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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Sloan who wrote (28171)	9/20/1999 9:19:00 AM
From: PJ Strifas	Respond to of 42771

Hello and Thanks! :) Just to add some comments along this line - the bigger picture here has more to do with perception than anything else and both of you make valid points. Novell suffers from the constant comparison to Microsoft and it's "loss" in the Noorda's battle against that Titan. This goes back to our most fundamental complaint on this board - where is Novell's marketing and PR? This company lacks an innovative approach to getting their message out to not only the investment community (did you know that 65% of Novell's outstanding shares are owned by institutions?) but to the average investor. Take the next few days and walk around asking your friends, neighbors and acquaintances about Novell. Ask them what they do, who they are and have you ever used one of their products. The majority of the time you will get a Who? Don't Know and Never. But in reality 83% of the Fortune 100 companies use Novell networks (and over 80% of the Fortune 500). People just don't seem to remember that logon screen when the day starts (or whenever the re-boot). Whenever I explain what Novell is doing with digitalme, I don't even say it's Novell - people assume it's Microsoft or Sun who has the product. Go ahead - try it and see. This isn't great news if you are an investor but what keeps me in this game is the interest every person has about digitalme. Anyone connected to the internet can see the inherent value a product like digitalme can bring not only to themselves but to their families and businesses. Once this product gets out there, people's interest will drive them to Novell - which will drive the stock price faster than history has shown us. Yes, technically this is a gamble - then again, it's the stock market one big gamble? Novell has shown a great track record over the last 2 years - they develop a product, they release it, it sells and becomes part of their revenue stream. If they can maintain that for the next 3-5 years Novell can only improve. I'll take that steady improvement without question. Right now (I'll have to check the numbers) but I believe Novell has been right around the S&P 500 in terms of return for the last 2 years..... If the upside of Novell is too slow for anyone, you can take your chances elsewhere. This past week I began diversifying some of my assets into companies like CSCO, SUNW and CVC. Three solid companies - one that builds internet infrastructure, the other is building God-knows what with AOL and the last has a broadband monopoly in the NY Metro area (plus owns the Knicks, Rangers, Madison Sq Garden, Radio City Music Hall, The Whiz and claims over a few million subscribers in 5 states - they have been expanding their broadband services from T-1's to local phone service as well as interactive TV). This in no way reflects my position in Novell, just wanted to spread my money around and see what happens :) The Barron's article has drawn the interest of many investors but with the valuations and fluctuations of some companies where you can make more money faster and easier (in some people's minds) in the short run, it works against Novell. What Novell needs is not the occasional article but a weekly (or even daily) mention of the stock or the company's products not only in the financial press (CNBC, CNN Financial and Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal et al) and computer trade press (CNET, ZDNET, Network World et al) but in the everyday press (local newspapers, TV and Radio). Just some thoughts... Peter J Strifas