Sources who, a few short weeks ago, said they would have bet the farm on the mooted Novell Inc-Unix System Laboratories Inc merger going through, are now convinced the deal has soured. They theorise that the reason may have been the price being asked, exacerbated perhaps by personality clashes. Other companies have run numbers on what Unix Labs would be worth and found it hard to justify more than $200m – and that seems ridiculously high given that it’s more than twice annual sales. Novell could of course come back again sometime down the road, since its strategic interest in operating systems is doubtless unchanged, or another company could find the acquisition appealing. However, right now Unix Labs is believed to be back on the road to making a public offer.
