News
Attachmate Corporation to Acquire Novell, Inc.
November 2010 by Marc Jacob
Attachmate Corporation announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire, upon closing, Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) for a purchase price of $6.10 per common share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $2.2 billion. Novell, a leader in intelligent workload management, helps organizations securely deliver and manage computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments through solutions for identity and security, systems management, collaboration and Linux based operating platforms.
Attachmate Corporation is owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo. As part of the transaction, Elliott Management Corporation, one of Novell’s largest shareholders, will become an equity shareholder in Attachmate Corporation. Upon close, Attachmate Corporation will manage a brand portfolio consisting of Attachmate(R), NetIQ(R), Novell(R) and SUSE(R).
The transaction is currently expected to close in the first quarter of 2011 and is subject to customary closing conditions including antitrust clearance, Novell stockholder approval and certain other regulatory approvals and closing conditions. The transaction is also conditioned upon the concurrent closing of Novell’s planned sale of certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC.
Credit Suisse and RBC Capital Markets are acting as financial advisors and Jones Day is acting as legal advisor to Attachmate Corporation. Financing is being provided by Credit Suisse, RBC Capital Markets, Goldman Sachs and Citadel Securities. J.P. Morgan is serving as financial advisor and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal counsel to Novell. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP advised Elliott Management on the transaction.
