DOJ: CPTN Changes Deal To Buy Novell Patents To Ease Antitrust Woes

The Department of Justice outlined on Wednesday steps that CPTN Holdings LLC has agreed to take in order to acquire some patents and patent applications from Novell Inc. (NOVL), which is in the process of being bought by a trio of private-equity firms operating as Attachmate Corp.

The Justice Department said that in order to address antitrust concerns, CPTN--a holding company owned by Microsoft Inc. (MSFT), Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and EMC Corp. (EMC)--revised its agreements to buy the patents in several ways.

Among the revisions, Microsoft will sell back to Attachmate all of the Novell patents it would have bought, but it will continue to receive a license for the use of those patents; EMC won't acquire 33 Novell patents and applications that are related to virtualization software; all of the patents acquired will be subject to the GNU General Public License and the Open Invention Network--open-source and Linux licenses, respectively; CPTN won't have the right to limit which of the patents are available on the Linux license; and CPTN and its owners won't try to infuence or encourage Novell or Attachmate to change which of the patents are available under the Linux license.

The regulator said the deal as originally proposed would have jeopardized the ability of open source software, like Linux, to continue competing in the development of server, desktop, and mobile operating systems.

Novell in November agreed to be taken over by a group of private-equity firms for about $2.2 billion, ending an eight-month battle for the software company. The three firms that make up Attachmate are Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo LLC.

-By Nathan Becker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2855; [e-mail]