indemnification

One has to wonder what's going on in the world between Microsoft and Novell. They signed a deal in 2006 worth over $300 million so that Novell could provide licensing certificates and support to Microsoft for its SuSE Linux distribution.

Novell, in turn, has to pay Microsoft $40 million over 5 years for indemnification for its customers. Huh? Stories like this one stem from the announcement of a couple of days ago when Novell invoiced Microsoft for a $100 million payment based on this agreement.

I still don't get the whole idea behind this deal. It sounds great for Novell who gets a lot of...