Novell F4Q08 (Qtr End 10/31/08) Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-12-04 20:11:14.0

Tags: Revenue, Novell Inc., Business Segment, Call Transcript, Earnings, UBS AG, Linux, GAAP, Operational Accounting, UNIX, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Financial Accounting, Finance, Seeking Alpha

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Abhey Lamba of UBS.

Abhey Lamba - UBS

Dana, can you talk a little bit about where did you end up with the exit rate margin for fiscal ’08? Did you hit your 12% to 15% target? And as we think about fiscal ’09, what are the various factors that could impact the ’09 margin expansion level? Is it just the revenue level or are there any other factors we should be thinking of?

Dana C. Russell

Let me make sure I got both parts of the question there -- so in terms of exit rate, I think you can look at the fourth quarter and it’s a fairly good representation of the way that we are entering fiscal 2009, so with operating income on a non-GAAP basis of approximately 13%, and so we feel pretty good about the way that we’ve been able to streamline our expense structure, as well as hold revenues.

I think if you are looking forward here and saying what additional synergies or efficiencies have we created, I think in the guidance that I gave we talked about where we are entering the year from what was reported in Q4, so if you look on the face of the financials there at the operating expenses as well as the cost of sales, we will be below those numbers and we can give you more specific guidance on that but I think what we said was the $5 million to $10 million is our guidance in terms of the entry rate into Q1.

I think in terms of additional things that we are planning on, we don’t -- I think we are just evaluating at this point any additional restructures or activities that may take place in 2009 and those would be largely dependent on the overall economic condition and its impact to our revenues, if any.

Abhey Lamba - UBS

Thanks, Dana and Ron, if you could quickly talk about the impact of the economy on different business segments, how it impacts different business segments differently.

Ronald W. Hovsepian

I’m happy to do that. As we look at the market right now and we are looking hard obviously at Q1, what we see is in the Linux market, we are hopeful that that will generate more interest by the customers as we look at where they could spend their dollars. If overall IDC is projecting one to two points of general IT spend growth for next year, then what we have to figure out is okay, as they rebalance that spending, where can we get it? We feel good that Linux should be a winner on that. We are not sure if the -- when that will happen, meaning just timing of that but I actually feel good overall that Linux will be a key player for that as that market unfolds.

 

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