Kill the patents, kill the problem

Novell's decision to acquire Suse back in 2003 was a smart move for a struggling company. Having seen the market lead of its NDS directory product gradually eroded by Microsoft's Active Directory alternative and Windows NT, Novell was a company looking for an identity. Buying a way into the open-source community helped it plug right back into the zeitgeist — and more importantly, made Wall Street sit up and take notice again.

Kill the patents, kill the problem.