The new Novell

Novell, which was acquired by The Attachmate Group in April, wants to regain its status as an IT icon and will try to do so by focusing its efforts on its core assets and rebuilding relationships with its huge installed base. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently caught up with Novell President Bob Flynn and VP of Product Management and Marketing Eric Varness for a briefing on their rebuilding plans.

What was The Attachmate Group's interest in Novell?

FLYNN: Several things, but a little history first. Attachmate was acquired back in 2005 by a set of equity firms and was merged with a competitor, WRQ, and my boss, Jeff Hawn, who was CEO of Attachmate, was installed as CEO.

The strategy as stated back then was twofold. One, we wanted to grow the business both organically as well as through acquisition, looking to build a billion dollar company over time. The billion dollar mark was based on our belief that size matters in the technology industry. We felt we needed to be that size so customers, particularly enterprise level customers, had confidence in the company they were doing business with. The other part of the strategy was to focus on IT operations, on solutions that help IT organizations better manage their businesses.

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