Jon, Hi <smile>.. This is what you guys have to counter .....
What's that you ask? Well, every article I read (non-PR) is ALWAYS
QUALIFIED, with a "but", or "however", or, well you know what I mean.
If the article is bad, they screw you. If the article is good (and TRUE also), they STILL screw you (and US TOO!).
Thanks for keeping an eye out here Jon. You and Patti have a great Holiday!
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Novell Betting On IntranetWare
By Steven Burke
Orem, Utah
2:45 p.m. EST Wed., Nov. 27, 1996
.............
Novell, Inc. is hoping its IntraNetWare product will spark a
turnaround, but analysts say the company still must overcome
significant hurdles.
The company posted flat earnings in the most recent quarter on a 20
percent drop in sales compared with the year-ago quarter. Sales of
the company's new directory-enabled IntranetWare intranet
platform and NetWare 4 increased 38 percent to $181 million over
sales for the preceding quarter.
"It's nice to see IntraNetware doing well, but that is a small piece of
the pie," said Jeff Matthews, general partner of Ram Partners, a
Greenwich, Conn.-based fund. "The challenges are as big as Bill
Gates' bank account."
Matthews said Novell is under a "massive assault by Microsoft."
Novell officials have insisted the company is determined to make it
independently rather than cut a deal to be acquired.
For its fourth fiscal quarter ended Oct. 26, Novell posted net
income of $59 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with net
income of $59 million, or 16 cents per share, in the year-ago
quarter.
Sales for the quarter were $384 million compared with $481 million
in the comparable quarter a year ago.
Chuck Phillips, an analyst with Morgan Stanley & Co., said the
results were "a step in the right direction, but a tough road ahead."
Sales were $17 million ahead of his expectations led by
IntraNetWare and NetWare 4. He noted that overall NetWare
sales were down 3 percent compared with the year-ago quarter.
New versions of IntraNetWare and GroupWise shipped in the last
three weeks of the quarter, increasing days-outstanding inventory to
107 compared with 100 in the preceding quarter.
Phillips said "anecdotal but not yet conclusive evidence" suggests the
initial sell through of Intranetware in the channel was encouraging.
But he said investors are likely to remain cautious until they see
evidence of a sustained sell through.
The results are the first following Novell's divestiture of its personal
productivity applications and UnixWare product lines and the
company's reduction of channel inventory in its third fiscal quarter.
Comparing results with that quarter, earnings were flat and sales
were up 5 percent.
Novell Chairman John A. Young, the legendary Hewlett-Packard
Co. founder who stepped in as chairman earlier this year, said he
was "pleased that the business changes Novell has been
implementing all year are having their effect on financial results." "We
plan to move rapidly through this transition period as we position the
company to address the Internet/intranet markets," said Young.
"Our actions continue to be directed at energizing the company for
profitable revenue growth."
Novell President Joseph Marengi said Novell server software
revenue was up $32 million, or 15 percent, sequentially to $247
million. The GroupWise 5 E-mail and collaboration system,
increased 24 percent sequentially. ManageWise 2.1, Novell's
PC-based network management software, grew 18 percent from
the prior quarter.
"Looking forward, we are advancing our strategy to establish Novell
Directory Services (NDS) as the de facto industry standard for the
rapidly expanding Internet/intranet markets," said Marengi. "To
promote mass adoption of NDS across all server platforms, we are
distributing our directory to major Unix providers today and to
systems providers delivering Microsoft's NT operating system in
early 1997. This action will seed the market for Novell and our
partners to build revenue from cross-platform, value-added network
services server replication, messaging, management and security that
use our directory as a foundation."
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Joe... |
