How Many SUSE Subscriptions Can You Get For $240M? 121
itwbennett writes "According to an SD Times article, Microsoft is almost through passing out the infamous subscription certificates for SUSE Enterprise Linux that it purchased for $240 million as part of its investment in Novell. According to the article, Microsoft says that 'a total of 475 customers have used an unspecified number of coupons.' Blogger Brian Proffitt calculates that 'if indeed just 475 customers have received these coupons, then Microsoft has essentially subsidized SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) deployments to an average tune of US$505,263.16 per customer.'"
Re:Value of Software (Score:3, Interesting)
They are selling SUPPORT. The idea is to essentially kick out a RedHat subscription, at a customer ready to change the way they manage support. The MS subsidy makes this an attractive change.
SuSE runs on HyperV with native hooks - Like Server 2008 does. This is a way to ensure MS doesn't get lost in the data center - but continues to emerge as a player.
3.5 years later (Score:4, Interesting)
Novell stock has lost 30%
Microsoft stock has lost 1%
Redhat stock has gained 78%
Good going Novell, yet another stellar business decision. The $240mil had to have been the value of the entire deal, which was mostly beneficial to Microsoft in that they weren't going to be sued by Novell since Novell owns a lot of the UNIX patents. The licenses were being resold by Microsoft at prices substantially less than ($240/77)x1000