Why would a hedge fund offer to buy a software company?

[Puggit]

Elliot associates bid to buy Novell

article said:

In a letter to Novell's board, Elliot said it believed Novell "has attempted to diversify away from its legacy division with a series of acquisitions and changes in strategic focus that have largely been unsuccessful". As a result, Elliot said Novell's "stock has meaningfully underperformed all relevant indices and peers."

If successful, would we expect asset stripping and redundancies?

[Puggit]

Seems the answer is here

Time to dust down the CV!

[bga]

It does sound like an "efficiency drive" is on the cards. Elliot sound like they know what they want to do.