Attachmate Corp. to Buy Waltham's Novell, Inc. for $2.2 Billion

Lately, it seems as if companies are lining up to purchase successful Boston-area businesses. Just this March, Waltham’s Novell, Inc., a leader in workload management, turned down an unsolicited bid from Elliot Associates LP. Now, just months later, Novel has decided to accept an acquisition deal from Washington State’s Attachmate Corp. valued at approximately $2.2 billion. At the same time as the aforementioned deal goes through, Novel will sell key intellectually property rights to CPTN Holdings LLC, “a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft,” for $450 million in cash. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/gQNg3Y)

“After a thorough review of a broad range of alternatives to enhance stockholder value, our Board of Directors concluded that the best available alternative was the combination of a merger with Attachmate Corporation and a sale of certain intellectual property assets to the consortium,” explained Ron Hovsepian, Novell’s president and CEO. “We are pleased that these transactions appropriately recognize the value of Novell's relationships, technology and solutions, while providing our stockholders with an attractive cash premium for their investment.” (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/dQyTCY)

Attachmate’s offer of $6.10 per share equates to about a 28% premium on Novell’s recent stock price. Elliot Associate’s bid, which Novell turned down in March, offered only $5.75 per share, or an approximately 9% per share premium at the time of the offer.

“We are very excited about this transaction as it greatly complements our existing portfolio,” said Jeff Hawn, Attachmate Corporation’s chairman and CEO. “Novell has an established record of innovation, impressive technology and brand assets, and a leading ecosystem of partnerships and talented employees. The addition of Novell to our Attachmate and NetIQ businesses will enhance the spectrum of solutions we can offer to customers. We fully support Novell's commitment to its customers and we look forward to continuing to invest for the benefit of Novell's customers and partners.” (Image courtesy: http://www.attachmate.com/)

After the acquisition, Attachmate plans to split Novell into two separate businesses: one focusing on SuSE Linux and the other on Novell networking solutions. The deal is anticipated to be finalized during the first quarter 2011, but if the acquisition should fall through for any reason, Novell has agreed to pay a $60 million termination fee.

Novell seems confident that an acquisition by Attachmate will not only satisfy stock holders, but will allow Novell to reach new levels of success, even if as two separate entities. It will be interesting to see if Attachmate will begin hiring to expand its two new businesses in the early months of 2011. Hopefully, current Novell employees will find it easy to embrace Attachmate’s vision of their business’s future and will make the transition comfortably.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/frvFgx, http://bit.ly/bjgxcX, http://bit.ly/99bWke]

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