Highlights from http://platespin.com/novell/
On February 25, 2008, Novell announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire PlateSpin Ltd. The combination of Novell’s platform and automation management with PlateSpin's leading solutions for workload relocation, protection and provisioning will give customers the agility to cross physical and virtual boundaries so IT can work together. Both organizations are focused on helping customers maximize the strategic value of the heterogeneous data center. Novell and PlateSpin will deliver products for complete workload lifecycle management and optimization for Linux, UNIX, and Windows operating systems in the physical and virtual data center.
Novell will acquire PlateSpin for $205 million using current cash.
______Opinion Below_____________________________
That's a huge twist. I was half expecting Citrix to make a bid of some sort for them. Maybe they did but the Novell offer was more. Who knows. Watching the virtualization ecosystem is like watching an episode of some Latin novella or a low end American soap opera. Treachury, Hate, Money being thrown all over the place, long stares from across the tables as employees that used to work for one company and now another... Seriously, this is getting crazy.
Is Novell trying to be relavant again (not that Platespin will make them relevant)? Was Platespin desperate for a buyer or was this just easier then staying private? If Platespin supported Xen will this confuse Novell clients concerning support for Zen (I've already had a few people ask me about how Citrix bought "Zen" from Novell)?