were adjusted to account for the recent divestment of its Salmon business consulting group.
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The saga continues. On Monday, Novell distanced itself from comments made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer about Redmond's motivation for entering a massive partnership with Novell.
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Days after collecting a $536 million antitrust settlement from Microsoft Corp., Novell returned to court Friday to claim the technology giant used its market dominance to shut out WordPerfect and other software in the mid-1990s.
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Just days after settling one anti-trust lawsuit with Microsoft, Novell filed another one. According to a Novell (down $0.
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Microsoft Corp on Monday announced antitrust settlements with Novell Inc. and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), ending years of legal wrangling.
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Microsoft will pay as much as $500 million as a part of settlement of the antitrust lawsuit that may be filed by rival software maker Novell, the company said Monday, within an attempt to end its antitrust fight.
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Less than a week after a collecting a $536 million settlement from Microsoft Corp., Novell Inc. on Friday filed another lawsuit accusing the software giant of violating antitrust laws.
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Clearing more legal challenges, Microsoft  announced settlements Monday with rival Novell  for &#36;536 million and with a trade organization that had aggressively backed landmark antitrust cases against Microsoft by the U.S. government and European Union.
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Novell filed suit against Microsoft on Friday, claiming the company employed anti-competitive tactics in the desktop software market during the 1990s.
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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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Microsoft Corp has settled antitrust differences with the Computer &amp; Communications Industry Association and Novell Inc, clearing the way for its appeal against the European Commission&#39;s antitrust commission.
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Microsoft announced settlements Monday with rival Novell Inc. for $536 million and with a Washington-based trade organization that had aggressively backed the European Union's landmark antitrust case against Microsoft.