InformationWeek > Novell's Linux Business > Linux Isn't Moving The Revenue Needle Much For Novell > February 22, 2005

InformationWeek > Novell's Linux Business > Linux Isn't Moving The Revenue Needle Much For Novell > February 22, 2005: "Linux remained a small part of Novell's sales in its most-recent quarter, which got a big cash boost from settling with Microsoft.
Despite a significant momentum boost at last week's LinuxWorld conference, Novell's first fiscal 2005 financial results reflect just how tough a challenge the company faces in selling a combination of open-source and proprietary technology.
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Still, total net revenue from new software licenses was down for the quarter to $50.4 million, from $54.8 million during the first fiscal 2004 quarter. Novell chairman and CEO Jack Messman said during Tuesday's financials call said that he was "not pleased" with his company's Linux performance for the quarter. NetWare revenue was also down from the last quarter of fiscal 2004. Messman couldn't put his finger on one reason for this. "It's not unreasonable to think that customers are waiting to evaluate [Open Enterprise Server] before renewing NetWare maintenance contracts," he said.
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Novell didn't parlay its windfall from Microsoft into stock buybacks or stockholder dividends. Instead, Messman said, the company will use the money to build up its cash position for potential acquisitions."

It'll be interesting to see how NOVL moves today.