Attachmate has been purchased by the maker of the Linux operating system, Novell, for an agreed $2.2 billion, according to Bloomberg. The purchase puts an end to the eight months of bidding for the software company.
Attachmate is owned by private-equity holds which included Golden Gate Capital. Investors in Novell will earn a $6.10 share., which is a 9.1% increase over Novell’s closing price on November 19th. The firm recently sold some assets a group of companies including Microsoft for a whopping $450 million.
One of the owners of Attachmate, Francisco Partners and Thoma Bravo, says that Novell products will “complement a portfolio that includes other technology assets.”
“Management had struggled over the last few years to grow the new businesses and that created an opportunity given all of the cash from the balance sheet for financial bidders,” says an analyst at Cross Research in Livingston, New Jersey, who rates Novell shares “hold” and doesn’t own any. “The financially oriented buyers are going to hold the company, reshape it to a degree and then in a few years, in a more attractive environment, bring the company public.”
