Shares of business software maker Novell Inc. (NOVL) jumped more than 6.5 percent Monday morning after Attachmate Corp. said it agreed to acquire the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company for $2.2 billion in cash, or $6.10 per share. Novell said the deal, which represents a 7% premium to Friday’s $5.59 close, tops an unsolicited $5.75 per share offer that hedge fund Elliott Associate made back in March, a bid which at $2 billion was described by Novell as undervaluing the company.
“Our board of directors concluded that the best available alternative was the combination of a merger with Attachmate Corporation and a sale of certain intellectual property assets to the consortium,” commented Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian, in a statement released on Monday. “We are pleased that these transactions appropriately recognize the value of Novell’s relationships, technology and solutions, while providing our stockholders with an attractive cash premium for their investment.”
Novell also announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell some of its intellectual property to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of tech companies organized by Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), for $450 million in cash.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of FY 2011.
NOVL, whose shares are seeing huge volume; mid-way through the session ticker has already traded 109 million shares, which is nearly 30x the daily average volume, gained $0.37, or 6.62 percent, to $5.95 at 10:32 a.m. ET in Nasdaq composite trading.
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