Novell fourth quarter revenue rises by 16%

BANGALORE: Novell, Inc. has reported revenue of $345 million for its fourth fiscal quarter ended October 31, 1999, a 16-per cent increase over the $298 million recorded in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1998. Net income was $74 million for the quarter, up 76 per cent from $42 million in the same period of the prior year.

Earnings on a diluted basis were $0.21 per share, in part reflecting a tax settlement for prior years. This compares with $0.12 reported in the year-earlier period. For the full year fiscal 1999, Novell's revenue increased 17 percent year-over-year to $1.273 billion. Overall growth was driven by directory-related revenue from NetWare® servers, directory-enabled applications, education and consulting. These product categories were up 30 percent to $1.155 billion compared with fiscal 1998. Net income for fiscal 1999 increased 87 percent to $191 million or $0.55 per share, up from $102 million or $0.29 per share for the same period the year before.

"In fiscal 1999, Novell accomplished what we said we would do," said Dr. Eric Schmidt, Novell chairman and chief executive officer. "We more than doubled our growth rates around the directory products that are fast emerging as the basis for IT solutions to support and manage business growth. We saw stellar performance from the NetWare 5 server platform and new directory applications such as ZENworks. And, we met the aggressive corporate and financial objectives that management established for the company."

By product category, revenue from directory-enabled NetWare server software totaled $176 million in the fourth quarter, up 17 per cent from the fourth quarter of 1998. Directory-enabled applications grew 32 per cent to $90 million. Service, training and consulting revenue increased 37 per cent to $50 million. Older pre-directory products declined 32 per cent to $29 million and accounted for less than nine per cent of fourth quarter revenue.