The shareholders of Digital Research Inc., Monterey, Calif., a company developing advanced operating system software, have approved a merger with Novell Inc., an operating computer system software company.
Under terms of the merger, all outstanding share of Digital Research stock were exchanged for 3 million newly issued share of Novell common stock. Digital Research will operate as a wholly-owned Novell subsidiary.Through the merger, Novell is acquiring general purpose DOS operating systems technology designed to support more than 70 million computer users who work with DOS-based applications running on desktop to palmtop computers.
Novell also is acquiring a leading supplier of multiuser, realtime and multitasking operating system technology used in industrial automation, process control and point-of-sale systems worldwide. Major customers include FANUC, Fujitsu, IBM, ICL, Johnson Controls, Siemens and TEC.
"The experience development team at Digital Research, and the value of their operating system technology to computer users, extends Novell's ability to respond to customer demands for closer integration of desktop computers with other computer resources on the network," said Ray Noorda, Novell president and chief executive officer.
Dick Williams, Digital president and chief executive officer, said, "As part of Novell we see a real opportunity to help change the way the industry thinks about operating systems and even computers themselves, and importantly, how we respond to customer interest in creating seamless network computer systems."