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

To: Bernie Weinsaft who wrote (29887)	1/11/2000 10:34:00 PM
From: Paul Fiondella	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Novell beat Microsoft to the shelves with new OS yahoo.cnet.com ============= Impact: Looks like QTR 1 is solid.

To: Bernie Weinsaft who wrote (29887)	1/16/2000 2:01:00 PM
From: ToySoldier	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 42771

Our board let this Novell announcement of their acquisition of JustOn go by with little discussion. The ASP arena of the industry and Novell's technology to service ASPs and ISPs is of highest interest to me. I am a bit surprised that NOVL wants to enter directly into the ASP service delivery. It is very exciting but also makes me a bit nervous. On one hand I think NOVL has an incredible suite of technology to move the current ASP services delivery to a new radical evolution of delivery capabilities (something I have personally been contemplating for months). On the other hand, NOVL has not demonstrated any true success in entering any Services business to the industry. I have said this before, NOVL is strongly entrenched in the "Products" business. The disciplines to deliver a "Service" to the market has radical differences. NOVL's sales & marketing teams are still struggling on successfully selling their Products. Now these same teams will be asked to market an ASP service? I don't feel they are ready for this. If NOVL wants to successfully offer an ASP service, they will have to either develop a completely independent Division with its own Services knowledgeable Sales/Marketing group, or create a Spin-Off company (maybe let the JustOn expand and stay arms-length from NOVL Corporate) that can focus on the services business. In fact, I would go one step further in suggesting that the recently created "OnTheNet" team in SanJose be moved to this group so that they could receive the benefits from this "Services" focused unit or spin-off. In fact, I can point at the current OnTheNet team as an example of how successful NOVL is at offering a Service vs a Product to the market. If I were an ASP startup (and believe me - I have thought about it) wanting to use NOVL's ASP oriented technology, I would be VERY worried about the thought of having to compete against NOVL's own ASP service since I know that NOVL could put a lot more technology experience, capital, and resources into their similar ASP delivery solution than I could. On the other hand, I know NOVL long enough to know that their inexperience in delivering a service to the market will be weak unless Schmidt were to structure the NOVL ASP service as I suggested above. So what do others think about this announcement? This is my pet technology topic. I would love to hear other opinions. Toy