This seems like a harsh article, but you may still wish to take a quick look.

Unfortunately for Novell, business isn't good. Analysts expect the company's second-quarter earnings will come in around $4.7 million on Wednesday--that's a drop of of 50%. Worse yet, sales are set to slide to $235.1 million from $278.3 million. As a result, over the past year Novell's shares have plodded along, dropping from $7.82 to $7.55.

[...]

The company could start buying back shares or it may even reward open-source developers with a few acquisitions, analysts say. Spreading a little of its money around in the open-source community may not make it any more popular, but at least it won't be the only software company accused of selling out

This confirms the possibility of buybacks, which was mentioned last week.

Noteworthy: Novell's (and Microsoft) Betrayal Illustrated Using an Analogy