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
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.