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

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (20438)	2/27/1998 6:04:00 PM
From: E_K_S	Respond to of 42771

Hi Steve - I bet you Novell hires Terry T. Johnson of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati to respond to any shareholder class suit. From the article: "...Mr. Johnson's notable cases include defense victories in securities class actions involving Cypress Semiconductor, Novell, Centex Telemanagement, Wyse Technology, and Convergent Technologies. " wsgr.com Also you will notice that two of the Novell board members have an interest in this law firm. I believe they are Sonsini and Rosati. I wonder if this might be a conflict of interest. I also recall that Rosati and/or Sonsini were recent additions to the board from the most recent BOD election in 1997. I do not know Steve, but it just smells very funny to me. The current BOD is possibly more rotten than I was willing to accept. Any case I am now out! I suggest the current "Longs" do their own research and homework before investing any new dollars into this company. EKS

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (20438)	2/27/1998 10:33:00 PM
From: Paul Fiondella	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 42771

Ah yes 10K a week.... And will he be held accountable? Will one of the other directors that had some problems in Germany have some here too? Stay tuned to Novell, the happy little family. Silicon Valley's most popular soap opera. When we left our happy little family in last week's episode, novice CEO Eric hadn't occupied his Utah condo for weeks and the brother of the CTO had just started his own corporation with the companies trade secrets. Slighted and grief stricken the former CEO jumped ship and went to Dell after stuffing the channel to the point where none of the toilets in PRovo would flush. Barely in the door at Dell and his stock options turned to gold overnight and made him instantly rich. While left behind at Novell were all those little engineers with their Novell options exercised at $30 a share. Yes Novell, the little corporation with problems that makes everybody rich except the Novell stockholders .... well listen to the saga. Todays episode is called "Through No Fault of Their Own." In today's episode the BOD has prepared an iron clad defense, they will contend they never attended any cook the books meetings. Judging from the number of BOD members that attended the last annual meeting this is a flawless defense. We are in the offices of Sueme Mayhem Attorneys At law as the depositions begin. Q. And is it true Mr. Tutu that you flew to the last BOD meeting in your own jet plane with your pink dress? A. Was that meeting in Hawaii? Q. And is it also true that at this meeting the following members of the BOD were in attendence (reads list)? A. No no your wrong. I don't think we have seen (name omitted) at a BOD meeting since August. I used to borrow her lipstick and I would remember if she were there. And as for (blank) and (blank) well how the hell would they know what was going on. You God damn lawyers. Many of the directors have busy schedules and with Eric flying all over the world to invigorate our operations, well its hard to get all of these directors together in one place to do anything let alone cook the books. I mean why would I cook the books. What could I personally gain beyond what I already have? These BOD meetings are just meetings. A little Scotch, a little Bourbon. We haven't decided anything at them for years. So of course its utter nonsense that anyone cooked the books. Q. Are you trying to lead me to believe Mr. Tutu that the BOD couldn't have cooked the books because none of its members attend meetings and take an interest in the operations of this company? A. Well this is a technology company and frankly I never really understood computers. I felt being there would be good for Eric until he came on board and was up to steam on his own. I really put myself out. Its a strain to attend these meetings. Just the gas alone costs a fortune. And we gave him the usual compensation for this type of position. I mean we needed to have someone to head an operation such as this that knew what a network was which we certainly didn't know. We didn't expect him to stop the channel stuffing, I mean to turn everything so upside down. But you know its not our job to add up the numbers. I mean lets face it Counsel do you have any idea what TCP/IP is? Have you ever tried discussing converting from IPX protocols with a bunch of Mormon lawyers? Q. So are you saying MR. Tutu that you did not misrepresent the state of Novell's financial situation to its stockholders consciously? A. We're not misrepresenting the situation to every little stockholder. Do you think I have time to listen to those pests. We only talk to the people that count in the investment community. Not every Tom Dick and Harry who thinks because he owns a share in our company he is important. And don't blame me for misrepresenting the finances of the company. I'm not the one who comes up with those fantastic $350 million revenue figures. I can't help it if some damn woman out there thinks she is an analyst and hits the number a 100 million off the mark every quarter. I didn't ask CALPERS to invest all those schoolteachers pensions in our stock. Hell most of these analysts have a background in astrology and were used auto salesmen before they found a home on Wall Street and you want me to mislead them. Just call up Nancy Reagan and ask her how this country is run damn it and leave an old man like me alone. My job is to give institutional investors who do not understand this technology some comfort in knowing one of them is on this Board. I never advised anyone to buy this companies stock. Q. I have one last question MR. Tutu. Is it true you had a special relationship as mentor to the CEO's at Novell? A. I had no particular knowledge of anything they were doing. I really just fly in to Utah and collect my check and really that's it. I don't offer my advice to anyone. I don't give anyone a ride on my plane back to California. I don't suggest how to do the work they do because frankly I don't know what this company really does and if you were at all honest you Mr. Attorney would admit that noone at Novell on the BOD has the kind of knowledge necessary to run this company at the level of understanding your questions presuppose. Its not my job to know what Novell does. My job is to attend Board meeting and I do that faithfully and that's why I am paid what I deserve.