02.07.08
Novell: The .NET Company
Time for a wedding after years of relationship?
It was several months that Novell expressed its intentions to buy small companies to find growth. BusinessWeek repeats this fairly old story (circa June 2007).
Novell (NOVL), the struggling software maker once among the computer industry’s best known names, is trying to reclaim relevance through an embrace of open-source software and a détente with onetime rival Microsoft (MSFT). Now, having stemmed a multiyear revenue decline and beefed up its balance sheet, Novell plans to start acquiring smaller software companies in a quest for growth.
This talks about “beefed[ing] up its balance sheet,” so you are encouraged to see the darker side of Novell’s finances.
In any event, since Novell already behaves like a Microsoft subsidiary or Linux division to Microsoft in many ways, the following modest proposal to Novell is made:
My suggestion? Buy up all the .NET open source companies and become the center of the open source Microsoft universe. There isn’t a whole lot else that will be meaningful and since Novell already went to the dark side they should be happy as the Darth Vader of open source.
Remember that Novell does put many of its card on Mono [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.