The Attachmate Group Completes Acquisition of Novell

HOUSTON, TX (April 27, 2011) – The Attachmate Group today announced the completion of its acquisition of Novell, Inc., a leader in intelligent workload management, under the terms of the definitive agreement disclosed on November 22, 2010. Novell will operate as two separate business units, under the Novell and SUSE brand names, joining Attachmate and NetIQ as holdings of The Attachmate Group.
The Attachmate Group is owned by an investment consortium led by Golden Gate Capital, Francisco Partners and Thoma Bravo. As part of the transaction, Elliott Management Corporation, one of Novell’s largest shareholders, will become an equity shareholder in The Attachmate Group.

The addition of Novell further enhances The Attachmate Group’s ability to support customers’ strategic and tactical business requirements through innovative solutions, quality products, and exceptional service. The Attachmate Group’s products now include complementary solutions that range across security, identity and compliance management, virtualization and cloud computing, IT operations management, open source, end user computing and collaboration, host connectivity and legacy modernization, and more.

“This acquisition adds significant assets to our current portfolio holdings and the Novell and SUSE brands will allow us to deliver even more value to customers,” said Jeff Hawn, Chairman and CEO of The Attachmate Group. “We have great respect for Novell’s business, its employees and its commitment to customers. Indeed, our intention is to maintain and further strengthen Novell and SUSE solutions to meet market demands.”

“We see a great opportunity to build upon Novell’s established record of innovation and impressive technology,” commented Prescott Ashe, Managing Director, Golden Gate Capital. “This is consistent with our charter to partner with world-class management teams to make equity investments where there are demonstrable opportunities to significantly enhance company value.”

About The Attachmate Group

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, The Attachmate Group is a privately-held software holding company, comprising distinct IT brands dedicated to the long-term success of its customers. The Attachmate Group delivers enterprise solutions to extend, manage and secure increasingly complex IT environments. Principal holdings include Attachmate, NetIQ, Novell and SUSE. For more information, visit www.attachmategroup.com.

About Novell

Novell, Inc., a leader in intelligent workload management, helps organizations securely deliver and manage computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments. Novell helps customers reduce the cost, complexity, and risk associated with their IT systems through solutions for identity and security, systems management, collaboration and Linux-based operating platforms. With its infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit www.novell.com.

About Golden Gate Capital

Golden Gate Capital is a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm with approximately $9 billion of capital under management. Golden Gate is dedicated to partnering with world-class management teams to invest in change-intensive, growth businesses. The firm targets investments where there is a demonstrable opportunity to significantly enhance a company’s value. The principals of Golden Gate have a long and successful history of investing with management partners across a wide range of industries and transaction types, including leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, corporate divestitures and spin-offs, build-ups and venture stage investing. For more information, visit www.goldengatecap.com.