Microsoft Pays $536M to Novell 291
_mArk writes "This morning Novell announced that it had settled a potential law suit with Microsoft related to its NetWare product line. Microsoft agreed to pay $536 million to Novell, but this is not the end as there is another litigation against them pertaining to WordPerfect."
easy handout (Score:5, Funny)
You meant "partnered" (Score:2)
Don't you mean partnered with the wrong people?
"mirror" (Score:3, Informative)
WALTHAM, Mass. -- Nov. 08, 2004 -- Novell today announced an agreement with Microsoft to settle potential antitrust litigation related to Novell's NetWare operating system in exchange for $536 million in cash. Novell also announced that by the end of this week it will file an antitrust suit against Microsoft in the United States District Court in Utah seeking unspecified damages in connection with alleged harm to Novell's WordPerfect application software business in the mid-1990s.
Under terms of the settlement, in exchange for the cash payment, Novell has agreed to a general release of claims that it has as of the date of the agreement, with certain exclusions that include patent claims and claims associated with Novell's WordPerfect business. The agreement also includes a release by Microsoft of claims that would have been compulsory counterclaims to the NetWare claims asserted by Novell. Finally, Novell has agreed to withdraw its intervention in the European Commission's case with Microsoft.
"We are pleased that we have been able to resolve a portion of our pending legal issues with Microsoft," said Joseph A. LaSala, Jr., Novell's senior vice president and general counsel. "This is a significant settlement, particularly since we were able to achieve our objectives without filing expensive litigation. While we have agreed to withdraw from the EU case, we think our involvement there has been useful, as it has assisted the European proceedings and facilitated a favorable settlement with Microsoft. With the EU case now on appeal, we are comfortable with our decision to withdraw from the proceeding. There is simply not much left for us to do.
"We regret that we cannot make a similar announcement regarding our antitrust claims associated with the WordPerfect business. We have had extensive discussions with Microsoft to resolve our differences, but despite our best efforts, we were unable to agree on acceptable terms. We intend to pursue our claims aggressively toward a goal of recovering fair and considerable value for the harm caused to Novell's business," LaSala said.
The WordPerfect suit that Novell will file seeks unspecified damages arising from Microsoft's efforts to eliminate competition in the office productivity applications market during the time that Novell owned the WordPerfect word-processing application and the Quattro Pro spreadsheet application. The suit is based in part on facts proved by the United States Government in its successful antitrust case against Microsoft. In that suit, Microsoft was found to have unlawfully maintained a monopoly in the market for personal computer operating systems by eliminating competition in related markets.
Legal notice regarding forward looking statements
This press release includes statements that are not historical in nature and that may be characterized as "forward-looking statements," including those related to future financial and operating results, benefits and synergies of the company's brands and strategies, future opportunities and the growth of the market for open source solutions. You should be aware that Novell's actual results could differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations of Novell management and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, Novell's ability to integrate acquired operations and employees, Novell's success in executing its Linux strategies, Novell's ability to deliver on its one Net vision of the Internet, Novell's ability to take a competitive position in the Linux industry, business conditions and the general economy, market opportunities, potential new business strategies, competitive factors, sales and marketing execution, shifts in technologies or market demand and the other factors described in Novell's Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 2, 2004. Novell disclaims any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release.
So Novell is going to let the EU case die? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So Novell is going to let the EU case die? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So Novell is going to let the EU case die? (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So Novell is going to let the EU case die? (Score:2)
Well....this looks to be similar to what happened in the Kobe Bryant case....she pretty much got bought off...which may have been her intentions anyway. At least that's how it looks...
Re:So Novell is going to let the EU case die? (Score:4, Insightful)
In btw, Americans have most likely missed this one around the election, but the "powerless" EU parliament managed to torpedo a well-known mafia puppet (The Lituanian candidate) along with a Catolic Bush clone (Italy). While I am not sure that the replacements are much better, this is still a reason for some selebration.
You realize what this means for Microsoft? (Score:5, Funny)
No new boxes of tissue until Tuesday!
Oh, the nasal anguish!
