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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (26176)	3/22/1999 12:58:00 AM
From: Rusty Johnson	Respond to of 42771

And if that weren't enough ... mercurycenter.com Novell networks to run IBM e-commerce software Reuters SALT LAKE CITY -- International Business Machines Corp. and Novell Inc. will unveil a pact Monday, using Novell network software to link many office computers ready to handle electronic commerce operations. The two companies plan to announce the pact on Monday at Brainshare, the annual Novell software developers' conference set in Salt Lake City this week. Resulting products are expected to ship within two quarters, officials said. The deal ties together NetWare, Novell's network operating system used to link tens of millions of personal computers running on office networks, with IBM's WebSphere software for setting up electronic commerce businesses on the Internet. The agreement also significantly extends the potential audience for IBM's electronic commerce software to the millions of office PC users who run NetWare. The combination should allow NetWare -- one of the industry's broadest software franchises -- to compete effectively as companies race to build networks able to handle a surge in both internal office data and Internet traffic. The IBM-Novell pact addresses an area that rivals like Microsoft Corp. and America Online Inc.'s Netscape unit also heavily target. ''This agreement is significant in providing customers the support they need to conduct Web-based business activity,'' said John Swainson, an executive in IBM's middleware software unit. ''With IBM's WebSphere products, Novell can now provide its NetWare customers the technology to quickly transform into e-businesses,'' he added. NetWare helps pipe data traffic between computers linked to office networks in a reliable and rapid fashion. NetWare runs on 92 million personal computers and 4.5 million servers, or network management computers, according to industry figures. WebSphere comes in three versions -- standard, advanced and enterprise -- that allow companies to do everything from set up Web sites to manage sophisticated electronic business links within vast companies and outside to suppliers and customers. The deal calls for the standard version of WebSphere, which provides programming tools for companies to set up Internet software systems and to manage related Web sites, to be licensed to Novell for inclusion in NetWare, which manages devices linked to, and documents traveling over, a network. Novell also can resell the advanced edition of WebSphere, which extends a company's ability to link to central corporate databases and handles secure electronic transactions on a wider scale than possible with the standard edition. Steve Adelman, Novell's vice president of corporate development, said the resulting products will allow companies to incorporate existing inventory or order management software used to track products sales into new e-commerce systems, without needing to rewrite the older software. WebSphere allows a company to offer a range of self-service business features such as allowing its customers or business suppliers to check the status of orders online. The deal builds on existing partnerships between IBM and Novell, which both develop Internet software based on open industry standards. The relationship leads to frequent collaborations and an overlap among suppliers and customers. At the same time, IBM's Lotus software unit and Novell's network software businesses offer competing products. Tighten that five point harness and prepare for takeoff. Special thanks to MSFT for Inactive Directory.