Novell boss rebuffs sale rumours

NOVELL chief executive Eric Schmidt last week denied the company was up for sale, following rumours that IBM was about to buy the struggling software supplier, writes James Harding.

Some observers predicted that a sale announcement would come after the US Labor Day public holiday on 1 September. But at the Java Internet business trade show in New York, Schmidt revealed: ?The company is not up for sale.?

Novell?s share price, previously buoyed by the takeover rumours, dropped by 6% to below $10 (#6) following the statement, wiping out gains made when the rumours began circulating. Analysts now think an IBM deal is unlikely in the near future.

Novell intended to host a press conference following Schmidt?s address to the conference, but this was cancelled without explanation.

In his address, Schmidt positioned Java and network services as the two main planks of Novell?s future direction. He said there would be a shift from the client-server model of the 1980s to a client services model, with Java as the bedrock.

He explained Java?s role in the change from client-server to thin client-based computing and warned that Java must be made as secure, fast and scalable as C or C++.

Schmidt added that Java?s best commercial use is not in clients, where most investment has been targeted.

?The money is in the middle tier ? the real opportunity is network-aware applications running primarily on the server,? he said.

Bandwidth is the most crucial component of computing, Schmidt commented, and Java will help users get ?a ubiquitous connected data network?.

He added: ?Java will be the dominant programming language for the next 15 years.?

The event?s keynote speaker ? Oracle boss Larry Ellison ? pulled out at the last minute.