Novell says Microsoft deal is good for Linux business
555325
(InfoWorld) - Novell on Wednesday said its deal with Microsoft is helping drive gains in its Linux business, but danced around questions concerning how that deal may be altered given coming changes in open source licensing.Novell made the comments during its quarterly earnings call with financial analysts where the company reported nearly a $2.2 million loss in income during its fiscal second quarter. Novell executives danced around questions concerningÂ its deal with MicrosoftÂ as it relates to the new GNU General Public License 3.0, which is expected to be approved as a final draft in June. In addition, Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian would offer no comment beyond Novell's already published public statement on Microsoft'sÂ recent claimsÂ that Linux infringes on 235 of its patents. During its earnings call, Novell focused on the news that its revenue was up 2.6 percent to $239.2 million from $233.1 million during the same quarter a year ago, and that the revenue numbers beat Wall Street's expectations of $235 million. Net income, however, showed a loss of $2.192 million compared to a profit of $3,342 million in the same quarter a year ago. Despite the numbers, Novell executives remained upbeat, highlighting an increase in sales around its Suse Linux software. Sales of Linux platform products produced $19 million in revenue, an 83 percent increase year over year. In addition, invoicing for Linux products was $29 million for the quarter, an increase of 114 percent. Novell said those increases were largely due to the strength of a wide-ranging business and technology partnership signed with Microsoft in November 2006. Microsoft helped account for $18 million of that invoicing, while non-Microsoft-influenced revenue was $11 million. "I am pleased by our results this quarter," said Ron Hovsepian, Novell's CEO. "Our Linux business delivered another strong quarter, workgroup [business unit] performed better than expected and identity [business unit] is recovering although it is still below plan. Novell said revenue for identity and access management was up 5 percent over the same quarter a year ago. But it was Linux and the relationship with Microsoft that Novell focused on, saying it provided a hefty bump to revenue. "Customer deals associated with the Microsoft relationship accounted for 25 percent of the Linux platform product revenue," said Dana Russell, Novell's CFO. Hovsepian said in the two fiscal quarters since signing the deal with Microsoft that Novell has invoiced $91 million in sales with $73 million occurring in the first quarter. He said that total was nearly 38 percent of the $240 million that was called for in the five-year deal with Microsoft. He also said that Novell expects to have 49,000 certificates for maintenance and support, which are handed out by Microsoft, activated this year. He added, however, that going forward Novell would no longer report that number. Instead, Novell will track progress by reporting the percentage of invoicing over the life of the contract. As part of the agreement, Microsoft had said it would distribute 70,000 coupons for Suse Linux Enterprise Server maintenance and support. In terms of the patent claims Microsoft has made in recent weeks, Hovsepian said Novell would focus on customers and said statements it made in an open letter to the Linux community would stand as its public comment. He also was mum on the effect of the forthcoming open-source GNU General Public License (GPL) 3.0, which couldÂ change the dynamicsÂ of the patent protection clause that is part of the agreement with Microsoft.Novell said in a 10-K filing it made with the Security and Exchange Commission last week that there was a risk factor in the "grandfather" clause that is currently part of the working draft of the GPL 3.0. Hovsepian said during a question and answer session that he would not answer questions about what effects the grandfather clause may have on Novell's contract with Microsoft saying any answer would be "broad speculation." Other numbers highlighted by Novell included revenue from its Identity and Access Management business unit of $23 million, a 5 percent year-over-year increase. The company reported that revenue from Systems and Resource Management unit was $32 million, a 4 percent drop over the same quarter a year ago, and that revenue from its Workgroup business unit dropped 4 percent compared to the second quarter of 2006 to $84 million. Going forward, Novell stated that it expects net revenue for 2007 to be between $925 million and $955 million. Those numbers were adjusted to account for the recent divestment of its Salmon business consulting group.
38768
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has settled antitrust disputes with Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a Washington, DC-based trade organization that had supported the European Union's antitrust case against the software giant.
581864
Microsoft last week announced antitrust settlements with Novell and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), ending years of legal wrangling.
610740
Novell Inc. will begin shipping on Tuesday a desktop version of its open source Linux operating system aimed squarely at enterprise users.
48695
Novell Inc. of Waltham is getting a half-billion-dollar check from Microsoft Corp. to settle an antitrust case that&#39;s never been filed.
514064
Dell and Novell have reached an agreement that will see Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 receive certification on a selection of Dell PowerEdge servers.
101184
Mandriva has become the latest Linux vendor to publicly refute speculation that it will join Novell, Xandros and Linspire in signing a patent covenant with Microsoft, in which the Redmond company agrees not to sue for potential intellectual property infringement.
294846
Novell Inc. will release its first desktop-and-server suite for small businesses in September, an offering clearly aimed at taking market share from rival and sometime partner Microsoft Corp.
680580
Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) is offering a test version of its Open Enterprise Server (OES) platform, a blend of the company's proprietary networking software and open source technology that the company said promises to offer businesses greater flexibility with I.T. systems.
588456
Supporters of PC operating system  Linux are preparing to counter a recent deal penned by  Microsoft Corp  which establishes for the first time  the principle of paying the software giant for the operating  system, whose license requires it to be free.
157505
Seeking to be more competitive with Microsoft Corp., Linux backers have agreed on a standard version of the operating system so that programs written for one Linux distribution will work with others.
