12.13.07
Novell’s ‘Success’ is the SEC’s Failure
Half an hour ago Novell issued a press release to accompany its report.
“We are pleased with our overall results for 2007. While undergoing transformational change, we grew revenue and exceeded our operating targets. We are on the right path to long-term, sustainable profitability,” said Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell.
As we mentioned yesterday, there are many signs (including some from Novell) that show manipulation of numbers. This only fools investors. According to the following video from the SEC’s chair, protecting investors from deception is the SEC’s purpose.
The SEC’s approach looked symbolic at best. Structural changes at Novell are said to be on their way. The results show no real sign of recovery. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
fsdfsEfgEfgdTvfg said,
December 13, 2007 at 5:18 pm
So SEC has found no signs of ‘massaged numbers’ or other fraud or inconsistencies in Novell’s reports, in spite of what you so pigheadedly foretold.
So what do you say? “SEC is stoooopid.” Duh.
Well, congratulations, Gump; another winner!
Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an incarnation of a known (eet), pseudonymous, forever-nymshifting, abusive Internet troll that posts from open proxies and relays around the world.
mbdfsEfgEfgdTvcv said,
December 13, 2007 at 5:19 pm
So SEC has found no signs of ‘massaged numbers’ or other fraud or inconsistencies in Novell’s reports, in spite of what you so pigheadedly foretold.
So what do you say? “SEC is stoooopid.” Duh.
Well, congratulations, Gump - another winner!
Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an incarnation of a known (eet), pseudonymous, forever-nymshifting, abusive Internet troll that posts from open proxies and relays around the world.
mlfsEfgEfgdTvcv said,
December 13, 2007 at 5:25 pm
So SEC has found no signs of ‘massaged numbers’ or other fraud or inconsistencies in Novell’s reports, in spite of what you so pigheadedly foretold.
So what do you say? “SEC is stoooopid.” Duh.
Well, congratulations, Gump - another winner!
Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from an incarnation of a known (eet), pseudonymous, forever-nymshifting, abusive Internet troll that posts from open proxies and relays around the world.
gdgdfg said,
December 13, 2007 at 5:33 pm
So SEC has found no signs of ‘massaged numbers’ or other fraud or inconsistencies in Novell’s reports, in spite of what you so pigheadedly foretold.
So what do you say? “SEC is stoooopid.” Duh.
Well, congratulations, Gump - another winner!
Note: comment has been flagged for arriving from a known (eet), pseudonymous, nymshifting, abusive Internet troll that posts from open proxies and relays around the world.
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 13, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Novell released its figures, but despite the SEC’s apathy, people need to be aware of this:
Matt Asay: “Well, I doubt, I tend… I don’t know who reported on that, but I saw something where they say, you know, this probably isn’t due to Novell massaging its numbers around Linux, which is what Dana Blakenhorn at ZDNet had claimed, I mean, I can tell you absolutely for a verifiable fact for that Novell does do that, but then again everybody does that. So… I’ve.. I’ve got the sales guys at Novell telling me that, that they do this, but it just doesn’t matter, I… I suspect that this is a tech… like a technicality that Novell has run afoul of and not a big deal, but maybe I’ll.. maybe we’ll be wrong, maybe I’ll be wrong, we should see.”
Ashlee Vance: “So you think people fudge the shipping numbers or they’re fudging revenue numbers, I mean, reve..?”
Matt Asay: “No…no… no… no not… just saying that they are putting it into different buckets. Ummm…like, some of that Linux revenue that Novell reports, based on what I’ve heard from Linux inside the company, is not Linux revenue by… by.., what are… reasonably prudently outside observer and what they would say.”
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/07/open_season_seven/
Robert said,
December 13, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I guess Novell waited for the Office Depot deal press to come out thinking it would soften the blow from the financial outlook.
Did not help, in after hours Thursday evening Investors are driving down shares of Novell Inc. after the Linux-based software firm’s yearly revenue forecast fell short of Wall Street’s expectations”
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 13, 2007 at 7:46 pm
I don’t think that the Office Depot PR was used strategically here. Novell was prepared to post these results last Wednesday, but the company was stopped on the same day by the SEC.
The stock’s reaction is an indication of the fact that investors are not too foolish. Novell tries to make its legacy products be classified as and qualify as “Linux revenue” in order to show that future products are on the sharp incline (while other drop into oblivion, depleting vital revenue sources).
Novell finds tough territories on the desktop because of products from Mandriva, Canonical, and soon enough it’ll be Red Hat as well. On the server, Novell fails to give compelling reasons to give RHEL the pass.
Novell’s deal with Microsoft cost it many talented SUSE developers, some of whom even ended up in Red Hat. A source tells me that Justin Steinman deserves a lot of the blame for Novell’s misguided direction.