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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (30702)	3/14/2000 2:03:00 PM
From: harmonaronson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Paul, That was a very well written and well thought out letter to Eric Schmidt. I hope that you also e-mail the letter to him and not rely on the fact that it will somehow get to his attention as an open letter. On the other hand, maybe the only way to unlock the potential of Novell's technology is for a company to buy them out. Any suggestions along these lines? Harmon

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (30702)	3/14/2000 3:12:00 PM
From: Frederick Smart	Respond to of 42771

A Second Open Letter To Eric Schmidt... Dear Eric: First, I'd like to thank Paul Fiondella for the thoughts he has shared with this thread over the past few years. More specifically, his most recent post goes right to the heart of what we've been talking about: ENERGY. You may not have a clue to the power of what's going on in the world right now, but you don't really need to Eric. For sometimes the greatest gifts we give ourselves and others is the powerful simplicity of our oneness with each other. To start down this new road, you must cross the line and breakthrough this mindset of control. You must make a very strong point to end this tightfisted attitude which does not believe in trusting the world. Novell is it's own worst enemy right now. It's as if a thousand deers have suddenly been caught in the headlights of an oncoming freightrain of creativity, energy, empowerment and freedom which the Internet is unleashing all over the world. The massive cash hord Novell has maintained during these past few years provides perfect testimony of this point. Novell cannot play the power/control game anymore. The Old "business" way of doing things is being radically, totally and completely checkmated by the sheer power and freedom of the openness and light which is sweeping the world. Here's the cold, blunt, hard question which Paul was trying to get out: Other than for the obvious WRONG answers - money/security - why would I or anyone else want to work for Novell? I would have to be crazy to want to go to work for such an fear-oriented, byzantine, Old Business model club. Novell's paradigm is so far distant from the energies of the net right now. A year ago you were right on. You were there. But you let the Old Guard come in from right field and cauterize these new energies. Many, many talented people have left Novell as a result. It's gotten to the point where the "Novell" brand has become more and more of an oxymoron in this internet age. But all is not lost. For all it would take is one simple, basic leap of faith and trust to turn this whole thing around in an instant. The problem is that it will take a huge amount of guts to make this move. First, comes the realization that you are NOT on track. Second, comes the awareness that in it's current state, Novell's future is a sitting duck for one of two outcomes: 1) total decline into obscurity; or 2) being taken over. Third, comes the recognition that taking ANY action and RISK is better than doing nothing - which is what you are doing right now. Fourth, all roads point to the need to spin off totally separate and anonymous subsidiaries which are application driven and product/platform neutral. This "higher ground" entity would force Novell to become more concretely aware that they must get into "letting go" and SERVING these new entities and less into CONTROLLING them. I don't think very much time has been lost. In fact I say, big deal!! For I think the REAL Internet is really just beginning! All we've seen to date have been these money-motivated Old Business model guys who have set themselves up as arbitors of trust in a growing litany of verticals. Fragmentation, fragmentation, redundancy, duplication, etc. etc. These Internet power titans are marching around as if they OWN these new verticals simply because they've stepped ahead of others by placing DOT.COM hats on. It's as if there was this Old line of businesses plodding along and all of a sudden someone started playing new music and began passing out new hats for people to take part in a new party. A new parallel line forms as execs jumped from one line to the other. And one of the biggest problems in the wake of all this fragmentation and duplication is that the internet is crying out for some cohesive, open, intelligent infrastructure to fluidly bind and map these networks and platforms together. The problem is that Novell needs to excite the imagination and gain the trust of APPLICATION developers who will jump on this new, open train and support this New Vision of openness, trust, collaboration, cooperation, etc. The problem is that Novell DOES NOT believe in this New Model. Your board of directors still believes distrusting, controlling, powering, owning, limiting, taking is the way to go. NOT!!!!!!!!! Eric, you are going to have to singlehandedly breakthrough this club and call a spade a spade on this one. For the world will not turn back or wait for you to decide. Every day you try and dodge another question like the one you were tossed from the Schwab videoconference is working a tremendous disservice against Novell's public shareholders. It's time to BREAKTHROUGH!! The investing world DOES NOT trust Novell because Novell DOES NOT trust the investing world. The energies Novell are giving off are in P&G country right now. Old, industrial, dated, been there, done that, period, done, nuf said. Let go Eric!! Give it up. Your job isn't finished. Be the catalyst. Light the match. Make a stand. The entire investing world will applaud and back you 1000%. Peace. GO!!

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (30702)	3/14/2000 4:25:00 PM
From: Don Troppmann	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

Hello Paul: Thanks for sharing the content of your important letter to Dr. Schmidt. You expressed my concerns much more clearly than I was capable of doing. A very real question enters the discussion as a result of the answer given by Dr. Schmidt to Robert of Croyden. Is NOVL so highly integrated that it is unable to create separate business opportunities with its technologically superior products? If shareholder value is a consideration, and I have no reason to believe it isn't, then limiting the opportunities to extend and leverage the technologies of NOVL is a puzzling strategy and clearly seems to refute the current market environment. I have very little technical grasp of NOVL's product development during the past several years, but it has been my understanding that the new products being developed were capable of being utilized in a number of divergent operating environments. ie: ICS could be utilized in Unix, Linux, NT, Windows, etc. Same for eDirectory, same for the Zen products. Now it seems these products are simply integrated extensions of the Novell's core products? Any help to understand this area would be very much appreciated. And finally it occurs to me that many of the leading technology companies competing in those sectors, where NOVL appears to have technological superiority, seem to find the cash to extend their products and markets. What are they doing that is different from NOVL. Don T.