Hedge fund Elliott Associates has made an unsolicited $1.8 billion offer to take former software giant Novell private, in a move apparently motivated to maximize the company’s value to investors a series of strategy changes and acquisitions have failed to put Novell back into the top tier of technology companies. According to theWall Street Journal (subscription required), Elliott believes Novell’s stock has significantly underperformed in recent years, its experience in restructuring companies will maximize value to shareholders. Elliott is already one of those shareholders: it owned about 8.5 percent of Novell.
