Mood:
accident proneNow Playing: Moon Over My Lexus
Topic: The Sneaky Runarounds
I cut and pasted this into a google search textbox: Microsoft + Exchange + Viridian and I was reminded of the Novell/Microsoft coupling done earlier and wondered how long before Microsoft (or Novell - we don't know who was the top in this negotiation since MisterSofty gave Novell a lot of money and most of what Novell did was sit there with a grin.) might show some fruit of those labors and loves lost wax mold.
So then I cut and pasted it from there to here. It's a Novell, Inc. FORM 8-K November 2, 2006 filing . Just an artifact of a moment long ago with even longer ramifications and fiduciary impact. A spent capsule to remind us of the barriers business faces in the swim upstream only to be dashed to bits by the rubbery confines of 'the system'. Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. Man either drink doo or get it in his eye.
Item 1.01 Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.
On November 2, 2006, Novell, Inc. (“Novell”) and Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”) announced that they had entered into a Business Collaboration Agreement, a Technical Collaboration Agreement, and a Patent Cooperation Agreement. This set of broad business and technical collaboration agreements is designed to build, market and support a series of new solutions to make Novell and Microsoft products work better together for customers.
Under the Business Collaboration Agreement, which expires January 1, 2012, Novell and Microsoft will market a combined offering. The combined offering will consist of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (“SLES”) and a subscription for SLES support along with Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Virtual Server and Microsoft Viridian that will be offered to customers desiring to deploy Linux and Windows in a virtualized setting. Microsoft will make an upfront payment to Novell of $240 million for SLES subscription “certificates,” which Microsoft may use, resell or otherwise distribute over the term of the agreement, allowing the certificate holder to redeem single or multi-year subscriptions for SLES support from Novell (entitling the certificate holder to upgrades, updates and technical support). Microsoft will spend $12 million annually for marketing Linux and Windows virtualization scenarios and will also spend $34 million over the term of the agreement for a Microsoft sales force devoted primarily to marketing the combined offering. Microsoft agreed that for three years it will not enter into an agreement with any other Linux distributor to encourage adoption of non-Novell Linux/Windows Server virtualization through a program substantially similar to the SLES subscription “certificate” distribution program.
The Technical Collaboration Agreement, which also runs until January 1, 2012, focuses on three areas:
- Novell and Microsoft will develop technologies to optimize SLES and Windows running as guests on each other's operating systems.
- Novell and Microsoft will work together and with independent software vendors to develop management tools for managing heterogeneous virtualization environments, which will enable each party's management tools to command, control and configure the other party's operating system in a virtual machine environment.
- Novell and Microsoft will work together on ways to make translators available to improve interoperability between Office Open XML and OpenOffice formats.
Under the Patent Cooperation Agreement, Microsoft commits to a covenant not to assert its patents against Novell's end-user customers for their use of Novell products and services for which Novell receives revenue directly or indirectly from such customers, with certain exceptions, while Novell commits to a covenant not to assert its patents against Microsoft's end-user customers for their use of Microsoft products and services for which Microsoft receives revenue directly or indirectly from such customers, with certain exceptions. Both Microsoft and Novell have payment obligations under the Patent Cooperation Agreement. Microsoft will make an up-front net payment to Novell of $108 million, and Novell will make ongoing payments of at least $40 million over five years to Microsoft based on percentages of Novell's Open Platform Solutions and Open Enterprise Server revenues.
Don't you just love these color thingies? Now, when some delicate genius comes up with being able to edit the webpage directly wysiwyg instead of this container of a textbox with buttons and barricades... huh? huh? Throwback Crap.
