Novell Inc is just not doing well enough in its fight to the death with Microsoft Corp and Windows NT for the network operating system market, and Novell chairman, president and CEO Robert Frankenberg has had to pay the price. Highly regarded former Hewlett-Packard Co chief executive John Young who sits on Novell’s board and will succeed Frankenberg as chairman agreed that a lack of aggression and showing in the marketplace led the company to decide it was time to find someone else to take the reins. Trouble is it’s difficult to see how Novell will be able to sell products to anyone outside the NetWare base; the company that practically defined networking has only recently defined an intranet strategy which amounts to little more than IP gateways and third party software. On yesterday’s conference call the company was largely concerned with affirming company morale and could only offer refreshed marketing and its forthcoming intranet suite as ways out of its malaise. Meantime, shareholders saw their stock slump to $10.28 as markets closed last night in comparison to a high of $57 in 1992. Joseph Marengi, formerly executive VP worldwide sales at Novell has been named president, but the post of chief executive remains to be filled. Novell last week reported third quarter net profits down 42.4% at $58.8m, from $102.0m, on revenue down 32.1% at $365.1m. Nine month net profits were down to $67.0m from $279.4m, on revenue down 36.5% at $991.2m.
