Hi Joe...About Marengi
>>Oh sure, I know, it's not effective until April 7th, but c'mon, you're right Eric (and I think I heard about 5 or 6 other people saying the same thing today (not me though, till now), "why can't he just let Eric do his thing? It's like he just can't let go? They want to hear Eric, not him.<<
Let's be fair here, Marengi is the highest Novell official in Brainshare and Eric Schmidt is a guest. Before April 7, Marengi has the right to speak as much as he wants, in fact it is his responsiblity. Contrary to what you are saying, I listened to the replay of the Q & A session and I didn't feel at all that he was upstaging Eric. When Eric was asked about his lack of experience of not being a CEO before, and after Eric completed his answer, Marengi added: where did Gates his experience before being the CEO of MSFT?. My persoal impression is that he acted properly all along, and spoke only when the question was directed to him. You can imagine in a large confernce like this one that reporters are also interested in what Marengi has to say to sell some magazines.
About the remainder of the Q & A session (with Denice and her staff)
Two disturbing things came up:
1. E-Commerce Server will not be out before the end of 97: This thing was scheduled for last fall, then they promised it will be March or April of 97, and now it is December 97. This is ridiculous. In fact one reporter said they emphasized this thing in last year Brainshare and how come it is taking them that long if it was that important then.
2. About Novell Connect Service with AT&T: They said they are doing very well. They signed about 100,000 users. I don't know who they are fooling. This is nothing, considering that this service was deployed in 11/95 and they have about 30M Netware users in the US. What they are saying it is wonderfull to sign 0.3% of the users over 15 month period. IMO, this service is dead and not going anywhere.
After I listened to this stuff and combined it with the latest financial results, I was surprised that some people on this thread think that the company is on the brink of a turnaround. They are more likely on the brink of a collapse. However, I do believe Eric Schmidt will save it, but it will take him about a year to turn it around.
Regards
Salah |
