Novell Quarterly Report

Novell has just released it's preliminary financial results for its first fiscal quarter which ended Jan. 31, 2007. As could be expected, revenue from NetWare and OES is down - and down 18%. What was unexpected, though, was that revenue from Identity products was also down, 7% down to the $24 million level. And even though the company boasted of an increase in Linux-related revenue (up 46%), it only amounted to $15 million. With those figures it's no wonder that the company reported a loss of $20 million.

The company's Chief Financial Officer, Dana Russell, indicated that Novell was counting on Microsoft selling (or giving away) SuSE Linux certificates to engender a profit by year's end.

It's a sad day when Novell has to count on Microsoft's success to even show a profit.