Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell's Results Not Enough to Prevent Takeover



Summary: Companies arguably see what's coming and they stop buying Novell, leaving the company at Microsoft's mercy and the hands of vulturous hedge funds

THE BIDDING is not public yet, but it is likely to become publicised next week, just like in the previous quarter. Yes, it is highly probable that Novell will be bought soon and Novell customers feel "nervous", as reported the other day. Don't take it from anecdotal evidence; here is Novell's CFO talking about the issues more statistically:



Novell Inc. (NOVL US): Chief Financial Officer Dana Russell said customers are delaying some contract signings until they better understand the long-term prospects for the maker of Linux operating-system software. Novell has said it’s reviewing whether to sell itself.


Here is a transcript of Novell's Earnings Call (sliced into three pages), here is an event announcement, and Novell's press release about its results. UNIX/Linux expert Timothy from The Register has it covered and he goes beyond press releases and fluff sourced from Novell.

Whatever drama is going on at Novell in the boardroom — where the company is apparently soliciting takeover offers from up to 20 different prospective buyers — it has spilled over into the company's financial results.

[...]

In a call with Wall Street analysts, Dana Russell, Novell's chief financial officer, said that fiscal Q2 revenues were in line with expectations and profits came in at the high end of the range. Linux bookings were down 3 per cent and Linux invoicing was down 1 per cent in the quarter, with a tough compare because so many Microsoft shops cashed in their SUSE Linux certificates in the year ago quarter.

Excluding these Microsoft deals, Russell said that the SUSE Linux invoicing in the quarter was up 46 per cent compared to last year. But that seems to indicate how weak SUSE Linux sales were a year ago and how dependent Novell's Linux biz is on what Microsoft customers do. Part of the problem is that Microsoft bought SUSE Linux licenses at 45 per cent of the then-current list price in 2007, and at current prices for SUSE Linux support, these licenses are renewing at something closer to 15 per cent of that original value. This makes the compares for the Linux biz doubly tough. But, Novell is optimistic as always. "We are pleased with the growth in our core business," Russell said.


Novell is too Microsoft dependent. Red Hat sells GNU/Linux without this silly reliance on software patents tax and that is why Novell's future looks neither so promising nor long. There is no reason to buy SLE* anymore.

Some additional references are added below. ____ [1] A Look Ahead to Novell's Earnings Announcement; NOVL, SYMC, MFE, ASIA

[2] Novell (NOVL) Expected TO Report Q1 Earnings Of $0.07 Per Share

[3] Macquarie Maintains Bullish Stance on Novell (NOVL) Into Q2 Results

[4] How to Make Money During Market Corrections: M&A Plays

It’s certainly not reasonable to assume that NOVL’s final buyout price will be affected much by the market dropping on a given day. Therefore, on days like this I tend to buy more NOVL.


[5] Ahead Of Novell's Q2 Report (also here)

[6] Novell, Guess Trade Higher Ahead of Earnings Reports Due After the Bell

[7] Notable Earnings After Thursday's Close: GES, BCSI, JCG, NOVL, OVTI, SXE

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is scheduled to release its fiscal second-quarter earnings after the closing bell on Thursday, May 27, 2010. Analysts, on average, expect the company to report earnings of 7 cents per share on revenue of $204.85 million. In the year ago period, the company reported earnings of 8 cents per share on revenue of $215.60 million.


[8] Macquarie Research Sets $7.50 Price Target on Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL)

[9] Wall Street Set For Higher Start

After the markets close, Adaptec (ADPT), Diamond Foods (DMND), Guess (GES) and J Crew (JCG), Novell (NOVL) are among the major companies that are due to release their results.


[10] Novell (NOVL) Profits Rise, But Just Match Estimates

Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) posted on Thursday fiscal second-quarter results mostly in-line with the market expectations, while also failing to impress investors with its guidance for the current quarter.


[11] Novell Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL) Cautious

[12] Top NASDAQ Stocks to Watch (JCG, NOVL, AIG)

[13] Novell Reports a 28% Gain in Quarterly Profit

[14] Novell reports 28% profit gain

[15] Novell 2Q Profit Up 28% On Lower Expenses; Revenue, Margins Down

[16] Novell Q2 profit beats Street, sees weak Q3 rev

[17] Novell FY Q2 Revs Miss; Q3 View Below Estimates; Shrs Slip

[18] Viacom, Guess, Novell

[19] Novell Q2 Profit Rises; Guides Q3 - Quick Facts 2

[20] Novell, Inc. Reports Q2 2010 Earnings, Net Revenue Down from Last Year (NOVL) (also here)

[21] Novell 2Q Profit, 3Q Revenue View In Line With Expectations

[22] Novell Q2 Profit Rises 25%; Sees Q3 Revenue Below Consensus

[23] Novell (NOVL) Posts $19.9 Million 2nd Quarter Income

[24] After-Hours Movers 5/27: OVTI, ESL, LAVA, DITC, JCG Higher; BCSI, GES, NOVL, UPI Lower

[25] Earnings Recap: J Crew (JCG), Novell (NOVL), Blue Coat Systems (BCSI)

[26] After-Hours Earnings Roundup: GES, NOVL, JCG, BCSI, OVTI

[27] Novell posts higher 2Q profit but revenue slides (also here)

Operating costs fell 7 percent to $142.8 million.


[28] Novell Reports Q2 2010 Income of $20M

Recent Techrights' Posts

PCLinuxOS is Raising Money to Support Development After Fire Incident at the Host
PCLinuxOS has not had announcements lately
Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?
"Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled
Microsoft is Trying to "Pull a Nokia" on GNU/Linux as Desktop/Laptop Platform
We all remember that rather well, don't we?
Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
 
Microsoft Hiring European Politicians is Another Form of Bribery; There Should be a European Investigation
When Microsoft bribed people in Europe for OOXML (there's no denying this!) a European government delegate said that Microsoft operated like a cult
Reda Demanded That FSF Removes Its Founder, Now Reda Works Directly for Microsoft
A sellout and a traitor, first working for GAFAM, now Microsoft
Speed of the Site Should be Better Now
The "bot attacks" impact the speed of the sister site too
Getting More From AnalogNowhere
Recently we used many images from AnalogNowhere
Microsoft, Microsofters and 'Secure' Boot Shills Already Storming the LWN Report About Expiring Certificate, Shooting the Messenger
LWN has clearly stuck a nerve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Disable "Secure" Boot Today (the Only Better Time to Do So Was Yesterday)
Don't trust anything Red Hat tells you about security
Links 23/07/2025: Windows Killed Company After 150+ Years, US Government Mimics Russia's Attacks on the Media
Links for the day
Freedom Generally Wins at the End, History Shows (But It's Constantly Attacked, Too)
At the moment people realise "Linux" (e.g. Android) isn't enough to guarantee any freedoms
“Inhumane” and “Disgusting” Mass Layoff Execution, According to Microsoft Staff
The workers are looking for other places to work
Misinformation is Not Intelligence
It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Slogan for Its 40th Anniversary
The freedoms are what's most important
LLM Slopfarms gbhackers.com, "Cyber Press" and CyberSecurityNews Are Drowning Google News (and Shame on Google for Feeding and Facilitating Them)
All are run by the same people
Links 23/07/2025: Droplets GUI Patent Monopoly Challenge, Nokia Leverages Illegal Patent Court Against Rivals
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Community in Geminispace and Challenges With Old Computers
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day