Novell purchases, then offloads WordPerfect.

• Position: Top Mergers & Acquisitions

In the mid-'90s, Novell and WordPerfect Corporation faced the same giant problem: Microsoft.

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In 1990, WordPerfect had annual sales of $500 million with seven million users worldwide. It dominated the word processing industry with a 50 percent share of the market. But 1990 was also the year Microsoft released its Windows operating system, and customers began dropping away from WordPerfect as they adopted Windows and its companion soft ware, Word.

Meanwhile, Novell was king of the network computing sector with 65 percent of that market in 1992. Microsoft began chipping away at Novell's dominance with its release of Windows NT, a version of its operating system designed for networks. With many companies already invested in Windows, they began to implement Microsoft's network offerings as well.

In order to position itself to better take on Microsoft, Novell purchased WordPerfect along with...