Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: PJ Strifas who wrote (25905)	3/8/1999 5:21:00 PM
From: Spartex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

Monday March 8 5:09 PM ET Novell Shares Surge After Report Of Compaq Talks CHICAGO (Reuters) - Shares of Novell Inc. (Nasdaq:NOVL - news) surged 15 percent after a published report said the software maker was rumored to be in ''deep discussions'' with Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE:CPQ - news) to develop new products as corporate networks grow more complicated. Under such a partnership, the world's largest maker of personal computers and Novell, a leading maker of network management software, would develop products that give organizations the ability to store local versions of Web sites on their office networks, eliminating the need to repeatedly download the information from the Internet. Novell stock was up $3.31 at $23.44 on the Nasdaq after the report appeared in Barron's over the weekend. It was the third most actively traded issue on that exchange. The stock has more than doubled in price since October. ''Sentiment is definitely bullish,'' said one options trader, referring to Novell. Shares of Compaq were up 12.5 cents at $34.38 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Also, Novell announced Monday the latest version of its so-called enterprise directory targeted at high-end customers. Novell Directory Service v8 enables customers better manage and track all the users on a corporate network. The product faces competition in that market from rival Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT -news), which has its own Microsoft Active Directory. Even so, analysts said Novell's offering was far more robust and could be expanded to ever-larger systems more easily than Microsoft's. According to market research firm International Data Corp., 80 percent of Fortune 1000 companies now using directory services to manage and secure their networks already rely on NDS. Revenue for directory services is forecast to reach $5 billion by 2000, according to IDC. ''NDS can now manage more than five times the number of users on the Internet today, making it an invaluable tool in helping our customers expand their business opportunities with the growth of the Internet,'' said Chris Stone, head of strategy and corporate development for Novell, said in a statement. NDS v8 is able store and manage millions more users, applications, network devices and data than competing directories and earlier versions of NDS, according to Roy, Utah-based Novell. Novell and Compaq officials could not immediately be reached to comment on the Barron's report. dailynews.yahoo.com

To: PJ Strifas who wrote (25905)	3/8/1999 10:40:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 42771

Eric Schmidt Q&A He was a tech whiz. Now he's also a turn-around artist. Novell's CEO talks. By Michael Moeller, PC Week March 8, 1999 5:09 AM PT What's next for Novell Inc. (Nasdaq:NOVL) ? That's what we asked CEO Eric Schmidt, who sat down recently with Senior Editor Michael Moeller to talk about strategy, partnerships and some bad memories. The transcript follows. PC Week: What are the three objectives you feel must be met in the first half of 1999? Schmidt: We need to cross the chasm from a NetWare channel company to [provide] a broad spectrum of networking products sold through many different forms of channels. That's No. 1. The reason we have to do it is it's the economic engine upon which we stand. It's the thing that generates the cash and the shareholder value and allows us to invest. Eric Schmidt The second thing we need to do is [continue expanding into] derivative markets, the most interesting being caching. 1999 is the year in which the caching vision explodes. We have the right products and the right partnerships and the underlying channel structure built, which we didn't have a year ago. The third thing we have is a mission of identity. The basic statement is, what directories ultimately represent is the identity of who you are and what you want. This identity is a very large and unfilled space. The most important thing we had to do was complete the turnaround. I guess I'm frankly surprised I was able to get through that. It was quite a shock, to be blunt. PC Week: What shocked you about it? Schmidt: The depth of the issues. It's important to remember where we came from. From my perspective the key demarcation point was the shipping of NetWare 5. Since NetWare is so much of the revenue of the company it's very important that NetWare 5 be hot. PC Week: How hot is it? Schmidt: Adoption rate is twice as fast as what we predicted. Essentially it will become the majority of our revenue compared to the other versions of NetWare in about a year. That's much faster [than we expected] -- most infrastructure adoption rates are quite slow. PC Week: Who are your key partners? Schmidt: All of the directory partnerships, the Cisco-, Lucent-type partnerships to leverage the caching part. PC Week: What is your relationship with Microsoft these days, and how important is it to balance that vs. your relationship with Sun? Schmidt: We're trying very much to stay out of that food fight. Our customers have said in the clearest of possible terms they want us to work well with Microsoft and with others. From the day I started it was clear that was the only option we had. Our relationship [with Microsoft] is pretty good. We have routine meetings at every level. The message I've sent to Microsoft in our meetings is that we can make their technologies more effective because of the use of ours. When you have our type of architecture, their product can do better. PC Week: What does Microsoft need to do to make you happy? Schmidt: Understand, it's never going to be a perfect relationship because there's competition as well as cooperation. The single most important thing they can do is understand the economic and customer value of our architecture -- security, the directory -- and make their products use that too. That's the interoperability customers want. PC Week: There's so much focus on directories and applications based around NDS, yet NetWare remains a major portion of your revenues. Is there a point where you'd like to see applications unseat NetWare revenues? Schmidt: As a percentage that's going to happen. But do not write off the importance of the NetWare operating system today. There's a conventional wisdom that the NetWare business is essentially a legacy business. That's absolutely false. New customers are adopting NetWare, and existing customers are buying a lot more, because networks are growing and it's part of the value proposition. I would not have given you such a straight and clear answer a year ago. A year ago I would have said we've stabilized the business, which is code for "it's a good business, but..." We are investing big time in things that make the NetWare 5 platform more valuable, and customers are adopting it. zdnet.com