On November 24, 2010, Law360 reported that a shareholder of Novell, Inc., represented by Robbins Umeda LLP, filed a lawsuit accusing Novell's officers and directors of breaching their fiduciary duties by planning to sell the company at an undervalued price "through an unfair and self-serving process."  The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, responds to Attachmate Corp.'s announcement on Monday, November 22, 2010, that it plans to acquire Novell for $2.2 billion.  The deal also includes the sale of intellectual property assets to a group of technology companies led by Microsoft Corp. for $450 million.

The shareholder class action complaint names Novell's chief executive officer, senior vice president and seven of its directors as individual defendants.  Novell, Attachmate, Longview Software Acquisition Corp., which will merge into Novell under the proposed deal, and CPTN Holdings LLC, the Microsoft-led consortium that plans to purchase some of Novell's intellectual property, are also named as defendants.

The case is Jacobs v. Novell Inc., et al., No. 1:10-cv-12035-RWZ (D. Mass.).

* The firm name changed from Robbins Umeda LLP to Robbins LLP on January 1, 2013.