VMWare will buy Suse Linux

TROUBLED SOFTWARE OUTFIT Novell is about to flog off all its assets to two other firms, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal.

Virtualisation software maker VMware has plans to buy Novell's open source Suse Linux operating system business, while Attachmate wants to buy what is left.

Attachmate is a private equity-backed software company that is owned by buyout investors including Golden Gate Capital and Francisco Partners. It makes money by supporting legacy software products.

Novell had partnered with VMware to make Suse the preferred Linux operating system for VMware's virtualisation stack.

According to the WSJ, the sale is being delayed while both sides negotiate about how to divide Novell's sales force, as well as its patents and other intellectual property. µ