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SUSE sold!

Terryv
By Terryv
in Tech News
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Posted

https://itsfoss-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/itsfoss.com/suse-eqt-acquisition/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1#amp_tf=From %1%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fitsfoss.com%2Fsuse-eqt-acquisition%2F&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fitsfoss.com%2Fsuse-eqt-acquisition%2F
 

Quote

 

British software company Micro Focus International has agreed to sell SUSE Linux and its associated software business to Swedish private equity group EQT Partners for $2.535 billion.

 

Seems like a lot of money, considering they're paying 26x their operating profit and 8x total revenue.

 

Quote

In keeping with our 25-year history, SUSE intends to remain committed to an open source development and business model and actively participate in communities and projects to bring open source innovation to the enterprise as high quality, reliable and usable solutions. Our truly open, open source model, where open refers to the freedom of choice provided to customers and not just the code used in our solutions, is embedded in SUSE culture, differentiates us in the market place and has been key to our years of success.

This is good news, I hope they don't change their stance on this later.

System specs:

4790k

GTX 1050

16GB DDR3

Samsung evo SSD

a few HDD's

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

Not bad price for free software !!!

Inb4 all the "I just downloaded it for free!!" jokes

 

Seems like the company that bought them has some good money stashed away, let's hope that can be put to good use to further the development of the software.

"We're all in this together, might as well be friends" Tom, Toonami.

 

mini eLiXiVy: my open source 65% mechanical PCB, a build log, PCB anatomy and discussing open source licenses: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1366493-elixivy-a-65-mechanical-keyboard-build-log-pcb-anatomy-and-how-i-open-sourced-this-project/

 

mini_cardboard: a 4% keyboard build log and how keyboards work: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1328547-mini_cardboard-a-4-keyboard-build-log-and-how-keyboards-work/

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Posted
7 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

What the Actual Fudge?!?!

Maybe I have been watching too much Shark Tank, but that's insane...

I mean you wouldn't sell the company for the same amount as it's annual revenue especially a successful one. 26 times annual isn't that bad when you really think about it. 

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Posted
3 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

Not bad price for free software !!!

The support, which most people who want a reliable system will desire, is a subscription which certainly is not cheap.

image.png.c9d3d7e9fbf673d5145eaeb63ba3b91b.png

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12 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

What the Actual Fudge?!?!

Maybe I have been watching too much Shark Tank, but that's insane...

Worth noting that SUSE had over 300 million dollars in revenue though. So that's "just" ~8 times the revenue.

Still insane amounts of money but not as insane as if you just look at profits. Depending on what their expenses are it might be possible to make it far more profitable with relatively simple steps.

 

I wonder why it's being bought.

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  • Author
12 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Worth noting that SUSE had over 300 million dollars in revenue though. So that's "just" ~8 times the revenue.

Still insane amounts of money but not as insane as if you just look at profits. Depending on what their expenses are it might be possible to make it far more profitable with relatively simple steps.

 

I wonder why it's being bought.

I fixed my mistake, its 26x profit and 8x revenue

System specs:

4790k

GTX 1050

16GB DDR3

Samsung evo SSD

a few HDD's

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Posted

Seem to me to be nothing more than 'Debt Generators'.

By that I mean they leave a lot of generated debt behind when they take their money and run.

IMHO, the involvement of these sharks in a business is as good as the Grimm Reaper telling you that you are going to die.

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Posted
1 hour ago, TheGlenlivet said:

What the Actual Fudge?!?!

Maybe I have been watching too much Shark Tank, but that's insane...

Three options come to mind.

 

1) Money Laundering

2) Paying off connections for other work (think Intelligence work)

3) SUSE was sitting on a set of patents that are worth far, far more than they knew until someone came to buy them

 

Could actually be all 3. High Art works the same way.

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28 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Three options come to mind.