Re:You realize what this means for Microsoft? (Score:2)
Re:You realize what this means for Microsoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Almost half a billion dollars seems like a lot of money, but compare that to the loss of customers: at one time, NetWare *was* 70% of all business networks (not the internet, obviously).
So what is that $536 Million? Something like 20 cents on the dollar?
Not that they could have gotten any more. I'm just saying, it is kind of like discounted severance pay: nice to have, but continued income would be better.
It's Slashdot Novell Day! (Score:3, Funny)
Good for Linux Desktop (Score:2)
eval flag? (Score:3, Funny)
Beware the Microsoft settlements (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Beware the Microsoft settlements (Score:2)
Re:Beware the Microsoft settlements (Score:2)
Re:Beware the Microsoft settlements (Score:5, Interesting)
And let's not forget the recent resignation of Chris Stone [slashdot.org] from Novell. Maybe it's just a coincidence.
Re:Beware the Microsoft settlements (Score:2, Interesting)
Simpsons Quote (Score:3, Funny)
-- Bill Gates, "Das Bus"
% Homer and Marge quietly discuss this proposal.
Homer: I reluctantly accept your proposal!
Bill Gates: Well everyone always does. Buy 'em out, boys!
[Gates' lackeys trash the room.]
Homer: Hey, what the hell's going on!
Bill Gates: Oh, I didn't get rich by writing a
Yawn. The river flows. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yawn. The river flows. (Score:2)
1994? Should have sued them then. (Score:4, Informative)
Now, I can't stand MSFT's business tactics as much as the next Slashdotter but WordPerfect missed the fucking boat on a lot of shit when it came to the migration from DOS to Windows...
Novell bought out WordPerfect 3/94. They were supporting legacy versions of WordPerfect for DOS and updating several versions for Windows. How they expected to compete against Word was really beyond me. Any software application that basically required a function key explanation chart at the top of every keyboard was doomed when GUI took hold.
I have fond memories of WP5.1 for DOS but I am so glad that we have moved away from SHIFT+ALT+CTRL F11 for foo. WordPerfect took over from WordStar because of superior interface and design. While many people adore WP I wonder if it is more of a holdover from years gone by rather than actual superiority.
Personally, Word is easy to get and use and it happens to be better than what Corel/Novell was offering at the time and that's why it won out. Maybe this lawsuit was better served 10 years ago in 1994 and not now in 2004.
Re:1994? Should have sued them then. (Score:4, Insightful)
Perhaps it's because once you've learned it, the interface style you're "glad that we have moved away from" is actually superior to most modern interfaces, at least in terms of operator efficiency. It's just the learning curve that's a bitch.
Re:1994? Should have sued them then. (Score:4, Insightful)
For regular users of the software the learning curve is worth the time. For those that just want to type a quick document but still want to be able to perform operations on the document want to do so without having to look at cryptic key combinations or find options buried in hidden menus.
Most computer users these days are "casual users" and don't care to learn more than point and click. The "power users" might be offended by the fact that they are being left out but the simple fact of the matter is that the "casual users" are the ones in the majority and the ones that the companies cater to.
Re:1994? Should have sued them then. (Score:4, Insightful)
That's what they teach you in those MS Word courses at the local community college (at least thats what the good ones should teach you).
I don't know them, because I don't use Word but maybe twice a year.
With WP I had to know them, which sucked, until 5.1 came out and you could use a mouse to access pulldown menus.
That is, before WP 5.1 came out, I would actually do school reports and stuff in GEOWrite on my old C64, leaving the PC collecting dust. I'd rather wait for the screen to refresh than spend forever scanning over the template to look for the "italics" hotkey.
Re:1994? Should have sued them then. (Score:2)
Yeah, and I know most of them. I still think WP's interface was more efficient (although I'll admit it's been well over 10 years since I used it last, and I only used it for about 6 months at the time). Even commonly used features that require two keystrokes in Word (e.g. bold & italic) could be done with one in WP, if memory serves.
