To me, what is really interesting about this deal is how it all came about. Elliott Associates forced Novell to put themselves up for sale after Elliott offered

To me, what is really interesting about this deal is how it all came about. Elliott Associates forced Novell to put themselves up for sale after Elliott offered to buy the entire company. They're a really interesting hedge fund because they get involved in these extremely esoteric areas of the market where they have little competition -- for example, a few years back they were buying up defaulted sovereign debt and suing countries to force them into paying up. With this deal, not only is Novell getting sold to Attachmate, but Elliott is also an equity investor in Attachmate, so they can benefit from the upside. Now that markets are becoming more and more volatile, these kinds of transactions where you force an event are going to be in demand in order to keep returns up.