"Russell and Hovsepian were asked during the analyst
call, why Novell's Linux business wasn't performing at the same
level at which Red Hat's Linux business is performing. Red Hat's
most recent set for financial results showed improvements in
revenue and income. Both Novell executives answered that Novell's
business is a different one than Red Hat's for a number of reasons.
""I think like any of these markets, we probably entered the
market in terms of time, in terms of scale, behind Red Hat by a few
years," Hovsepian said.
"Novell acquired SUSE Linux in 2003 for $210 million. Hovsepian
noted that first Novell had to get big anchor reference clients
which he claims Novell has done. After that he argued that Novell
had to build its ecosystem of partners which now number 3,000
independent service providers according to Hovsepian. Continuing to
build out the partner ecosystem is where Hovsepian sees the
greatest need in order for Novell to grow its Linux business."