 

1) Money Laundering

2) Paying off connections for other work (think Intelligence work)

3) SUSE was sitting on a set of patents that are worth far, far more than they knew until someone came to buy them

 

Could actually be all 3. High Art works the same way.

Looking into it, I think they were owned by Micro Focus, which needed the cash to cover some losses they had been having.

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Posted

What does this mean for openSUSE?

One day I will be able to play Monster Hunter Frontier in French/Italian/English on my PC, it's just a matter of time... 4 5 6 7 8 9 12 years later: It's finally coming!!! I don't care anymore

Phones: iPhone 4S/SE | LG V10 | Lumia 920 | Samsung S24 Ultra

Laptops: Macbook Pro 15" (mid-2012) | Compaq Presario V6000

Other: Steam Deck

<>EVs are bad, they kill the planet and remove freedoms too some/<>

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51 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

What does this mean for openSUSE?

OpenSUSE development is (or at least was) primarily funded by Micro Focus International, so now it will be funded by someone else I guess (EQT Partners).

I doubt much will happen though. OpenSUSE is community driven, and often used as the base for SUSE Linux Enterprise. It would be weird to stop funding what's essentially your test platform, where a lot of the work is done by the community and other companies.

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3 hours ago, TheGlenlivet said:

Looking into it, I think they were owned by Micro Focus, which needed the cash to cover some losses they had been having.

Main thing is the price is too high. That's always a sign for something else is going on, which could be a lot of things. Normally it's a payoff for something else, as all of the bigger players (especially in Finance) know each other. Collective back-scratching is normally the name of the game. When a company goes for a reasonable price on their current value/revenue, you know there wasn't something else going on.

 

Of course, it goes the other way as well. Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo! for a very reasonable price (about 60% over their then stock value), but Yahoo!, being the worst run tech company to make it big, turned down that offer with no plan for what to do next.

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Posted

I seem to recall something involving SuSE and Microsoft a long time ago, what ever came of that?

Solve your own audio issues  |  First Steps with RPi 3  |  Humidity & Condensation  |  Sleep & Hibernation  |  Overclocking RAM  |  Making Backups  |  Displays  |  4K / 8K / 16K / etc.  |  Do I need 80+ Platinum?

If you can read this you're using the wrong theme.  You can change it at the bottom.

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5 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Not bad price for free software !!!

OpenSUSE is free software, SUSE Linux is not. The former is community supported, the latter is a for profit product. To be very clear, the COMPANY that makes the for profit product was aquired, the ither is still developed by the community.

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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1 hour ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I seem to recall something involving SuSE and Microsoft a long time ago, what ever came of that?

Novell bought SUSE.

Microsoft started suing, and threatening to sue, a bunch of SUSE customers for patent infringements.

Novell (and Xandros) entered an agreement with Microsoft to make them stop.

 

It's the entire reason why the GPLv3 has a clause about extending patent agreements downstream.

 

Not sure if anything noteworthy came from that agreement.

The plan was outlined on this website, but it is dead since several years. Can't find it on the waybackmachine either.

www.moreinterop.com

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2 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

Novell bought SUSE.

Microsoft started suing, and threatening to sue, a bunch of SUSE customers for patent infringements.

Novell (and Xandros) entered an agreement with Microsoft to make them stop.

 

It's the entire reason why the GPLv3 has a clause about extending patent agreements downstream.

 

Not sure if anything noteworthy came from that agreement.

The plan was outlined on this website, but it is dead since several years. Can't find it on the waybackmachine either.

www.moreinterop.com

Oh yes that brings back some memories.  I was never fully clear on the whole thing but I do recall GPLv3 being wrapped up in it some how now that you mention it.

Solve your own audio issues  |  First Steps with RPi 3  |  Humidity & Condensation  |  Sleep & Hibernation  |  Overclocking RAM  |  Making Backups  |  Displays  |  4K / 8K / 16K / etc.  |  Do I need 80+ Platinum?

If you can read this you're using the wrong theme.  You can change it at the bottom.

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