WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Novell, Inc. today announced that on October 31, 2005, its board of directors promoted Ron Hovsepian, executive vice president and president, global field operations, to president and chief operating officer of Novell. This promotion will further focus Novell's efforts on meeting the needs of customers on a global basis. Mr. Hovsepian will have direct worldwide responsibility for product development, marketing, and field operations, which includes sales, consulting and technical services.

Mr. Hovsepian, 44, joined Novell in June 2003 as president of North America, and has led the transformation of global field operations since May of 2005. Previously, Mr. Hovsepian held management and executive positions at IBM Corporation over a 17 year period, including worldwide general manager of IBM's distribution industries, managing global hardware and software development, sales, marketing and services. Mr. Hovsepian also served as a managing director of Internet Capital Group, a venture capital firm.

"Ron's results across our North American field organization are proof that he is a strong leader for Novell," said Jack Messman, chairman and CEO of Novell. "Now that the transformation of our field organization is well underway, it is time for Ron to extend his leadership capabilities across the entire organization. I am confident that, as president and COO, Ron will deliver strong results for our customers, employees and shareholders."

"Since joining Novell, I've remained convinced that we have a tremendous opportunity to provide leadership in the market as organizations around the globe embrace open standards and open source as a way to improve their operating results," said Hovsepian. "I'm grateful for the strong support we continue to receive from customers and partners and I am confident that our employees will deliver value to our shareholders."

About Novell

Novell, Inc. delivers software for the open enterprise. With more than 50,000 customers in 43 countries, Novell helps customers manage, simplify, secure and integrate their technology environments by leveraging best-of- breed, open standards-based software. With over 20 years of experience, Novell's 6,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centers around the world help customers gain control over their IT operating environment while reducing cost. More information about Novell can be found at http://www.novell.com/.

NOTE: Novell is a registered trademark, and SUSE and Software for the Open Enterprise are trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Bruce Lowry of Novell, Inc., +1-415-383-8408, or
blowry@novell.com

Web site: http://www.novell.com/

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