Sold or not, I would not fret. Fact of the matter is this, Altiris has lost customers to SCCM and SCCM has lost customers to Altiris. SCCM has so much hidden cost in the backend, its not even funny (creating reports and collections, is such a task). Altiris will thrive no matter what, just look at the Gartner quadrant year after year.
If Altiris is sold, even better actually. Expect a better product and support if market share for it shrinks, it is too big too renowed to be discarded. Check out LANDesk, they have been bought several times and now own themselves.
Altiris 6.5, 7.1sp1,sp2 are great, if implemented right. Out of the box settings need to changed depending on your environment and user requirements. (Altiris 7.0 = sucks, btw). The thing about Altiris is that you will get the most value of it, is if you have an implementer that is also an Architect. BAM, there I said it....