Against the backdrop of the increasingly tough ICT market conditions, Novell has released its third fiscal quarter results, ended 31 July 2003, showing revenues consistent with that of the previous year.
Revenues reflected in this period (2003) were reported at US$283 million, compared to $282 million for the third quarter in 2002. The net loss reported in the third fiscal amounted to $12 million, or $0.03 per share, compared to that of $10 million or $0.03 per share, for the third fiscal quarter 2002.
The Europe, Middle East and Africa region contributed $113 million in revenue, representing a growth of 11% year-on-year. Although US revenues were slightly down, other new market territories like Canada and Latin America as well as Asia Pacific, all showed growth in revenue.
"There is no doubt that trading conditions have gotten tougher over the last year, but the fact that we have managed to cut our losses and streamline our business in line with this has allowed us to keep our revenues flat. A feat that many have not been able to match," says Richard Beytagh, managing director, Novell Africa.
Part of the narrowing of the loss and the maintaining of revenues can be attributed to the company`s foresight in reducing its annual operating expenses by nearly $100 million. Although the company has managed to shrink its workforce by nearly 10%, the benefits of this will only reflect in the first fiscal quarter 2004.
"We have taken a giant leap in improving our business performances via the introduction of cost-efficiencies, but more importantly we have continued to secure major new contracts in the areas of secure identity management and application integration.
"Our announcements earlier this month around our support for the Linux platform as well as our emphasis on Web services have been well received by customers and we expect this to inject new life into the business," concludes Beytagh.
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