Attachmate-Novell Merger Yields Patents

Attachmate announced in Nov. 2010 that it will acquire Novell for approximately US$2.2 billion in a deal facilitated by Microsoft. As part of the agreement, Novell will sell 882 patents for US$450 million to CPTN Holdings, a Delaware limited liability company and consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft. The patent sale will expand Microsoft’s patent portfolio and reduce the likelihood of infringement actions against Microsoft and its partners in CPTN Holdings.

Attachmate is a provider of terminal emulation, secure mainframe access, and file transfer products, while Novell supplies Linux, systems management, identity and security management, and collaboration software. CPTN Holdings was formed in Nov. 2010, but the entity details do not include information about specific directors, officers, or members. A Sept. 2010 registration with the German Bundeskartellamt, an independent competition authority whose task is to protect competition in Germany, indicates that CPTN Holdings may include Microsoft, Apple, EMC, and Oracle. The Bundeskartellamt filing may be related to the fact that Novel acquired SUSE Linux AG in Jan. 2004.