Tag Archives: SUSE

HPE “Buys” SUSE & Offloads Its Legacy Software

In a move reminiscent of the departure of its consulting wing to CSC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a complex transaction involving a reverse takeover of legacy software specialist Micro Focus PLC of the UK. They described it as a spin-off and merger. First they will create a spin-out company named Seattle SpinCo Inc comprising all the many enterprise software assets HP has accumulated over the years. That company will then merge with Micro Focus, who will pay for the transaction with $2.5 billion cash and a 50.1% equity stake. The result, expected to complete late in 2017, will be a company half owned and with a majoority of the board selected by HPE but still run by Micro Focus’ existing management and headquartered in the UK. Continue reading →

SUSE LibreOffice developers move to Collabora

Along with SUSE’s announcement that they are stopping development of LibreOffice, they also announced that they’re facilitating the migration of their staff LibreOffice contributors to Collabora, a new home for LibreOffice support. The core of SUSE’s LibreOffice developers (contributing around three quarters of SUSE commits), will now continue their work from within the newly created Collabora productivity suite business unit, named Collabora Productivity.

Whilst many of those left behind remain committed to contributing to LibreOffice on their own time, the developer core moving to Collabora Productivity ensure that both LibreOffice community support and continuity for SUSE’s enterprise customers remain priorities.

For the LibreOffice project overall, the news seems a very natural step for SUSE and highlights the importance of The Document Foundation’s role in managing the project; even in times of corporate change for contributing companies, impact on the project itself is minimal, as all infrastructure for development and distribution is managed by the Foundation. For more commentary, check out Simon’s InfoWorld article.