Novell Inc

A persistent rumor at last week's Comdex computer trade show in Las Vegas was that Novell Inc., the troubled computer network company and one-time Microsoft archrival, would soon be sold. Among the potential buyers most often mentioned were IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Netscape Communications and AT&T. None of the companies, including Novell, would comment on the rumor.

A U.S. judge ruled that SCO Group did not have copyrights that are key to its claims of ownership of technology used in Linux software. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball in Utah said Novell Inc., not SCO, owned copyrights to the Unix computer operating system. The ruling jeopardizes a related SCO lawsuit against IBM.

In a bold move to become a full-service software house, Lotus Development Corp. announced Friday that it will buy Novell Inc., creator of the top-selling personal computer networking program and leader of one of the most important segments in the PC software industry. The deal, whose current market value was pegged at about $1.

Microsoft Corp. will pay $442 million to Novell Inc. in a technology accord signed last week to make their rival server software work together. The companies will jointly develop and market software that lets Microsoft's Windows and Novell's Linux operating systems coexist on the same machine.

Novell Inc. said it has discontinued the production of two hardware connectivity products, the EtherSC and EXport 2000.

A U.S. judge ruled that SCO Group did not have copyrights that are key to its claims of ownership of technology used in Linux software. U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball in Utah said Novell Inc., not SCO, owned copyrights to the Unix computer operating system. The ruling jeopardizes a related SCO lawsuit against IBM.

Microsoft Corp. will pay $442 million to Novell Inc. in a technology accord signed last week to make their rival server software work together. The companies will jointly develop and market software that lets Microsoft's Windows and Novell's Linux operating systems coexist on the same machine.

Novell Inc. Chairman Eric Schmidt was named chairman of Internet search-engine company Google. Schmidt succeeds Sergey Brin, Google's founding chairman and president. Brin will continue as president of privately held Google. A Novell spokesman said Schmidt's role with the Provo, Utah-based Web network software provider remains unchanged. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said Schmidt's appointment is effective immediately.

Ray Noorda, a leader of Novell Inc. who battled Microsoft Corp. in the early years of network computers, died Monday of complications of Alzheimer's disease. He was 82. Noorda died at his home in Orem, Utah, a statement from family members said. He became chief executive of Novell in 1983 and made it a software powerhouse, dominating the market for products that manage corporate networks and let individual computers share files and printers. But Microsoft caught up by the mid-1990s.

Lawrence W. Sonsini, chairman of law firm Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, was on Novell Inc.'s board when the directors awarded themselves 50,000 stock options each in 1999 -- at what turned out to be a 17-month low in the share price, according to the Recorder, a San Francisco-based legal publication. The timing of Novell's Oct. 26, 1999, grants raises questions about whether the options were issued when Novell said they were, the Recorder said Monday.

Novell Inc. ousted its chief executive and chief financial officer in the latest effort to improve its lackluster performance and sagging stock price. Jack L. Messman, the ousted CEO, and former finance chief Joseph S. Tibbetts Jr. led the software company as it shifted its focus in recent years from networking software to distributing the Linux computer operating system and providing related services. Novell stock jumped 55 cents, or 9.2%, to $6.55 after the news.

A federal judge threw out four of Novell Inc.'s six antitrust claims against Microsoft Corp. but ruled that the case could proceed. Novell alleges that Microsoft used its monopoly power to limit sales of Novell's office productivity applications, including WordPerfect, a word processing program, and Quattro Pro, a spreadsheet program. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz cited a 1997 e-mail from Jeff Raikes, head of Microsoft's Office software unit, to billionaire investor Warren E.

Novell Inc., which this week agreed to a $536-million antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corp., filed a new suit claiming the world's largest software company stymied competition for word processing software. Novell accused Microsoft of trying to shut out WordPerfect, a product Novell bought for $1 billion in 1994 and sold two years later for $170 million after it lost market share to Microsoft's Word.

Microsoft Corp. agreed Monday to pay more than $500 million to settle two of the largest remaining antitrust complaints it faces, bringing the software behemoth a big step closer to resolving its long-running legal problems. Microsoft said it would pay Novell Inc. $536 million to end claims that it improperly used its market dominance to muscle out Novell's NetWare operating system, which controls groups of computers.

International Business Machines Corp., Lotus Development Corp., Netscape Communications Corp., Novell Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. plan to form a global Internet consortium. Novell said the goal of the consortium is to provide customers with Internet and intranet training and certification. The members of the consortium plan to name another company to administer the training and certification program, which will be rolled out in 1997, Novell said.

Novell Seeks Invalidation of Patent: Novell Inc. today was to ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to invalidate a patent that its holder claims broadly covers the popular office computing technology known as client-server. The inventor, Roger E. Billings of Independence, Mo., has filed suit against Novell, alleging that the Provo, Utah, software company owes him hundreds of millions of dollars for infringing his patent.

Business software maker Novell Inc. said it would buy Linux software developer SuSE Linux of Germany for $210 million, boosting the U.S. company's hold on corporate networks and sending its shares up 21%. Novell, based in Provo, Utah, also said IBM Corp., a major backer of Linux software, planned to make a $50-million investment in Novell convertible preferred stock, giving IBM a 2% stake in Novell, executives said. The SuSE deal follows Novell's $40.

Novell Inc., which makes computer-network software, agreed to buy SilverStream Software Inc. for about $212 million to add programs to run Web applications. SilverStream shares jumped 73%. Novell will pay $9 a share. After losing ground to Microsoft Corp. for operating-system software in recent years, Novell has focused on selling software to manage Web-based programs across different operating systems.