News: Elliott Associates Offers to Buy Novell

New York hedge fund Elliott Associates is in hot pursuit of Novell, and developments have left some worrying that an acquisition, if successful, would mean the end of Suse Linux. On Monday, Novell's board of directors turned down a March 2 offer of $2 billion for the company from Elliott Associates.

Novell has announced that it has declined a takeover bid from New York-based hedge fund Elliott Associates L.P. saying that the bid "undervalued" the company. The open-source software maker says it is looking at other alternatives to "enhance stockholder value" including looking for other potential buyers. Elliott Associates offered to buy Novell a couple...

CWmike writes "A hedge fund that is already one of Novell's largest shareholders offered on Tuesday to acquire the struggling, cash-rich enterprise software maker for $2 billion. The unsolicited offer, from New York-based Elliot Associates L.P., is for $5.75 per share in cash, a dollar per share more than Novell's closing price Tuesday of $4.75.

Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian informed all Novell customers per email on March 20 that the buyout proposal from Elliott Associates was rejected in that it undervalued the company.

Novell's CEO on Saturday notified customers that the open source software company has rejected hedge fund Elliott Associates' roughly $2 billion bid to take it private

The VAR Guy: "Elliott Associates, the hedge fund that's seeking to acquire Novell and SUSE Linux, is denying a report that it plans to break up Novell and sell off the pieces. Hmmm�"

news.cnet.com: Elliott's proposed acquisition of Novell promises to shake up the software industry, which has grown a bit staid in the past year or two. But what will it mean for Red Hat, and for the broader open-source software industry?
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Could IBM or even Microsoft, come to Novell Linux's rescue?
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Datamation covers Novell's second-quarter fiscal 2010 earnings: "A closely watched portion of Novell's income hinges on its Linux business.