Novell: Paging Dr. Stone
Novell is in trouble again, and its two-time savior Chris Stone is off running a different company.
In the late 1990s, Stone helped Novell stage a short-lived turnaround by releasing NetWare 5 with native TCP/IP support. And by the early 2000s, he helped orchestrate Novell’s open source push.
But something strange–no, something shocking–happened in November 2004. Stone abruptly resigned his vice chairman position and left the company. Some Novell insiders speculated that Chairman and CEO Jack Messman declined to give Stone the CEO title, prompting Stone to jump ship. He’s now president and CEO of StreamServe Inc.
And what about Novell? The company on May 31 revealed weak quarterly results, including less-than-stellar sales of its SuSE Linux offering. Wall Street says Messman isn’t moving fast enough to transform the firm. Investors are restless. Former NetWare partners are flocking to Red Hat and Microsoft.
Paging Dr. Stone.
Dr. Stone, you’re needed in surgery.