Novell Offered Takeover Proposal
Novell is back on the winning side. But investment firm Elliott Associates considers its stock below where it should be. Therefore, Elliott wants to take over the Linux and NetWare firm altogether.
Novell and Elliott both confirmed the takeover proposal in a press release. According to Novell, Elliott wants to pay $5.75 per share in cash. The NASDAQ promptly reacted and Novell's share price soared by as much as 37 percent in late trading March 2, rising above Elliott's per-share offer. The NY Times reported a $2 billion offer, although this bid may go even higher.
Elliott Associates now owns 8.5 percent of Novell's outstanding shares, putting it among the highest shareholders. With the takeover it wants to strengthen Novell's weak share position, having lost 85 percent of its value in the past 10 years. Elliott considers the past years of results as unsuccessful, but didn't mention Linux or open source in particular.
Novell is considering the proposal closely. Its immediate interest might be improving sales and cutting costs more so than selling the company.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
EndeavorOS Mercury Neo Available
A new release from the EndeavorOS team ships with Plasma 6.3 and other goodies.
-
Fedora 42 Beta Has Arrived
The Fedora Project has announced the availability of the first beta release for version 42 of the open-source distribution.
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.
-
Ubuntu 25.04 Coming Soon
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) has been given an April release date with many notable updates.
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.