A new Reuters report indicates that SUSE, the enterprise Linux vendor, may change ownership again. This would not be unusual, as the company has changed hands several times over the past two decades.
Reuters reports that SUSE’s current owner, Swedish private-equity firm EQT AB, is considering a sale that could value the company at up to $6 billion. EQT has engaged investment bank Arma Partners to assess interest from potential buyers, primarily other private-equity firms. Discussions are in the early stages, and there is no certainty that a transaction will occur.
For reference, EQT acquired SUSE in 2018 from Micro Focus for approximately $2.5 billion. The firm took SUSE public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2021, then private again in 2023 at a valuation of about €2.72 billion (around $2.96 billion). So, a sale near $6 billion would nearly double SUSE’s value in just over two years.
Now, let me quickly recall the chronology. In 2003, SUSE was acquired by Novell as part of its push into the enterprise Linux market. In 2010, Novell itself was acquired by The Attachmate Group, bringing SUSE under Attachmate’s ownership. Four years later, Attachmate merged with Micro Focus International, making Micro Focus the next parent company of the Linux vendor.
Then, in 2018, Micro Focus sold SUSE to EQT, returning the company to independent ownership under the private-equity firm. Beyond that, things are going well, with SUSE reporting that many Fortune 500 companies rely on its technologies to run workloads across cloud platforms, mainframes, and edge environments.
And now to another important point. Although the reported sale involves SUSE itself, expectably, it raises questions about potential impacts on the broader ecosystem, especially the openSUSE project. In short, a change in SUSE ownership does not automatically mean changes for openSUSE users. The project’s independent governance and strong community have historically ensured stability through previous ownership transitions.
Finally, it must be said again – at this stage, the process remains exploratory, with no confirmed buyer and no guarantee of a sale. At the moment, neither EQT nor SUSE has issued an official statement on the matter.
