Novell may lay off 25 percent of its workforce

SV News Service


Provo, Sep 9

Novell is expected to announce a lay-off that could affect up

1400 people, a quarter of the company's 5,500-person workforce. A company

spokesman would only confirm that the company is working to take steps to reduce

operating expenses.

Novell is suffering from lackluster sales of its boxed software

products and a continued decline of the company's position in the market for

networking operating software. Novell's third-quarter profits were down 83

percent from the year-ago period to $ 8.6 million on revenue of $ 270 million.

Already Novell has begun to de-emphasize NetWare, which is competing with

Windows NT, Sun Solaris and the Linux operating system in the network operating

systems market.

Analysts said Novell's problems make the company ripe for a

take-over


by a larger conglomerate. Some have suggested IBM may be interested in acquiring

Novell's business. Some have the opinion that if IBM is interested, it is

primarily for Novel's customer base.