Novell is fleshing out its Web services portfolio with the agreed $212m cash purchase of SilverStream Software.

The $9 a share offer represents a 75 per cent premium over Friday's closing price, so it's not altogether surprising that the deal is agreed. However, SilverStream has around $100m in cash and marketable securities on its balance sheet, so the net cash outlay for Novell will be $112m - assuming that no working capital is sucked out of the company to pay off the shareholders.

In a press statement today, Novell signalled its intention to fight IBM, Sun and Microsoft head-on for Web services business. But first it really needs to return to profit.

Through SilverStream's eXtend product line, Novell reckons it has got a way of unlocking corporate info held in those in those enormous, proprietary data silos which every enterprise is supposed to have, and then integrating this into web-applications.

Novell's press release is here. ®