Re:1994? Should have sued them then. (Score:2)
Re:1994? Should have sued them then. (Score:3, Insightful)
I've generally had concurrent versions of of both Word and WP (in both their DOS and Wincarnations), installed side by side. Word is easier for very simple documents, but if you need anything more complex than an office memo, Word rapidly falls behind WP; conversely WP can handle anyt
Re:1994? Should have sued them then. (Score:4, Interesting)
It's also cheaper individually, and bigger businesses can do volume licensing deals with Corel.
WP is hands down a better product than Word. This is coming from a professional writer who has used both programs since their first versions. I'd use WP all day if I could, but WP for Linux kind of sucks, and I have this thing about not using proprietary software if a free alternative is available.
-Jem
Re:1994? Should have sued them then. (Score:2)
(For the humor impaired, yes, I see his id number is lower than mine. It's a joke. Get over it.)
OS/2 (Score:4, Interesting)
As for poor user interface of keyboard-based WordPerfect, we have IBM to thank for that. A function-key-based user-interface was efficient in the days of "standard" keyboards when function keys were on the left. IBM came along and said that their PCs and Mainframes should have the same user interface, and moved the PC function keys across the top. This is what is called an "Enhanced" keyboard. If you've never used a "Standard" keyboard, you have no right to complain.
Even today Windows has remnants "Standard" keyboard legacy. ALT-F4 closes an application and ALT-F6 closes a child window within an application. Notice the keys are both even numbered -- that was because they were adjacent in the two-by-five arrangement of function keys on the left of a "Standard" keyboard.
Hopefully (Score:2, Interesting)
Now they can claim funding (Score:3, Funny)
WordPerfect (Score:2, Interesting)
I really don't feel for WordPerfect's side on that suit.
Re:WordPerfect (Score:2)
Re:WordPerfect (Score:2)
Re:WordPerfect (Score:2)
Um, that's not WordPerfect's fault. Maybe the several Law, Insurance, & State departments that chose to archive using WordPerfect should have thought out the process a bit more. Maybe if they had relied more on function than form by using something a bit more portable like standard ASCII files, they
Sure, it just couldn't be that... (Score:2, Interesting)
Microsoft Word has NEVER had the legal features that serious lawyers still need, which is why WordPerfect became so entrenched there.
Sure Bill Gates father was still using WordPerfect quite long into the game.
Blows a hole in your theory about WordPerfect dying because it sucked.
Word has always sucked, especially in a legal environment, but the war was never about a good implementation of features, but about control and forcing all industries to the same stupidity.
I had this conversation just a few days
Re:WordPerfect (and Oo.org) (Score:4, Interesting)
This brings up a question I have had - how come I can open up Word documents in OpenOffice, but not WordPerfect documents? OpenOffice has conversion tools built-in for many formats, but not WP.
Re:WordPerfect (Score:5, Interesting)
1) support for every printer known to man
2) features that users wanted (notably, features for lawyers, which no other product bothered to include)
3) excellent free tech support for one and all (legal user or not)
4) Reveal Codes (the ultimate timesaver for complex documents)
WP only lost the market lead by being slow and lame to the Windows bandwagon, and I think more critical, by radically reducing their free tech support.
Until WPWin8, where WP got its Windows act back together, WinWord was prettier to look at, but Word has *never* been superior in any way, and as you say about file formats -- lordy!!
BTW, tho I have (and use, and collect) most WP versions, I still use WP5.1 as my everyday workhorse, and I lurk on the WP OO.o mailing list.
Why WP Lost (Score:2)
Re:WordPerfect (Score:2)
Chris Stone? (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.theboyz.biz/ [theboyz.biz]Your source for hardware, software, video games, small appliances, electronics and more!
My thoughts exactly (Score:2)
Round and round... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a snakeing suspiscion that the IT world, for all thier intelligence and success, are being played by sleeping agents of lawyers who deliberately steer companies to collide, and the resultant lawsuites just move money around, while the lawyers skim the cheddar off the top...
So, to draw sides:
Novell, Sun, IBM, AMD
versus
Microsoft, SCO, Intel and... erm...
Man this hurts my head, who to trust...
