Dude, keep it on list, or I'm gonna start thinking you fancy me or something!!! :-) ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- Subject: Re: [SLE] Re: Oracle-Novell Date: Tuesday 18 April 2006 20:21 From: Dwerts <n7nkj@charter.net> To: Stephen Boddy <stephen.boddy@btinternet.com> Steve. I also feel about Larry the same as you, don't trust him and his "co-hort" Bill G On Tue, 2006-04-18 at 12:26 +0100, Stephen Boddy wrote:
On Tuesday 18 April 2006 05:03, kai wrote:
- Novell is in a less-than-optimal situation. They are floundering a bit trying to get a foothold in the enterprise market. That shows a company ripe for the picking. Novell's stock is hovering between $5 and $8 a share. (Aside from today's bump.) This in comparison to the leader - Red Hat - who probably doesn't even want to be bought. Their stock is in the high $20's a share, even with today's drop due to the news.
Share price is irrelevant. Market capitalisation is where you need to look. That's how much it would "cost" to "buy" the company. In reality you would rarely "buy" the company. At the moment you're looking at: NOVL $2.99B RHAT $5.10B which suggests that although Novell share price is lower, they also have more shares. If the number of shares were equal to Red Hat's, then Novell would be more like $18. Just for perspective: ORCL $70.93B IBM $127.96B and our favourite old whipping post: MSFT $277.35B
However, if Oracle were in the market, and looking to get a high profile brand, then it's a tough call. Red Hat undoubtedly has the brand recognition, and I'd give the PR war and general acumen points to them too. Novell have more time in the trenches, and have weathered some fairly nasty periods. They have (as I understand it) a good product set, and (depending on you POV) some definite advantages when it comes to "IP" (I'm abusing that term, hence the quotes). They would also be cheaper. For about 30 seconds after any serious intent was seen on the part of Oracle.
Personally I'd prefer Oracle to stay out of Novell. So far Novell haven't done anything to massively upset me. They've made a lot of the right moves, and seem to be genuine about reinventing themselves and fighting the good fight (OSS not religion ;-). I don't really trust Oracle to continue that state of affairs.
Steve Boddy
-- Don N7NKJ SuSE 9.3 Because it keeps on working! and it's open source! "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety". Benjamin Franklin ------------------------------------------------------- -- Steve Boddy