VMware is reportedly looking to acquire Novell’s SUSE operating system in a move that would give it a full stack of enterprise software.
According to the Wall Street Journal, VMware is in talks to buy Novell’s SUSE unit as the company is split in two. Netware and Novell’s other assets would be sold to private equity firm Attachmate.
The real fireworks, however, would be over VMware acquiring SUSE. Last quarter, Novell executives made it quite clear that the company was getting cozy with VMware much to the chagrin of partner Microsoft.
If VMware did buy SUSE it would have:
- A virtualization platform.
- vSphere, a cloud operating system.
- Zimbra, a collaboration and email platform.
- SpringSource a popular open source development framework.
- And SUSE, an operating system.
Add it up and VMware’s software stack would largely be complete.
Terms of the deal are still being worked out, reported the Journal. VMware CEO Paul Maritz said the end was near for the traditional OS. That’s an odd statement considering VMware is about to buy one.
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