Recent contracts give Novell solid quarter

Novell's Australian operation reported a 19.2 percent increase in third quarter revenue over the previous quarter, the company said today.

Worldwide the company had revenues of US$305 million for the quarter ending 31 July, an increase from US$283 million for the same period a year ago. Sales revenue at its New Zealand operation increased by 34.7 percent, the company said.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, Novell reported a four percent increase in revenue growth over the previous quarter, and a one percent decline over the same period last year.

Novell Asia-Pacific president Rhonda O'Donnell, said the results highlighted the company's strengths in identity and resource management, and consulting services areas.

"Novell's recent win of a multi-million dollar contract to run the Bracks government's Rosetta initiative highlights our position as the market leader in secure identity management," O'Donnell said.

Worldwide, net income for the third fiscal quarter 2004 came in at US$23 million, a significant improvement over the vendor's net income loss of US$12.4 million for the same quarter 2003.

Jack Messman, CEO of Novell, was less impressed by his company's revenues than he was with the turnaround in net income.

"While revenue was not as strong as we would have liked, Novell improved earnings performance for the quarter and nine months period versus the same periods last year," Messman said in a statement.

As part of its third fiscal quarter 2004 earnings, Novell reported revenue of US$12 million from its fledgling SuSE Linux business.

Novell purchased SuSE in November of 2003 in an effort to breathe new life into its operations.

Of the Linux factor, Messman said "Novell's transition to growth company status is well underway as we strengthen our products and services in both the Linux and identity management categories.

"Our SuSE Linux business performed well in this quarter and is proving instrumental in positioning Novell as a strategic vendor to large enterprises."

Novell reported that of the sales of subscriptions to SuSE Linux Enterprise Server, 12,000 units of the total 19,000 units sold in the quarter went to one customer.