I noticed Novell came from nowhere (IMHO) recently exposurewise, they really built themselves up as a player (IMHO) and this linux offering is becoming the dotCom tradition now, make a any company, and you have to have your own distro! (Yeah yeah I know about novell and unix)
Maybe one day Microsoft will have thier own linux distro...
Oh, I forgot, they are buying licenses off SCO, and rewriting gnu code into longhorn (true!)
Well done those guys.
Now who hates kodak?
Re:Round and round... (Score:2, Interesting)
they [Microsoft] are buying licenses off SCO, and rewriting gnu code into longhorn (true!)
Much as I'd love to believe that, it'd (a) be against the terms of the GPL, and (b) if/when they were caught - they'd be so badly screwed it wouldn't be funny[1]. And they'd be caught just as soon as they refused to pay an employee a raise. So - got any proof?
[1] Oh, alright. It would be funny. Very.
Re:Round and round... (Score:2)
Not if they're rewriting it, as the parent poster said. This is copyright law, not patent law.
Re:Round and round... (Score:2)
I don't put it past them, as the evil aura that surrounds MS is enough to be confused with Northern Lights in Redmond. Do you have a source for this?
Re:Round and round... (Score:2)
Re:Round and round... (Score:2)
One does have to wonder how much more money each of these companies would have if they hadn't spent it suing and paying off one another. That, and the lawyers' cut-per-suit, would make an interesting chart indeed.
Here's hoping... (Score:2)
Re:Here's hoping... (Score:2, Interesting)
Word had a sensible GUI, WP stuck with cryptic keyboard shortcuts. WP lost on the usability front. They once had a monopoly on word processing, just like Netscape once had a virtual monopoly on browsers. And they both lost it by never adapting their sucktastic products.
Half a billion (Score:4, Funny)
Well, duh! You're going to get a check for over half a billion dollars. I'd be more than "pleased."
Did MS make them fire Chris Stone Too? (Score:2, Redundant)
Strategy on Microsofts part to legitimize lawsuits (Score:5, Interesting)
They have really deep pockets. They can afford to pay. When the pay they achieve two things:
1) They can stop worrying about the lawsuit and continue with their business.
2) They also legitimize the claim of the other company, in this case Novell, thereby setting a precedent.
When Microsoft sets a precedent it means that the next company that Sun or Novell or SCO sues will almost certainly have to pay. There is a precedent after all. But that company might not be able to pay. And then Microsoft has one competitor less.
NO precedent set (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Strategy on Microsofts part to legitimize lawsu (Score:2)
They have more IP and more patents than most software companies I should think.
If it came to a shake down they'd own all software companies in the world. Well, that was an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
w00t! (Score:3, Funny)
Ah, just kidding, they're doing good stuff.
Possible Bribe? (Score:2, Interesting)
What ever happened to.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Virii and lawsuits. (Score:3, Insightful)
Does the same logic hold true for all their lawsuits? Are they so popular that they are natural targets for lawsuits? Either yes, they are, and all the companies that sue them are on the same ethical level as virus writers, or no, and they really are a company that deserves to be sued over and over again.
Funny thing though: they keep getting sued and losing. That puts all the companies that sue them on the moral high ground. Why aren't they getting all the business instead of the shaft? Here we have Microsoft with a nice long queue of lawsuits always waiting for trial and they will lose many if not most of them. So why do people keep doing business with them? Why are they allowed to do business? I thought governments were supposed to protect people from this sort of thing.
This is why I like Open Source. It's a fully functional socialist movement (because it's opt-in) and it actually has the power to stop such bad behavior. Microsoft as a company has such incredible profit margins I can only compare them to Middle-Eastern oil interests and diamond cartels. Bully for them that they're the only public company in the lot, but the rate at which they get sued casts a pretty dark shadow on that. You can't very well produce hydrocarbon and carbon out of thin air, but you certainly can with software and that's just what F/OSS is doing.
Re:Don't Care Who or Why (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Don't Care Who or Why (Score:2, Insightful)
Novell et al are firing the first shots in the patent wars, and are forcing Microsoft into this recent patenting blitz.
Everybody loses in the end. But you're happy because Microsoft has to pay out a little pocket change to a dying company that has turned to IP litigation as it's last chance for revenue.
