Novell cuts its losses

Software firm predicts full year profits

Novell has reduced its losses

Enterprise software vendor Novell has narrowed its losses from $40m (£20m) in the third quarter of 2006 to just $10m (£5m) in the third quarter of 2007.

Overall sales are up marginally from $236m (£117.5m) last year to $243m (£121m) this year, leading the firm to raise full year expectations.

While sales are expected to be in line with prior guidance of between $925m (£461m) and $955m (£476m), profits are expected to exceed previous expectations of between break-even and $10m (£5m), according to the new predictions.

Novell’s Open Platform Solutions product was the best performing, with 22m (£11m) in sales, while its Linux Platform Products grew 77 per cent to $21m (£10.5m). Linux Platform Products invoicing also rose 95 per cent to $38m (£19m).

‘We are encouraged by our Linux performance and the continued enthusiasm for our desktop to data center strategy,’ said Novell chief executive Ron Hovsepian.