# SUSE Linux Sold in Deal Involving Novell, NetIQ and other brands



## drmike (Sep 16, 2014)

Source:


http://www.microfocus.com/about/press/pressreleases/2014/pr15092014.aspx
Proposed Merger between Micro Focus and the Attachmate Group to create a leading global infrastructure software company
- Expands customer proposition to further enable customers to leverage further their prior investments and exploit the latest industry innovation
- Enlarged Group will have combined revenue of $1.4 billion and a Group employing more than 4,500 staff, located in all key geographies, and serving more than 30,000 customers

London, 15 September 2014 – Micro Focus International plc ("Micro Focus" or "the Group", LSE: MCRO.L), the international software product group, announced today that it has reached agreement on the terms of a merger with the Attachmate Group. The Enlarged Group will be a leading global infrastructure software company with combined revenues of $1.4 billion*, Underlying Adjusted EBITDA of $0.5 billion* and operations in all major geographies, combining the talents of more than 4,500 employees.

The Merger represents a significant increase in the scale and breadth of Micro Focus, combining Micro Focus' strong product franchises with the Attachmate Group product portfolios serving adjacent and complementary market segments. The Enlarged Group would benefit from a top three global market position in a number of key segments, including off-mainframe COBOL, mainframe modernisation, host connectivity and Linux operating systems.

Commenting on the proposed Merger, Kevin Loosemore, Executive Chairman, Micro Focus, said: "There is compelling rationale behind this Merger. Both companies are well established enterprise software vendors operating at a global scale with a presence in all significant international markets. Both hold a portfolio of software solutions which address specific aspects of the infrastructure software requirements of a substantial installed base of large enterprise customers, with no material customer concentration or direct overlap; and both Attachmate and Micro Focus' respective product groups are predominantly mature solution sets which are embedded within the IT infrastructures of large corporate customers."

"The Board believes that the Merger will deliver a more attractive and expanded product offer to customers. The Enlarged Group will provide choices as organisations address increasingly complex IT challenges and strive to preserve business logic and data as they bridge from the old and the new to exploit new technology trends, such as the cloud or mobility", continued Loosemore. "The Board believes that the proposed Merger presents a rare opportunity to achieve a significant increase in the scale and breadth of Micro Focus, with the potential to deliver shareholder returns that are superior to those likely to be achieved on an organic basis."

Attachmate solutions help organizations worldwide put their existing IT assets to work. Built to integrate existing systems and emerging technologies, Attachmate helps organizations extend, manage, and secure essential business information. The Attachmate Group maintains its principal office in Houston, Texas and operates its business from four main distributed offices in Provo, Utah; Houston, Texas; Seattle, Washington and Nuremburg, Germany. It comprises four principal software product portfolios:
Attachmate, which delivers advanced software for terminal emulation, legacy modernization and managed file transfer;
NetIQ provides integrated identity, access, security and data center solutions to help organizations securely deliver, measure and manage computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments.
Novell delivers solutions that make people more productive and work environments more secure and manageable.
SUSE offers Linux and open source solutions, such as SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, that provide reliable, interoperable Linux and cloud infrastructure solutions that give enterprises greater control and flexibility.

"The merger of the Attachmate Group with Micro Focus will result in a greater breadth of solutions, extensive global presence, and significant financial strength," said Jeff Hawn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Attachmate Group. "The combined company will be even better able to help customers address their business and IT challenges in light of increasing complexity, change and risk."

Like Micro Focus, the Attachmate Group has been in business for over 30 years. It has more than 3,300 employees across 80 offices worldwide from which it serves more than 23,000 customers. Micro Focus' market leading software is used by more than 11,000 customers, with 2 million licenced users, and the Group operates from 37 offices worldwide, employing more than 1,200 employees.

Merger Terms:.

In the terms of the proposed Merger, Micro Focus will acquire the entire issued share capital of the Attachmate Group, in exchange for the issue of approximately 86.60 million ordinary shares to Attachmate's parent company, Wizard Parent, LLC ("Wizard"). This is equal to approximately 40.0 per cent of the enlarged share capital following the Merger, assuming Micro Focus' previously announced return of value is implemented. Based on Micro Focus' closing share price as at 12 September 2014 of 842.5p, the value of the shares to be allotted to Wizard is approximately £729.6 million ($1,184.0 million) which together with net debt of Attachmate as at 31 July 2014 of $1,165.8 million gives an enterprise value to the transaction of $2,349.8 million before costs. In the year ended 31 March 2014 Attachmate generated revenues of $956.8 million and Underlying Adjusted EBITDA of $312.8 million.

