Do-No-Evil Saturday - Part III: Finance, PlateSpin, Groupwise

Dr. Roy Schestowitz

2008-12-14 01:23:13 UTC
Modified: 2008-12-14 01:24:05 UTC

Finance

Q4 results from Novell is something that we covered last week, but there are a few things which keep showing up. Novell and Microsoft are mentioned in harmony under this press release.

Novell Inc. and Guess Inc. shares gained after both companies reported earnings after the close of regular trading Thursday, while Microsoft edged up after hiring a former Yahoo executive to head its internet services division.

There is more of that here.

Today's Early Edge features news from Guess (GES), Microsoft (MSFT), Novell (NOVL), and YUM! Brands (YUM). Here is what you need to know about this morning's big stories.

An ongoing discussion at OSNews touches on Novell's financial results.

While Novell's workgroup business declined by 9 percent, and its service business by a staggering 26 percent, identity and access management's revenues went up 11 percent, and systems and resource management 15 percent. The strongest revenues, however, were found elsewhere in the company: Novell's Linux business sky-rocketed in revenue by 33 percent, to 195 million USD - which is a big chunk of the total of 243 million.

There are many comments in there. Here is one that stands out:

For starters, Novell's headline figure of an increase of 33 per cent in quarterly Linux revenues translates to just $8.2 million in cash, a few minutes' chump change to the really big IT houses that turnover billions.

[...]

As it is Novell seem a) stuck a long way behind Red Hat, and b) don't seem to be making enough from Linux to offset the decline in their legacy business.

Colin Barker's article, which we mentioned right here, has already spread from the UK to ZDNet Asia and ZDNet Australia, where the headline was modified to glorify Novell's results. Who was responsible for this modification and why? Either way, here are a few more reports that we missed last week:

1. Novell narrows Q4 and full-year loss

Novell has reported a net loss of $16.29m for the fourth quarter, against a $17.94m loss in the year-ago quarter, on revenue down marginally at $244.73m. The loss was attributed to an impairment charge related to auction-rate securities.

2. Novell Reports Financial Results for Fourth Fiscal Quarter and Full Fiscal Year 2008

Novell management remains committed to long-term sustainable profitability. For the full fiscal year 2008, Novell achieved non-GAAP operating margin of 10%. Going forward, Novell management expects to improve on these results, but in light of these uncertain economic times, is targeting no less than 10% non-GAAP operating margin in the full fiscal year 2009.

The above are similar to the press release. Yahoo borrowed/hosted an article too:

Novell Narrows Q4 and Full-Year Loss

Novell has reported a net loss of $16.29m for the fourth quarter, against a $17.94m loss in the year-ago quarter, on revenue down marginally at $244.73m. The loss was attributed to an impairment charge related to auction-rate securities.

Novell is also mentioned in this news digest.

Novell (NOVL) reported fiscal fourth quarter EPS of $0.06, meeting the consensus estimateof $0.06. For the fourth fiscal quarter of 2008, product revenue increased 6%, but was offset by a services revenue decline of 26%, resulting in total revenue of $244.7 million. Revenue was essentially flat from the prior year -- down 0.1% year-over-year -- and shy of the consensus estimate that called for $249.8 million. For the full fiscal year 2008, Novell's non-GAAP operating margin was 10%. Novell expects to improve on these results, but also said that given uncertainties regarding the economy it is targeting no less than 10% non-GAAP operating margin in the full fiscal year 2009.

Some more blurbs about Novell's stock in:

Netware

When TMCNet does not have overseas staff edit press releases (inexpensive pseudo-journalism), then people actually contribute some original text and information. Here is some perspective that makes a comparison to Netware.

One is that if you own the software on the desktop, it is possible to leverage this relationship with customers to expand into other areas such as databases and servers. For example, Microsoft cleaned Novell's clock in the 1990s by extending its dominance from the desktop to other areas.

Virtualisation

Last week's PlateSpin extravaganza carries on. Here is an article which was placed in Yahoo.

Novell has upgraded its PlateSpin Workload Management offering to manage server workloads between physical and virtual infrastructures in heterogeneous IT environments.

CBR previously mentioned this in an article that's included here. There's this new one too.

New enhancements to Novell's PlateSpin Workload Management solution add capabilities for managing server workloads between physical and virtual infrastructures in mixed IT environments.

Mail

It's mostly about Groupwise, as often is the case. Here is Omni's integration work.

Omni, in association with its Scandinavian Distributor, Liga ApS, announced two Microsoft SharePoint integration options for Novell GroupWise customers who want to use their existing Novell GroupWise technology investments.

It was also mentioned last week. CMSWire is very late to the party with a dull piece about Groupwise 8.

Groupwise 8 is now available via Novell. The release aims to boosts personal productivity with a customizable dashboard that allows users to interact with traditional and Web 2.0. tools, from e-mail to blogs. It also provides a flexible and reliable tool on a platform that is able to run on multiple servers and clients -- including Windows, Linux, Mac and the Web.

Groupwise is also noted in this press release.

Messaging Architects' trainers demonstrate how M+Archive leverages the new GroupWise 8 Stubbing API, co-developed by Novell and Messaging Architects, for seamless compliant access to the GroupWise archives.

GWAVA issued a press release which covers Groupwise, as usual.

GWAVA's latest version of Retain 2 puts corporate minds at ease for archiving messaging data on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server

Open-Xchange's S.u.S.E roots are mentioned in a little Kusnetzky plug promoting their Exchange replacement.

I had the delightful opportunity to chat with an old friend, Juergen Geck who is CTO of my former employer Open-Xchange. We’ve known one another since his days at SUSE (now part of Novell).

Security

Almost nothing here, with this exception.

Partners

Avnet and Novell hooked up and here is their press release, which is summarised thusly:

ollaboration offers sales support, training and market-leading products to solution providers and VARs, enabling them to deliver a more complete data center solution to their customers

This was soon followed by shallow repetition of the press release (it's an ugly phenomenon).

Novell, a provider of IT management software, and Avnet Technology Solutions, an operating group of Avnet, have announced a strategic relationship to provide virtualization and workload management solutions to data center customers.

CRN has a better article -- a real article.

Avnet Technology Solutions will distribute Novell's PlateSpin workload and virtualization management software through Avnet channel partners under a deal the companies announced Wednesday. Avnet and Novell said the move would allow VARs to expand their data center solutions.

WatchGuard and Novell have a minor relationship worth documenting.

To successfully turn a company around, he says, a strong management team is required. "At WatchGuard we've made progress in the last 14 months because of a new management team from Microsoft, Novell, LANDesk, and Cisco. We've built up a team with expertise in different aspects of technology. Focus on the best people you can find. It's worth your time to recruit the best. Don't settle for mediocrity. Attitude is very important. I look for people with entrepreneurial passion, with a fast-paced way of doing things."

That's about all for now. ⬆