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.
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.