SUSE Linux desktop and server help Novell post solid earnings

Novell reported net income of $16.8 million for its fiscal first quarter of 2008, reversing a sour performance in the same quarter last year that netted a loss of $19.5 million.

The company’s performance produced 5 cents per share, which matched the prediction of analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial.

Overall revenue for the quarter was $230.9 million, a nearly 6% increase from the $218.3 million posted in the same quarter in 2007.

Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell, said in a statement, “We are very pleased with our results this quarter. We delivered product revenue growth across all business units and continued expense control this quarter.”

Novell reported $30 million of revenue from its open platform solutions, which include the SUSE Linux desktop and server. Those two platforms produced $28 million in revenue, a 65% increase over the same quarter a year ago.

The company’s identity and security management division posted $32 million in revenue, of which $28 million was generated by four products: Identity Manager, SecureLogin, Access Manager and Sentinel. Revenue for the division was up 15% over the fiscal first quarter in 2007.

In the systems and resource management division, which includes the ZenWorks suite, revenue was $37 million, a 5% year-over-year jump.

Revenue was $90 million for the Workgroup division, which includes Open Enterprise Server, NetWare and GroupWise, a mere 1% increase over the same quarter last year.