A sufficient number of shares have been pledged by Novell shareholders to the Attachmate acquisition of the company for US$2.2bn. However, regulators in Europe and the US have sought additional documents regarding patent transfers.
Attachmate Corporation revealed plans in November to buy enterprise software firm Novell for US$2.2bn. It plans to operate Novell as two business units, Novell and SUSE.
Attachmate is acquiring Novell for US$6.10 per share in cash.
Attachmate investment group
Attachmate Corporation is owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo. Novell also announced it has entered into a definitive agreement for the concurrent sale of certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of technology companies organised by Microsoft Corporation, for $450m in cash, which cash payment is reflected in the merger consideration to be paid by Attachmate Corporation.
All that stands in the way now is approval from regulatory authorities in Europe and the US.
Regulators in the German Bundeskartellamt and the US Justice Department antitrust division have requested additional information about the deal.
This is due to concerns over the patent transfers Attachmate intends in order to cut the costs of the Novell deal.
