Linux products help Novell boost revenue in third quarter

Novell Wednesday reported the net income loss for the third quarter of its 2007 fiscal year fell by nearly 50% compared to the same quarter last year, and the company said revenue was up nearly 3% to $243 million.

Novell reported a net income loss of $3.4 million compared to $6.4 in the same quarter last year. Revenue of $243 million was up compared to $234 million a year ago.

The company’s year-to-date totals for 2007 are $706 million in revenue and a loss of $25.5 million in net income.

Novell, however, said it was encouraged by its Linux Platform products, which accounted for $21 million of the $22 million in its Open Platform Solutions business. The figure represents a 77% increase over the third quarter of fiscal 2006. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Desktop make up the Linux Platform portfolio.

The numbers seem to indicate that Novell is benefiting in part from the licensing deal it struck with Microsoft last year.

Novell also said revenue from its Identity and Security Management business was $30 million, including a total of $27 million from identity and access management (IAM) that represents a 2% gain over the same quarter last year. The IAM products are Identity Manager, SecureLogin, Access Manager and Sentinel.

In addition, revenue from Novell’s Systems and Resource Management unit was up 4% to $35 million. Revenue fell, however, in the Workgroup business unit by 2% to $83 million, but the loss was less than expected.

“We're cautiously optimistic about the results here,” said Dana Russell, Novell’s CFO.

The Workgroup portfolio is made up of Open Enterprise Server, NetWare, Cluster Services, GroupWise and BorderManager.