Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy? Message Board

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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy?

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To: Larry S. who wrote (29213)	12/4/1999 7:33:00 PM
From: Paul Fiondella	Read Replies (3) of 42771

Dear Larry You may remember last year when Eric Stroh... took a similar position and sold his NOVL and bought SUNW I said at the time that he was a very smart guy. Well he was smarter than me. I've made money on NOVL, lots of it. But right now I look like a damn fool. Don't think my wife hasn't pointed out that throwing a dart at the NASDAQ board in October and hitting virtually anything would have been better than owning NOVL. On the other hand I put my money where my mouth was and is. I like Novell. I like good engineers. I like the Scott Lemons who defy corporate bullshit culture to create things. I hope that Eric Schmidt can grasp some of the things that those of us a few years older and veterans of the 60's can understand about what the way forward is. In any case I'm stuck with my money in this company to the tune of many tens of thousands of shares and therefore I have a real stake in management's performance. I ain't going away. Let's see those Novell sales persons getting ready to greet Win2000 with the best pitch for NDS that anyone has ever heard. Let's hear that comment from Schmidt about cookies being obsolete for keeping track of internet users resonate. Schmidt has to face the reality of the situation. He can believe the corporate good old boys, the ones who told him all was well before the stock plunged 10 points. OR, as I hope, he will look at the reality of the company. Novell has great engineering and pathetic marketing. Novell has great technology and pathetic public relations. Novell has great ideas about network infrastructure and gets an F minus in creativity with consumer level products. If they want to produce products in the same market as Microsoft they have to learn to be as creative with the end user as Microsoft. That means creating and publicizing their products in ways that ordinary consumers of the internet can understand. The alternative is simple and obvious --- partner with a company that has more market share and a more secure position and become a division in that company with more resources and more time to be ahead of the curve. There are plenty of candidates. SUNW, IBM, LU and so on. Go talk to them Eric and tell the BOD that you will resign if they don't listen. That ought to get them in the right mood for change. IT would be a plus in Schmidt's career to say that he took Novell from the brink of doom, got all of its advanced technologies into products, and got those products to market, and made them the centerpiece of the delivery of secure internet directory based services. In that case the best technology would become the standard technology. There is nothing wrong with Novell being folded into a larger more secure company to accomplish that goal. The alternative is for a bright guy like Schmidt and a great company like Novell to be outmaneuvered by a less corporately conservative company like MSFT with inferior products and technology to everyone's including the consumers disadvantage. (And if you are reading this you cheap bastard McNealy then consider that your ass is next, no matter how secure you think it is, if you don't use your share price now to acquire Novell.) In such circumstances (those of being outmaneuvered by VHS even though you got BETA) all that will be remembered about Schmidt is the pink slips that will be handed out when the company goes the way of Control Data, DEC, or any of a number of other great companies. Great companies deserve better. Novell deserves better. Novell deserves to win. I'm convinced the company should match itself up with a stronger (financially and market share wise) partner. They need to do this now and stop fooling around with pipedreams. They can beat Microsoft in the area of directory services but it will be a long hard struggle. That objective can be reached much sooner in partnership with ANY of the companies I have listed.

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