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

To: Scott C. Lemon who wrote (19108)	12/14/1997 11:02:00 PM
From: Paul Fiondella	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Small business and Novell Scott you really should face reality here. What do you have that a small business needs in your IFSB product that they cannot already get from their existing 3.X Novell or a replacement NT app server? There is simply no strategy in this market segment at Novell at all. You guys have been sitting on the pot forever. Even Denice got fed up with it. When is somebody over there going to figure out what the hell they are doing? I think Novell is going to be out of this market segment if they don't get a viable JAVA server with various small business app tie-ins. Schmodt told me at the annual meeting there was no problem in doing personal db tie-ins. So where are they? The Novonyx product is the closest thing Novell has to being anywhere near the small business market.

To: Scott C. Lemon who wrote (19108)	12/16/1997 6:56:00 PM
From: Salah Mohamed	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 42771

Hi Scott...About SB >>>> On the Small Business side of things, I still believe that we have a good opportunity to sell into these same accounts. I don't believe that it's all or nothing ... there are many ways in which our products are continuing to "compliment" the Microsoft sale ... to make their products work. I also believe that the caching technology leads us into sales into ISPs ... and that ISPs are a more natural fit for outsourcing to small businesses, and a way into small businesses. We already know that the small business will be buying Windows for the desktops ... I believe that Novell's power will be in providing additional software and services into this market ... not instead of. Your perspective? <<<< I'm the last guy to have an intelligent answer to this highly technical question. Frankly, I don't know what caching is, my technical knowledge is very limited, and there are several people in the thread who are much more knowledgeable than me who can respond to this question (Paul, BP, Jack, Fred, Joe, Dave, and several others). However, my main point about SB is that it is the fastest growing segment of the market. I'm guessing that this segment is growing at 40% to 60% yearly, while the enterprise segment is growing at 10% to 15% yearly. Although Jack said he thinks that the enterprise is growing faster than 10%-15%, I remember that IDC said last year that growth is around 13% and Novell 'old' management based their projections on this growth rate. In any case, with NW sales declining from ~300M in Q3-95, to ~250M in Q4-96, to 150M-170M presently, because MSFT is taking over the low end, something needs to be done at the low end to get Novell back on track. I do believe this is the main concern in the thread, without strong products for the low end, the chances for a turnaround are very slim. Don't forget that MSFT is not sitting idly waiting for Novell to regain their market share, MSFT is forging ahead to dominate this market totally, here is what MSFT is doing: ***************************** December 1997 By the Staff of Data Communications Data Communications Magazine Market Forecast Revenues cool off-but the boom in services should help make '98 a scorcher The continued rise of intranets is even affecting the NOS (network operating system) battle between Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Wash.) and Novell Inc. (Orem, Utah). Bill & Co. has bundled its Internet Information Server with NT, which analysts say will drive down the cost of low-end HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) servers. Microsoft already has dropped NT prices and staged an aggressive marketing campaign-much to Novell's disadvantage. data.com ***************************** BTW, I'm very pleased that you and Paul made peace, I enjoy and appreciate both your posts. Regards Salah