Novell blames foreign currency rates for drop in turnover

Novell has suffered a $19m drop in turnover to $278m during its second financial quarter of 2006 compared to $297m in Q2 2005.

For the three months ended 30 April 2006, the vendor claimed that foreign currency exchange rates had "unfavourably" affected total turnover by roughly $6m year-over-year, as well as net profit by $1m.

Jack Messman, chief executive of Novell, said: "While Novell delivered on its financial guidance again this quarter, we have not lost sight of our goal to significantly increase our profitability by the end of fiscal year 2008," he said.

"We are engaged in many initiatives to grow revenues, increase efficiencies, and lower costs, to enhance shareholder value."

However, the vendor's Open Platform Solutions generated turnover of $57m, an increase of $37m from the same quarter last year.

The vendor also saw turnover from its systems, security and identity management operations increase by 16 percent year-over-year to $61m, but was matched by a 16 per cent decline in combined turnover from its OES and NetWare-related products.

Paul Sweeny, managing director of Novell Platinum partner ANS, told CRN: " Our Novell revenue has been strong over the last three months. It's [second quarter] results don't overly concern me. It's in a transitional period and has made some big strides."

james_sherwood@vnu.co.uk