As expected, the buyout of Linux power Novell by Attachmate has finally gone through. On April 27th, Attachmate acquired Novell for $6.10 per share in cash–approximately $2.2-billion. With this deal completed, Novell is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group, the parent company of Attachmate Corporation. Immediately prior to the merger Novell completed it’s “previously announced sale of certain identified issued patents and patent applications to CPTN Holdings LLC for $450 million in cash.”

According to the company, “As a result of the merger, Novell’s common stock will cease trading on The NASDAQ Global Select Market at the close of business on April 27, 2011, and Novell expects to de-register and suspend its reporting obligations. BNY Mellon Shareowner Services has been appointed to serve as the agent for payment of the merger consideration to Novell’s stockholders, and will promptly mail to stockholders of record instructions on how to surrender their stock certificates and receive payment for their shares.”

Attachmate has attempted to assure Novell customers and openSUSE users that it will be business as usual under the new regime. One interesting change though has already popped up, according to the Attachmate Group site, Novell and SuSE will be separate companies. Novell acquired SuSE for its Linux operating system in 2003.

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