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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (18392)	11/6/1997 11:04:00 PM
From: Don Earl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Hi Paul, I don't think Novell has any choice but to compete in the small business segment. That is where the growth has to come from and we're not talking about mixed enviroments at that level. It's all NT or all Net Ware. Novell is history unless they go heads up against Microsoft. Microsoft does not allow peaceful co-existance. At this point it looks like Schmidt might have been better off restructuring and cleaning up inventory problems gradually and focusing on the real problem which is marketing. If it were me, I would put together a 10 second ad. Start with a still picture of a NT screen crashing with error codes. That should get the attention of anyone that has ever touched a computer! Then cut to a black screen with big red letters with some kind of one sentence marketing fluff. Then go to a big Novell logo with the website address. No music, no flashing lights, just get the name in front of the public and give their resellers a little support! Do some demographic surveys ahead of time to pick the best time slots to target both men and women, probably during the evening news. I don't think Novell has caught on to the fact that a great deal of the programmers, administrators and small business owners out there are women. <How did you get yourself long on this stock! You were doing so well with those charts back in August.> Nothing wrong with the charts. I just didn't make a couple plays that I probably should have. Plus, the Hong Kong crash caught me by surprise at a time when holding looked to be the best move. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there is no way to chart that type of event. My bet is that Novell will make the numbers this quarter. If they blow it, they better be able to announce a merger or a buy out along with the numbers. It looks like I'm back to doing some margin trades against my position until I can get healthy again. I picked up some AMAT this afternoon. Hopefully I can nail it for a few bucks in the AM. If the employment numbers come in OK it should bounce hard along with everything else. Regards, Don

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (18392)	11/7/1997 12:24:00 AM
From: AJ Lake	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Paul: That may be the problem. It's no longer about what NOVL "wants." NOVL must at the very least follow their market, or at most anticipate or create it as MSFT does through (let's all say it together) brand management. Besides, large businesses began small, did they not? I know of one young IT manager who has worked for three different companies during the past six years, each larger than the last. He has converted each to NT, two from NetWare. He knows NT "best," feels most comfortable with it, sells it to his new management, completes the conversion, gets new job, and so on. Why NT? Because that's what he "knows." He knows zilch about NetWare, yet attests to NT superiority and sells it everywhere he goes. Who got to him first, and how? NetWare may have been superior in two of three of those applications, but who is Novell? It's not just about "product." NOVL must get in on the ground floor. Small businesses, individual system administrators and IT managers, etc. Saturation bombing. Regards, AJ