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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy?
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To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (24991)1/15/1999 3:18:00 PM
From: PJ Strifas  Read Replies (1) of 42771
 
Hey Paul,

I don't think MSFT has the right approach to this issue either. I find it somewhat lacking that one product can do some many things (workstation/server/enterprise server, etc). Makes me wonder if it's really just a workstation with too much piled on top.

I mean is it a server with just some code disabled to become a workstation or a workstation with some add ons to make it a server platform?

Sort of like buying a Ferrari with only 4 cylinders working for an economy car or a Hugo with a jet engine attached to make it a super-sports car.

But NetWare for Small Biz 4.2 isn't a bad product. It's only shortcoming is that you can't add it into a large directory tree or add more licenses than 50. Otherwise, point for point, it will give NT a run for it's money. Especially in that one area MSFT is making gains on NOVL -- small businesses still using NetWare 3.x.

As for E-commerce and vision, I think you may have hit Schmidt's one weak spot. I don't see him having the "amazon.com" mentality at all. In fact, I see him more as the ISP/Carrier/Enterprise type guy. He may well make inroads into the Fortune 100 companies with his products and may even get the large carriers (telecom) to incorporate NOVL products into their networks but I don't see him pushing a platform solution for e-commerce at all.

Although they do have licensing for Netscape Server Suite which is THE e-commerce platform right now. Somehow there needs to be more synergy with SUNW for that to succeed.

Then again, I'd much rather see NOVL focus their energies on the products they have right now while developing or financing start-ups to make headway into other areas. Their current crop of products can and will make the right tools for others to create those e-commerce solutions.

Let's remember that NOVL can not be compared to Amazon.com or eBay in that they are 2 very different companies. One builds and develops the systems the internet and corporate networks work on while the others are virtual companies who are really just retail outlets.

Something to think about: Do you think we will see a balkanization of the networking companies? I mean with services becoming more and more popular, will we see universal OS with services created/promoted by individual companies?

I keep reading more and more about companies creating software whereby their service(s) will run on a competitor's OS (MSFT has File & Print Services for NetWare and NOVL has NDS on NT as well as UNIX services). I don't have the insight to say with certainty what that may bring but I do see it becoming an interesting side show.

Peter Strifas
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