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

To: Bryan C. Simpson who wrote (28437)	10/5/1999 11:29:00 AM
From: Loring	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Normally, a buyback entails purchase and retirement of the stock into the company's treasury stock with the net effect being a change to the balance sheet, not to earnings. I don't believe NOVL is "trading" their stock to take advantage of an uptick. IMO. FYI

To: Bryan C. Simpson who wrote (28437)	10/5/1999 11:45:00 AM
From: ToySoldier	Respond to of 42771

Bryan, The buyback is for retirement. They are reducing the number of outstanding shares. This does not affect the bottom line but it will benefit earnings/share since there are less and less of them. Someone correct me if I am wrong but does Novell have shares the provide dividends? If so, and if Novell is retiring them, then the dividend cheques would be larger - if they are even giving out dividends. Another reason that they MIGHT be retiring the shares is to make them available for emplyee/management stock options - or to recover from stock options that have been exersized. The question I have is - can Novell use retired stock as payment for employees who exersize their options, or, by retiring the stock, are the shares now considered DEAD and non-existent stock? I might think the latter. Paul or others, how does this work? I would also think that Novell Investments would have taken this run on the stock price to buy back substantial stock positions off the market. To me this was a big opportunity for them. Toy

To: Bryan C. Simpson who wrote (28437)	10/5/1999 11:46:00 AM
From: Bosco	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

G'day all - hi Bryan, it would be a frightening scenario for a company trading its own stock, even if it were legal. Just imagine, how would it explain the insider trading charge?! And who among investors would be willing to trust the co? Loring's scenario [retiring stock to treasury] is one way. The company can also buy stock back for ESOP purposes. The former is better b/c it reduces the outstanding shares and thus improve the per share earning ratio. The latter is still good b/c the company might have to issue more stock [for ESOP purposes] otherwise best, Bosco