In a move consistent with both companies' need to focus on core business rather than new turf, Novell, Inc. and Netscape Communications Corp. announced this week that Novell will assume full control of their joint venture Novonyx, Inc. (See Cacheworthy, 29.Oct.97 for background.)
The companies formed Novonyx seven months ago to port Netscape's SuiteSpot server products to NetWare. While both companies will continue to fund the venture, this week's announcement means that Novell will take responsibility for marketing the Novonyx brand.
"Establishing recognition is the biggest challenge for startups," said Coleman Barney, director of marketing for Novell's platform services group. He added that the change would benefit customers, and that Novell's education division is "very excited" about teaching native Netscape classes.
The move is consistent with, if not motivated by, Netscape's reported fourth-quarter loss and Novell's stated goal of renewing the NetWare brand. Netscape officials denied that poor financial performance led to the decision to divest the startup.
Novonyx, which shipped its first products in January 1998, will continue to be headed by Rob Hicks, formerly CEO and now vice president of strategic investment at Novell. In an subtle twist, Hicks will also oversee a new investment fund.
Marketing director Barney explained: "We're approaching market building for NetWare as a venture capital business." Novell's $50M Internet Investment Fund will be used to finance joint-development projects with companies specializing in key web technologies, including Java, CORBA, and virtual private networks (VPNs).
In a separate announcement, Novell made available the second beta version of NetWare 5.0 (formerly "Moab"). Together the Novonyx, investment fund and NetWare news indicate the former networking king's committment to IP, rather than its own proprietary IPX protocol.
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