Novell Credits Revenue Rise Largely to Linux

Novell Inc., of Waltham, Mass., on Thursday announced results for its fourth quarter of 2004, ended Oct. 31. The company, which produces collaboration, application integration and other software, reported $301 million in revenues, which represents a 5 percent gain compared with $287 million in revenue for the year-ago quarter.

But much of the difference in revenue was represented by $12 million in revenue brought in by Novells SuSE Linux subdivision. Of this amount, $7 million came in from 21,000 subscriptions to the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server product. Novell said this was a 68 percent increase over subscription rates in the third quarter of 2004.

Total revenue for the year, Novell said, was $1.2 billion; net income for common stock shareholders came to $31 million, which resolved to 8 cents per diluted share.

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Adjusted net income for common stock shareholders in the quarter was $13 million, or 3 cents per diluted share, after discounting $9 million in restructuring charges and $1 million in net investment impairments.

This represents a marked change from the third quarter of 2003, which saw Novell posting a net loss of $109 million, or 29 cents per common share. This was largely due to a $119 million charge to increase a valuation allowance for net deferred tax assets.

Novells recent settlement with Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., over potential antitrust litigation—which the company estimated will net Novell $448 million after transactional costs and taxes—will be applied as operating income to Novells first fiscal quarter, which will end Jan. 31, 2005.

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