The Merger constitutes a reverse takeover for the purposes of the London Stock Exchange's Listing Rules, and is subject to the satisfaction of a number of conditions, including, amongst other things, publication of a prospectus relating to the Enlarged Group, applicable regulatory and anti-trust approvals having been obtained, consummation of the refinancing of Micro Focus and Attachmate bank debt and Micro Focus Shareholder approval. Subject to these conditions, the Company currently expects completion of the Merger to occur in November 2014.

* - Based on revenue at Underlying Adjusted EBITDA for the Micro Focus Group for the financial year ended 30 April 2014 and for the Attachmate Group for the financial year ended 31 March 2014.

Note – Restricted Territory is any one of the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Republic of South Africa and New Zealand.

Enquiries:

Micro Focus - Tel: +44 (0)1635 32646
 Kevin Loosemore, Executive Chairman
 Mike Phillips, Chief Financial Officer
 Tim Brill, IR Director

Powerscourt - Tel: +44 (0)20 7250 1446
 Giles Sanderson
 Nick Dibden
 Sophie Moate

Notes to editors:

About Micro Focus:

Micro Focus, a member of the FTSE 250, is an Enterprise Application Modernisation and Testing software company that provides innovative software that allows companies to dramatically improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization, Management and Testing software enables customers' business applications to respond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectures with reduced cost and risk. For additional information please visit www.microfocus.com


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## Jasson.Pass (Sep 16, 2014)

Sure a lot of merges lately. Never was a SUSE user but sad to see them bought.


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## gxbfxvar (Sep 17, 2014)

Here is a related message from openSUSE mailing list: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.suse.opensuse.project/15395


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## HalfEatenPie (Sep 17, 2014)

Oh man I used to love openSUSE!  I just never really got back into it since I've started using Debian like full-force a few years back.  

From what I read though, it seems like just a naming "we own this now" and no real major changes will happen (in the foreseeable future that is).  

There's a ton of acquisitions going in such a short amount of time!  First Minecraft to Microsoft (even looks similar), then Solus to OnApp, and now openSUSE to Micro Focus.  

How is Micro Focus related to Novell, NetIQ, and etc?


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## raindog308 (Sep 17, 2014)

I primarily know MicroFocus because they make COBOL compilers for Windows.  Ha.

I primarily know Attachmate because they make X-windows clients for Windows.

I primarily know SuSE as that pain-in-the-ass-because-it's-different Linux distro some damn industry vertical vendor at work required it as the only Linux distro they support and so now we have one, and it's totally different than the rest of the RHEL/CentOS servers and no one wants to work on it.  But I've heard SuSE is big in Europe.


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## HalfEatenPie (Sep 17, 2014)

raindog308 said:


> I primarily know Attachmate because they make X-windows clients for Windows.


Ya know... I never actually used any of those X-windows clients for Windows (well... except for X2Go, which is what I recently started using like... past 6 months).  

The only reason I know about openSuSE is another guy in a community I used to be part of was a big fan of it (like...  wow....  10-12 years ago or so?).  Hell, just putting it out there (internet is a pretty small place after all...), Thor Erik?  That guy used to be like the go-to guy for me getting to know openSuSE, and I ended up having to use openSuSE in LiveCD mode back then to fix a few computers.  Was probably the first actual Linux distro I started using actually.


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## AThomasHowe (Sep 17, 2014)

Heh, my first linux install was SUSE, looking at the dates 9.1-9.3 probably  A few years later I looked at debian based distress and haven't been back since of course!


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## Serveo (Sep 17, 2014)

raindog308 said:


> But I've heard SuSE is big in Europe.


Is it? Debian and Ubuntu I see a lot around here, at least in NL.


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## Coastercraze (Sep 17, 2014)

Used it before myself as a desktop before switching to Mint. Wasn't too bad.


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