No, we didn't get bought by HPE - SUSE
Michael Miller insists SUSE will remain independent
SUSE has insisted that his firm has not be bought by HPE, following the latter's spin-merger of its software arm last week.
HPE announced it plans to spin off certain assests in its software business to Micro Focus - SUSE's owner - last week. As part of the deal, which is due to close in Q3 next year, HPE shareholders will own a 50.1 per cent of future Micro Focus shares.
SUSE's president of alliances, strategy and marketing Michael Miller moved to clarify what this means for his firm, squashing certain commentators which had a "misunderstanding".
In a blog post, he said: "There are a number of articles, blogs and social media posts out with headlines like ‘SUSE's been bought by HPE'. Clearly, this is a misunderstanding of what was announced last week but once [it] is out there, others often follow and echo without checking out the source information carefully.
"So, let's clear things up by calling out some of the facts: SUSE's parent company Micro Focus announced its intent to merge with HPE's Software Business Segment, a newly formed company holding HPE's IT management, enterprise security, information management and governance, and big data analytics software assets.
"If you read HPE's news release you'll see that after the proposed transaction, HPE shareholders would own 50.1 per cent of the future Micro Focus shares. HPE, the company, would have no ownership in Micro Focus, would not control Micro Focus and would receive no ongoing revenue or profits from Micro Focus as a result of the merger of Micro Focus and HPE's software business."
He added that Micro Focus-owned SUSE would remain "unchanged" by the transaction.
"SUSE would remain a business within the Micro Focus company and Micro Focus will remain independent of HPE. SUSE would not be owned in any way or controlled by HPE.
"SUSE would obviously continue to be a key part of the new, larger Micro Focus organisaton just as it is a key part of Micro Focus today. So no change there, either. And the SUSE leadership team, business strategy and goals all remain unchanged and completely focused on continuing to deliver and support the enterprise-grade open source solutions."