If SCO sued MSFT instead of IBM they'd be slashdot heroes.
Re:Don't Care Who or Why (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Don't Care Who or Why (Score:2)
Well there were heroes many protoslashdotters. However, there was no slashdot during that lawsuit.
Re:Don't Care Who or Why (Score:5, Insightful)
You think this war started today? And Novell started it?
Go to the US Patent Office website and do a patent search for "Microsoft" and one for "Novell" (under the field "Assignee Name").
See who has been doing it more, and longer. I'll save you the trouble:
Microsoft: 3,520, since March 21, 1985
Novell: 243, September 24, 1990
Microsoft has Novell beat by an order of magnitude and then some. To give you some perspective, Amazon.com are famous for their patents, and they only have 41.
Microsoft is the poster boy for patenting anything and everything, and trying to use their "licensing" schemes to control and monopolize the market.
Nobody but William Gates is "forcing" Microsoft into this patent war. They are the agressors, not the victims. And they know exactly what they are doing.
Re:Don't Care Who or Why (Score:2, Interesting)
Wordperfect lost out to Word due to one plain and simple reason, GUI version. I still remember back in early 90s when people were still sticking to simple text mode WP without WYSIWYG v/s the appeal of word for windows. That plus the fact that word did try to help migration by providing same/simillar keystrokes, templates, conversion etc.
Also, microsoft has to patent their idea
Re:Don't Care Who or Why (Score:2)
Re:Sue sue sue, it's the American way! (Score:3, Funny)
Damn it, did I miss a meeting again?
Re:Sue sue sue, it's the American way! (Score:5, Informative)
Not up on your computer history, are you? You *must* have meant to say:
"NetWare basically existed just to make up for the Windows networking components being NON EXISTANT at the time."
Novell Netware predates ANY Microsoft networking. For most of the late 80's/early 90's until Windows for Workgroups came out, Netware and Banyan Vines were the only way to get a bunch of PCs to form a network. I am presuming you didn't actually work with computers and networks during this time frame, because if you did, there's no way you could have made such an erroneous statement.
And Novell has innovated quite a bit. Or were you just being ironic? Where do you think Microsoft got the "inspiration" for Active Directory, among other things?
No, (Score:2, Informative)
Re:No, (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No, (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Sue sue sue, it's the American way! (Score:2)
Re:Sue sue sue, it's the American way! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sue sue sue, it's the American way! (Score:5, Informative)
Not being able to get WordPerfect pre-installed and being forced to take Office or crappy Works pretty much killed WordPerfect. Wordperfect is still a better product than Word ... Quattro and Paradox have been exceeded by their MS counterparts, but WP is still better in my opinion.
Actually... (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, what happened is that when Microsoft came out with Windows they refused to give the WordPerfect programmers access to the Windows GUI APIs. This prevented them from making a version of Word Perfect that would run in a window instead of through MS-DOS. Microsoft released their MS-WORD with Windows support and became the market leader because no one wanted to stick with a DOS only aplication. It wasn't until later when MS-WORD was the leader that they finally let the WP Programers have access to the APIs. That is why they have a case against Microsoft.
Re:Actually... (Score:2)
Don't forget that at the time, it was not a fordrawn conclusion that the most technically inferior GUI environment would reign supreme. Wordperfect tried OS/2 and I think Desqview/X. I also don't think it would have been wise for Wordperfect to target the OS of a competitor's wordprocessor...
... to which they slew both Wordperfect and Lotus by mucking up LIMS and bundling the second-best of both products together... leaving 123 and WP as buggy memory-limited apps which can't work together.
Re:Actually... (Score:5, Insightful)
At the time, the statement from WPCorp boiled down to "Windows is a flash in the pan and we hate it anyway, so we're not doing it". But one does have to wonder how much of that was sour grapes.
And it certainly does explain why early WPWin versions were pretty poor and not real stable -- they were literally groping in the dark.
