Terminal emulation provider agrees to buy struggling software vendor and Linux distributor, ending months of speculation over Novell's future ownership

Attachmate, a provider of terminal emulation and application integration products, has agreed to acquire struggling software infrastructure company Novell for $2.2 billion.

Seattle-based Attachmate specialises in software that helps businesses manage applications running on legacy mainframe systems. It also sells application security monitoring software, under the brand NetIQ, and other applications integration tools. Attachmate is privately owned by a US investment consortium.

Massachusetts-based Novell, which distributes the SUSE Linux OS as well as selling identity management software, has struggled of late. In its most recent financial quarter, revenues fell 8% year-on-year to $199 million. The company blamed the decline on speculation surrounding its future ownership.

Attachmate will operate Novell and its SUSE Linux division as two separate business units.