Q4 Novell: Revenue Down, Loss Up
In its fourth fiscal quarter of 2009, Novell achieved a net revenue of $216 million, a figure down on the $245 million for the same period last year.
The company also reports a Q4 loss of $259 million compared with $16 million in the same quarter 2008. According to the company's report, the loss,"included a $279 million non-cash impairment charge to goodwill and intangible assets." Disregarding these extra expenditures, Novell claims a net profit of $37 million, a practice the denies the general principles of book keeping in the US, (Non GAAP).
Novell's net revenue from its Open Platform Solutions reached $41 million in Q4 of 2009, with Linux contributing $39 million, a rise of 14% compared with the same quarter last year. Identity and Security Management peaked at $32 million, with Identity Access and Compliance Management, the cash cow of the segment, taking losses of 14%. System and Resource Management suffered a revenue minus of roughly the same amount.
For the complete fiscal year 2009, the company recorded a net revenue of $862 million, a loss of $206 million, again influenced by the non-cash impairment. In 2008, Novell had a net revenue of $957 million, and a profit of $5 million.
Ron Hovsepian, President and CEO at Novell, expects a net revenue somewhere between $200 and $210 million for the first quarter of 2010.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.
-
RingReaper Malware Poses Danger to Linux Systems
A new kind of malware exploits modern Linux kernels for I/O operations.