Novell Inc, its ambitions drastically reduced now that Wordperfect Corp and Unix are gone, expects revenue of about $1.5bn in its fiscal year ending in October, executive vice president and chief financial officer Jim Tolonen told a press conference at the Hambrecht & Quist extravaganza. The number would include the sale of its Unix and Wordperfect franchises and also its effort to reduce inventories in the second quarter to April 27 by some $200m. While the company wisely does not make forecasts, he remains comfortable with estimates for Novell’s 1996 and 1997 fiscal years that lie nearest to consensus estimates – that is $0.50 a share for fiscal 1996 and $0.95 for fiscal 1997, but the range of estimates is a very broad $0.29 to $0.70 a share for fiscal 1996, and $0.39 to $1.28 for fiscal 1997. Tolonen said the sale of the productivity software businesses to Corel Corp had closed in the second quarter at a slight gain for Novell. The $1.5bn for the year would compare with $2,040m for its last fiscal.
