Novell Hits The RedNovell Hits The Red

Infrastructure software and services company Novell Inc. reported a net loss of $12 million for its first quarter, which ended Jan. 31, compared with a gain of $8 million for the same period last year. The company reported the loss on net revenue of $260 million, down from $278 million in the year-ago quarter.

The company cited continued soft demand for networking software and IT consulting as the primary reason for the loss, despite double-digit growth in the company's identity management, Web services, and its ZENworks management software.

The company cited the National Tax Board of Sweden, Pfizer, and Waste Management as new customer wins for its Nsure identity-management software.

Novell's identity-management and secure Web-services software grew 37% year over year to account for $23 million of the company's revenue for the quarter, while its software license and maintenance revenue slipped 5% from last year to $159 million. U.S. and Asia-Pacific revenue both declined year over year, while revenue from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa grew 6%.