Novell Sells More Than 11 Million Licenses and More Than $300 Million of NetWare 5 During Its First Year

ATLANTA (NetWorld + Interop)—September 14, 1999—Novell today announced the close of an extremely successful first year for NetWare® 5 as one of the best-selling and most award-winning products in the company's history. One year ago, Novell released directory-enabled NetWare 5 to high acclaim and great expectations by industry followers and customers. The company today announced that NetWare 5 accounted for more than $300 million in sales and more than 11 million users during its first year on the market. Led by NetWare 5, sales of Novell's directory-enabled NetWare increased 25 percent over the past four quarters to $640 million.

The introduction of NetWare 5 last year has helped Novell maintain its leading share of the server operating system market in 1999 with 80 million users. When surveyed, 80 percent of this installed base have indicated their intentions to migrate to the standards-based, pure Internet Protocol that underlies NetWare 5.

Novell has established the foundation for directory-enabled networks and applications with Novell® Directory Services® (NDS®). Customers have fueled Novell's business growth and expansion as they have migrated toward directory-based networks with NetWare 5 and beyond with NDS for Windows NT, Sun Solaris, Linux and other directory-based solutions from Novell.

"We're extremely pleased with the success of NetWare 5 and the reception it has received from customer organizations of all kinds in every part of the world," said Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO, Novell, Inc. "NetWare 5 sales exceeded even our own internal projections. The market has clearly seen the benefits of using directory-enabled NetWare 5 to manage and control their networks, integrate diverse platforms and resources, and deploy new applications and e-business activities that capture the full benefits of heterogeneous networks and the Internet."

The $10 billion ecosystem of customers, developers, resellers, distributors and certified professionals that depend on Novell and its directory-enabled network software have clearly benefited from NetWare 5. "As CIO of one of New England's largest independent and very competitive banking institutions, I must ensure that my computer networking infrastructure is scalable, reliable and performing at top levels," said Lloyd Hamm, senior vice president and CIO of Eastern Bank. "Moving key servers to NetWare 5 now, and migrating the entire enterprise as soon as possible has been a strategic decision for us to improve our network performance. Our continued partnership with Novell and its complete array of products greatly simplifies the management of our complex enterprise network."

Customers Benefit from NetWare 5
Novell today also unveiled a new Web site that showcases several customers that have moved to NetWare 5 and the benefits they've seen. Many of these customers have upgraded to NetWare 5 from NetWare 3 and 4, Windows NT, OS/2 and other network operating systems. See why customers are moving to NetWare 5 by visiting http://www.novell.com/success.

Resellers See Strong Demand
Computer industry resellers have also benefited from the strong demand for NetWare 5. "We've definitely seen a surge in our Novell sales since NetWare 5 released," said Brad Gordon, sales manager for Think Tank Networking Technology Group. "The enhanced directory services in NetWare 5 are unmatched. Novell delivers the reliability, scalability, security and lower overall total cost of ownership that our customers are asking for."

Award-winning NetWare 5
NetWare 5 has been recognized by respected publications throughout the computer industry for its award-winning performance, rich feature set, reseller channel programs and overall technological excellence. The more than 20 awards and accolades include:

• Networking Product of the Year - Network World
• Networking Product of the Year - Network Magazine
• NOS of the Year - Computer Reseller News Canada
• Overall Best of Show Award - Government Computer News
• I.T. Leader's Choice - Computerworld
• Channel Champion - Computer Reseller News
• 1999 Annual Report Card Winner - VARBUSINESS Magazine
• 10 Most Important Products of 1998 - InformationWeek
• 1998 Best NOS of the Year - Canadian Computer Reseller
• Top 100 Products of 1998 - VARBUSINESS Magazine
• InternetWeek Approved - Internet Week Magazine
• 1999 Hot Products Award - Data Communications Magazine
• Flying Colors Award - Network Computing Magazine
• Best Network Operating System (Finalist) - Network Computing
• World Class Award - Network World
• World Class Award - PC WORLD

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is the leading provider of network software enabled by directory services. Novell solutions give customers total control of business networks and the Internet, simplifying the management of user access and identity. Novell's worldwide channel, developer, education and technical support programs are the most extensive in the network computing industry.

For information on Novell's complete range of products and services, contact Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272), or visit Novell's Web site at http://www.novell.com. Press may access Novell announcements and company information on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com/pressroom. In addition, detailed comparisons between Novell products and competitive offerings from other vendors are available on the Web at http://www.novell.com/advantage. For information on the Year 2000 status of Novell products, please access Novell's Year 2000 Web site at http://www.novell.com/year2000 or contact Novell's Customer Response Center at year2000@novell.com.

Novell, NetWare, Novell Directory Services and NDS are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Press Contacts:
Blake Stowell
Novell, Inc.
Phone: (801) 228-5083
Internet: bstowell@novell.com

Julie Geer-Brown
Cunningham Communications, Inc.
Phone: (650) 858-3706
Internet: jgeer-brown@ccipr.com