621533
(InfoWorld) - Think Novell is sending more money to Microsoft under the vendors' intellectual property agreement than the other way around? Think again, a Novell executive said at the TechEd 2007 conference in Orlando, Fla., on Monday. As part of a multifaceted arrangement forged in November 2006, the two companies agreed not to sue each other's customers over IP issues. Included in this understanding was a series of payments going between the companies pertaining to this matter. It might seem that Microsoft, with its recent complaints about open source and Linux allegedly violating 235 Microsoft patents, would be getting more money from the deal. But that is not the case, said Justin Steinman, director of product marketing for Linux and Open Platform Solutions at Novell. "Actually, Novell gets more money," Steinman said.Â  Even when discounting Microsoft payments to Novell for access to Novell's Suse Linux, Novell still gets more, he said. Steinman attributed the disparity to Microsoft simply having more customers than Novell.Â  "They're paying for coverage for more customers," Steinman said. He said he did know the difference in the amount of money changing hands. Steinman recited the often-repeated mantra that the deal with Microsoft was what customers wanted. They wanted the IP issue to go away and they want Linux interoperability with Windows, he said. Microsoft, in a statement, said the dollar amount of the arrangement will vary. "Both Microsoft and Novell have patent portfolios, and as part of the patent agreement, each is paying the other for access to these patents. There is an upfront payment from Microsoft to Novell," Microsoft said.Â  "Then, Novell will pay Microsoft on an ongoing basis. The total dollar amount depends on how big certain Novell businesses grow over time. It is impossible to say how all payments will net out until Novell's business performance over the next several years is factored in." Microsoft under its agreement with Novell is selling Suse Linux subscriptions certificates to Microsoft customers wanting Linux. Other parts of the agreement have had the companies working to support virtualization of each other's operating systems. They also are aligning on standards-based systems management and directory and identity interoperability. Additionally, the companies are ensuring document formatting compatibility between Microsoft Office and Novell OpenOffice documents. Asked about the Novell-Microsoft agreement, an industry analyst Monday said he did know its financial details. "I don't know what the numbers work out to," said analyst Al Gillen, research vice president at IDC. But he said the contract makes sense in that customers would not want Microsoft suing them over IP issues. "In that context, from a customer's perspective it's good," Gillen said. "I realize the [open source] community dislikes it." Xandros and Microsoft announced a similar arrangement regarding Linux at TechEd on Monday. In other developments at TechEd Monday, Microsoft's Steven Martin, director of product management in the company's Connected Systems Division, stressed Microsoft's prominence in the SOA space. "What we're doing is we're helping customers understand the use of Windows Server, the .Net Framework and BizTalk Server to build service-oriented applications that differentiate the business," Martin said. Microsoft is touting its on-premise software as well as its hosted BizTalk Services platform, which provides for SOA across the Internet, said Martin. While companies such as Sun Microsystems, BEA Systems, and IBM perhaps have been more visible in promoting SOA, Microsoft is a player as well, Martin said. "We've been very active in service orientation going back to 1999, [when] we partnered with IBM to build the Web services specifications (known as WS-*)," Martin said. We haven't latched onto all the buzzwords but weâve been very active in helping customers build service-oriented solutions for many, many years. We were pioneers in this space," said Martin. Microsoft at TechEd also said the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance, or MDOP, will mostly be ready in July. The product set enables better management of Windows desktops. "We're trying to address the deployment and the manageability issues that our customers told us they were having in managing their desktops," said Winni Verhoef, senior product manager for Windows product management at Microsoft. Most components will be generally available in July, including the Windows Vista versions of SoftGrid Application Virtualization, for turning applications into centrally managed services, and Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset, for system repair and data recovery. Also part of MDOP are Advanced Group Policy Management, for change management and versioning, and System Center Desktop Error Monitoring, which identifies the impact, probable cause and resolution for failures in system crashes. Another component, Asset Inventory Service, providing inventory data via a hosted service, will be released in a beta version July 1. General availability is planned for fall. MDOP requires that users be part of the company's Software Assurance program and costs about $10 per desktop per year. A server running Windows Server and A SQL Server database also are needed. A Microsoft official at TechEd also explained the Visual Studio Shell, planned for inclusion in the upcoming Beta 2 of the newly named Visual Studio 2008 development platform. With Visual Studio Shell, Microsoft partners and developers can build versions of Visual Studio customized to specific application areas and bearing partners' brands. Microsoft's previous solution in this area, Visual Studio Premier Partner Edition, did not allow custom branding, said C. Joe Marini, group product manager for Developer Marketing in the company's Visual Studio Integrated Partners group. The shell features base capabilities for developers to build their own tools and lacks Microsoft development languages such as Visual Basic of C#. Enterprise developers also could use the shell. "The whole idea is rather than building your tool IDE, you use ours as a starting point," Marini said. Microsoft benefits in that its Windows and .Net technologies are promoted, Marini said.
161219
By the end of the week, Novell Inc.&#39;s new Linux desktop for enterprise customers, Novell Linux Desktop 9, Powered by SuSE Linux, will be available for purchase through Novell channel partners for a suggested price of $50 per system.
593240
Novell this week spruced up a version of its Linux desktop aimed squarely at enterprise users.
346100
Microsoft has reached a $536 million legal settlement with Novell, resolving all outstanding antitrust claims by Novell against Microsoft involving NetWare and its other products.
237697
TechWeb - Customers are more interested in interoperability and virtualization than patent protection and intellectual property issues, despite the stir Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is creating in the open source community, says Novell.
416208
Supporters of the free PC operating  system Linux are preparing to counter a recent Microsoft Corp.   deal which established for the first time the  principle of paying the software giant to use Linux.