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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (29219)	12/4/1999 10:10:00 PM
From: Loring	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Paul: From your post. "Novell has great ideas about network infrastructure and gets an F minus in creativity with consumer level products." To my knowledge, Novell doesn't have any consumer products. So why would you give them an "F" for creativity about non-existent products? I agree with your kudos for their great ideas re network infrastructure, which I believe, is their core competency. But consumer products?...new to me!

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (29219)	12/5/1999 10:43:00 AM
From: EPS	Respond to of 42771

(OT?)Caching: Tracking Stock? === The notion of a "tracking stock" is simple enough. An older company tries something new but grows frustrated when investors don't reward it--or, worse, when they punish the company for its adventurousness. Meanwhile, the company's executives see other firms, younger perhaps, engaged in similar innovation but flying high on Wall Street as they report losses and hurl cash at The Next Big Thing. Jealous, the older company execs want to shout to the markets: "Hey. Look at us. We're cool, too." They can't really do that, but the older company can do The Next Best Thing: Create a new stock, representing only the cool part of its operations. It hopes to "unlock" obscured value and make growth-oriented investors suddenly sit up and take notice. It's supposed to work like Viagra. Or maybe it's the market equivalent of Marian the Librarian, the uptight spinster in Meredith Wilson's "The Music Man" who transforms herself into a ravishing bride simply by unlocking her true beauty. Tracking stocks have actually been around since the mid-1980s here and there. But now they seem to be everywhere. The most celebrated at the moment is Sprint Corp.'s Sprint PCS, which the company hived off 1 1/2 years ago from its long-distance operation (FON) as a tracking stock of its glitzier wireless business. PCS is up 400 percent since Jan. 1; FON, a mere 95 percent. washingtonpost.com

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (29219)	12/5/1999 12:01:00 PM
From: Roger Mariner	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 42771

Novell's a dangerous stock to own when holding out hope for a takeover. In today's super growth mode, Novell with very modest year-over-year growth doesn't inspire much of a premium. Certainly not the typical 40% premium, and nothing like the one paid to Lotus. More likely is a takeunder with a valuation closer to $5 billion (four times annual revenue plus one billion for the cash). As for partners, IBM spits in Novell's general direction. CSCO's Chambers isn't a bottomfeeder. Chairman Young wouldn't let SUNW buy NOVL, and LU has bigger fish to fry--afterall, Bell Labs was the one who sold a number of key technologies to Novell many moons ago. Why would they want them back now? For fun, you might want to see how Novell handled Tuxedo (technology that came from Bell Labs). They sold it off to BEA Systems (BEAS). BEAS ipo'd at 6. Now don't you wish that your NOVL had done as well as BEAS? BEAS knows business and if NOVL had the same game plan, there wouldn't be so many distraught investors lurking on this board. Novell's a fine company run by fine engineers. Why beat them up for what they could become? They are what they are. RM