But WP's demise started before Windows became ubiquitous and long before Word ever got a market foothold -- it began when WPCorp ceased offering free tech support to one and all, back in early 1994. They'd previously even supported pirated copies, and had a large steady market of upgraders from that (happy pirates frequently *buy* the next version, and WP's support made 'em deleriously happy).
Of course, with the state of tech support now, it kinda looks like WPCorp was precocious
Re:Actually... (Score:2)
Slashdot, land of the underdog, where it's politically correct to bash Microsoft, but somehow not PC to bash Word -- nooooo, it's much more PC to bash WP, because after all they were once a market leader, and ALL market leaders past or present are to be bashed, lest thy karma rise up and smite thee.
Re:Actually... (Score:3, Interesting)
Is this true? Very interesting if so.
The MS Word coder that started a blog said in his blog that basically this was wrong. That in MS the windows team and office team didn't even talk to each other, let alone have secret api's, and that wordperfect used this api conspiracy theory to cover up that their code sucked.
Re:Sue sue sue, it's the American way! (Score:2)
Re:Troll or dumbass - I can't tell. (Score:2)
Looks like AstroTurf to me.
-
Re:Novell is a dead company (Score:5, Insightful)
Specifically, who do you think owns SuSE these days? It's Novell.
IMO - I think Novell has a couple of very nice products that they simply need to redeploy - a lot of the technology behind netware is actually pretty cool, but they allowed themselves to become marginalized (IOW - they sat on the laurels they built for themselves in the late80's and early '90s and it's almost put them out of business).
Once they finish this turn around, I expect them to regain some competitiveness, but getting back into "their" market is going to take some doing.
Re:Novell is a dead company (Score:3, Interesting)
Better check and be sure first:
www.netcraft.com [netcraft.com]
Re:$ sign in front? (Score:5, Informative)
It is similar to having the upside-down question marks and such in spanish... it is so the reader knows up front that they are reading a question.
Re:$ sign in front? (Score:2)
I can't speak for the US, but New Zealand certainly puts the $ up-front. We'd say "536 million dollars", though.
Ditto for the UK and most of the rest (all?) of the EU: the Pound (Sterling) or Euro symbol would go up-front, but they'd say it with the currency last.
Just out of curiousity, which currencies don't follow this system?
Re:$ sign in front? (Score:2)
English: $25
French: 25$
I'm really indiferent to it in most cases. I suppose it is easier to understand when reading the french way. I say that because the symbols apppear in the order you'd say them aloud.
"Twenty-five dollars" = 25$.
Re:$ sign in front? (Score:2)
Re:$ sign in front? (Score:2)
Well, when using a symbol, the symbol comes first, for pounds, dollars, yen, won. When using a word (and that includes the kanji 'en'), the word comes last, again for pounds, dollars, yen and won. So I think the rule is pretty near global.
Re:$ sign in front? (Score:2)
Just out of curiousity, which currencies don't follow this system?
In Switzerland we write 10 Fr. (Franks) or 10 CHF, where CHF is the ISO currency symbol for the Swiss Frank.
Prior to the Euro, many of the European currency 'symbols', which were usually one or more letters, followed the currency amount. I think that Spain even used a ligature of 'Pts' for their Pesetas. It followed the amount.
A
Re:$ sign in front? (Score:3, Funny)
Tinfoil hat time... (Score:2)
With news of this big settlement comes the question: Why did Chris Stone leave?
Was it because of the terms of this settlement? What concessions did Microsoft get from Novell to make the settlement work for them? Will this now affect Novell's Linux strategy?
More Mac viruses? (Score:5, Interesting)
AFAIK, the first viruses were spotted in 85-86 and they were on dos. The first 2-3 years were pretty quiet (well, there was the Robert Morris internet worm).
Then in the beginning of the 90s or so there were Brain, the Jerusalem-family, Michelangelo, and most notably the first kits, Dark Avenger and VCL. All for DOS/Windows. According to my memory, at this time viruses were already 'Microsoft country'.
So was the Mac virus hegemony between these periods, or does one of us have a memory fault?
Re:Business practice (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:But do they do Windows (Score:2)
"Computer Browser" service: "Maintains an updated list of computers on the network and supplies this list to computers designated as browsers."