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

To: Elmo Gregory who wrote (20480)	2/28/1998 7:27:00 PM
From: Jim McCormack	Respond to of 42771

Being Focused is about Saying No.... Elmo - Thanks for jumping in. I think that Novell has got to get focused - and to focus you have to strart to say "No". You say "No" to the items that fall outside your focus. The focus is "Plumbing" as I recall according to Eric. The Groupwise product is a proven winner - no debate here on that. However, I think it takes away from the "Plumbing" (Intranetware) focus as such should be spun off or sold outright. What is the down side? It will fetch an excellent price. It is a distraction. We all know the pieces composing Novell are worth more then the stock price reflects. By allowing some of the pieces to be sold off they will get a realistic market price for some excellent technology. The upside to divesting some of these products is clear - less distractions, tighter management focus - Intranetware 5.0 success or shall we say Netware 5.0 is the key to maintaining shareholder and "Brand" value for Novell. The case could be made for keeping Mangagewise. However with enterprise manager's like Tivoli redefining the management space the Managewise component might fit better as a component in a larger scheme - I say sell it off. Again do it now before it is worth less later. The new Novell is not in the Applications business. It is the "Plumbing" business right? NOS, Firewalling, Security, Cache etc... Focus is about saying "No" and I say if it ain't "Plumbing" it's gone. Jim McCormack PS: Also have you seen the valuations on the Firewall (Internet Security) vendor deals this past month (Cisco/Wheelgroup, and others - Network Associates) - The dollars folks are paying to get the security component are major. The BorderManager product should add some multiple to Novell if it is as big a hit as Novell portends it is. Someone should hype this up for another buck in the share price.... Not me - I'm out for now.