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

To: Salah Mohamed who wrote (18864)	12/3/1997 3:03:00 AM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Respond to of 42771

Hello Salah, It took me a little while to get caught up on posts ... > Hi Scott...About Moab, Operating Margins, and Novell Prospects I appreciate the responses ... > I have to differ strongly with you here. Whether NT5.0 will be > released in 99 or 2010, it doesn't have much impact on MSFT. Except that many key Microsoft technologies ... including it's ActiveDomains (directory?) that it is currently ActiveHyping depend on NT v5.0 to ship. This means that Microsoft won't have a real directory service for over a year now ... I think that customers are starting to see through the smoke ... > However, the delay of MOAB has a significant negative impact on > Novell. Remember that Schmidt initially promised a turnaround by > 1/4/98 and kept pushing this date in the future to match the > release of MOAB. If this is the product that the future of the > company depends on, one would think that the 12/97 release date > must have been met. I agree with you here. But if I try to find the logic behind making this decision (or change) then I have to look at the possibility that just as Microsoft is slipping NT v5.0 to make it a better product (with more customer value, maybe more stable) then Moab might also be a better product, with more features, to better address customer needs. > I hate to say it, but let me assure you MSFT will do well with > NT4.0, regardless of its deficiencies, vs Green River, MOAB, or > whatever Novell has, they have proven it. I also agree with you that Microsoft will do well with NT v4.0 as it is their best desktop OS so far. (I have said on numerous occasions that I have run nothing but NT since v3.0 ...) I also think that the customers that I talk to are continuing to see the severe limitations, stability problems, and scalability problems with NT (even v4.0) when they try to use it as a server. Even today I found another customer that had to try to re-mirror a failed hard drive on a NT server ... they were surprised to find out that they had to have several hundred users log off in the middle of the work day so that they could re-boot the server. What kind of crap is that? > About Operating Margins > >>>>>10. They lost money on operations in Q4, 5M-6M And I said: "I didn't know that operations was supposed to profit ... again, my ignorance of exactly what this means. (Any explanation would be welcomed ...)" My ignorance has been found! ;-) There is a specific group within the company called "Operations" that I was thinking of ... not "operation of the company" ... > I thought Novell main business is development and marketing > networking software and related services for profit. Yes Scott, > operations are supposed to profit, this is capitalism, but then > again maybe Novell has changed its charter to become a non-profit > organization where making profits is not an issue. Ouch ... ok ... I understand ... my error in reading! ;-( { I have deleted the very good explanation and detailed analysis of my ignorance ;-) } > About Novell Prospects >>>>>P.S. I have to say that after the announcement I couldn't help > but to grin for almost two days ... this is getting fun! ;-)<<<<< > > If I were you, I would temper my grinning. That is exactly what I > felt after the results of Q4-96 were announced. Green River sales > were great, sequential revenues growth of 5%, and projections by > the company for continued growth. I thought then that we are out of > the woods and the stock is heading for the low 20's, and before you > know it, they stumbled into a swamp and they haven't gotten out of > it till now, they are barely hanging on with a life jacket. Let's > wait and see. This is exactly why I had a hard time grinning beyond two days! I had to get back to work ... ;-) I fully understand that we are no where near out of this yet ... but the momentum is growing ... and I am having fun! As always ... I appreciate the response! > Regards > > Salah Scott C. Lemon