Novell Files Definitive Proxy Statement: Someone May Be Interested in the Patents and “Maybe More”

“Novell in a filing with the SEC it calls its Definitive Proxy
Statement reveals that this month, on January 11, someone contacted
Novell wishing to discuss buying the notorious 882 patents and
maybe more:

“On January 11, 2011, representatives of Party E contacted one
of our executive officers who reported that such representatives
had been following recent media reports of our pending transactions
and were prepared to discuss “reasonable, competitive terms” of a
transaction with us. On January 13, 2011, a representative of Party
E clarified that their interest is in a transaction related to an
acquisition of the patents and patent applications being sold
pursuant to the Patent Purchase Agreement, “and maybe more.”

“This filing was on January 14, so stay tuned.

“The 882 patents turn out not to be 882 after all. There are
only 861, and the Microsoft consortium would like some of
Attachmate’s to make up for the few they’ve discovered don’t
exist… Wait. What? Attachmate was to get only patents and
copyrights associated with Novell’s UNIX and Linux businesses,
right? Microsoft wants some of those? Like, um… some UNIX
copyrights perchance? Novell says Attachmate won’t “currently”
consent.”

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