Bonum Certa Men Certa

Two Novell Directors Quit the Company

Oriskany ship sinks



Under the radar of much of the press, two Novell directors appear to have walked out. They are likely skilled at virtualisation, which is an important area where Novell hopes to win using software patents and exclusivity with Microsoft.

Anyway, here are the details.

Mark Pileski was most recently director of corporate marketing for Novell, which he joined with the acquisition of PlateSpin. He has spent more than 10 years helping to grow software companies.

[...]

And now one month later, Novell loses another former key PlateSpin employee, Brett Johnson -- the company's Director of Sales for Eastern North America.


Two directors may not seem like much to lose. but recently we considered this part of a pattern and a trend. Previous major departures include Martin Buckley (he moved to Novell's partner, Microsoft), Novell's Channel Chief, Bruce Lowry, Novell’s PR Director, Joseph LaSala, the General Counsel, and even a Vice President.

“Perhaps the existing staff sees what’s coming (other than the layoffs and offshoring).”A lot of top-level people are also leaving Microsoft. Maybe Novell can fill up its gaps by hiring them as a perfect fit amid the company's newly-found obsession with .NET, OOXML, ActiveX, Vista, and Silverlight.

Breifing.com describes Novell's revenue growth as "sluggish". Perhaps the existing staff sees what's coming (other than the layoffs and offshoring). Matt Asay, a former Novell employee, suggests that Novell engineers are trying to escape the company.

Financially, Novell is doing badly, especially once those cash infusions from Microsoft are unaccounted for. This won't last forever because Microsoft is still embracing and extending Novell. It's not ready to extinguish or take over just yet.

Novell underplays its own potential. In fact, the bland headline of the latest press release, "Novell Reports Financial Results for Third Fiscal Quarter 2008", showed that Novell has nothing to brag about. Such headlines can be made more enthusiastic. In reality, as Trading Markets put it, Novell Q3 loss widens.

Novell has reported a net loss of $15.12m for the third quarter 2008, against a loss of $3.67m a year ago, on revenue up 4% at $245m. The loss was attributed to an impairment charge related to auction-rate securities.


As pointed out the other day, this is debt write-off. Novell is in bigger trouble than most people realise and it continues to depend on Microsoft heavily. Novell is nowhere in terms of value. Akamai Technologies, whose use of GNU/Linux is well known (even Microsoft is a client), has a market cap which doubles that of Novell. This ought to put things in perspective and show how feeble Novell has become.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Nat Friedman Had Left Microsoft GitHub Exactly One Week Before Matthew Garrett Sent His First SLAPP (Which Was an Empty Threat, He Was Abusing the Legal System of Another Continent to Terrorise Critics Who Had Just Unearthed Major Microsoft Scandals)
And it was likely talked about by his lawyers around the exact same time Nat Friedman was packing up
 
Extortion is a Crime, Even If You're Based in Another Continent and Work for Microsoft
reported to British authorities
We're in 6/6 Now, Almost Halfway in 2025
2025 was probably the best year for us
South Americans Are Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
We're hardly even "Cherry-Picking" or conveniently singling out one South American nation
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part III: Data Protection Failures, Just Like at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Just less than a decade ago we showed that the EPO had illegally shared staff data with third parties
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 05, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 05, 2025
Pushing Microsoft's Proprietary Trash/Trap as "Open" and "Linux" (Windows is 'Linux' Now?)
Maybe it's time to just stop saying "FOSS". The people who use that term are promoting Microsoft.
Slopwatch: Comparing Linux to Vermin, Attacking BSD With LLM Slop, and Helping Microsoft Demonise Linux/OpenBSD/SSH Over Weak User Passwords
Microsoft must be laughing its arse off, seeing how a bunch of Serial Sloppers (no skills, no comprehension, no integrity, no creativity) and slopfarms use Microsoft LLM to flood the Web with anti-Linux FUD
Links 05/06/2025: US Poised for Another $2.4 Trillion to Debt, Cops Want GAFAM Kill Switches
Links for the day
Links 05/06/2025: First US Spacewalk 60 Years Ago, GNU Octave 10.2.0 is Out
Links for the day
Scandinavia Saying Goodbye to Microsoft
The Danes have had enough of Microsoft
GNU/Linux Measured at 6% in Bangladesh, According to statCounter
Windows isn't growing, it's going away
Gemini Links 05/06/2025: Loop Earplugs Review and ANS Forth
Links for the day
Armenian Adoption of GNU/Linux
Russian influence in Armenian must be worrying to Microsoft
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part II: Turning a Once-Respected Patent Office Into a Circus and Laughing Stock
It's not legal, but administrators who don't care about the law and don't fear the law would just go ahead and turn things to junk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 04, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
Links for the day
Our Case is a Very Easy Win, the SLAPPs From Microsofters Were a Grave Error, and Censoring Information Won't Work (It'll Only Ever Backfire)
Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
Say the Truth, the Rest Will Follow
There's no guarantee that writing the truth will result in an audience (or readership), but over time - in the long run - people generally gravitate towards what they know or feel to be crude truth, not just what's comforting (albeit false or self-deluding, usually groupthink dictated from above)
How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
Democracy depends on free press and freedom of the press depends on being able to safely publish (and keep available) material that bad people don't want to be known to anybody
In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
11 years is a very long time
Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
about 80% are Android (Linux) users, compared to only about 10% for Windows
Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
Democracy and fake "tech" don't mix well; the latter tends to interfere with the former and that's why we get more "Putins" out there
EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
we can commence a series soon
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
Links for the day