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- Novell and UNIX System Laboratories Create Univel;
- Joint Venture Company Chartered to Simplify and Distribute Standard UNIX
- System
-
- NEW YORK--December 12, 1991--Novell, Inc., developer of NetWare(R) systems
- software, and UNIX System Laboratories (USL), Inc., developer of the
- UNIX(R) System V operating system, Thursday announced creation of Univel, a
- joint venture company formed to accelerate the expanded use of easy-to-use
- UNIX systems in the network computing marketplace.
-
- "There are clear customer needs for a mature, stable, well developed,
- general purpose applications platform like UNIX System V that encompasses
- the desktop, applications servers on computer networks, and host computer
- systems," said Raymond J. Noorda, chairman, president and chief executive
- officer of Novell. "Novell is committed to meeting this need. Through
- Univel, Novell and USL will bring an end user customer focus to the UNIX
- system, making it easier to use while significantly expanding its
- availability throughout worldwide distribution channels."
-
- Roel Pieper, president and chief executive officer of USL, said, "Univel
- opens a new era in the growth of the UNIX system by making its power and
- security accesssible and available on market-leading microprocessor
- platforms. Univel products will set the standard for the UNIX System at the
- desktop and will help attract thousands of additional applications to
- 32-bit operating system environments, including those built around the
- Intel ix86 chip architecture."
-
- Novell and USL are contributing cash and technology rights to Univel.
- Novell holds a 55 percent share in the new company. Although specific
- financial terms of the joint venture were not disclosed, the companies
- acknowledged that Univel has been underwritten with $30 million cash and
- other assets. In addition, the joint venture will have access to technical
- resources and the education, training, sales, marketing and distribution
- capabilities of the parent companies.
-
- Novell and USL expect Univel to respond to customer needs with streamlined
- UNIX System V Release 4.1 operating system products. The companies
- anticipate that Univel's products will enable computer users to run UNIX
- applications on standard hardware and utilize the UNIX system as a scalable
- applications environment across computer networks. Product development is
- intended to tightly integrate NetWare network services from Novell with the
- UNIX SVR4 applications platform.
-
- Novell's NetWare provides network services that integrate DOS, OS/2,
- Macintosh and UNIX desktop computers with each other and with host computer
- systems from leading UNIX system vendors, and from other companies
- including Digital Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard and IBM. UNIX SVR4
- unites all major UNIX system derivatives into a single, standard product
- that supports all major system integration standards, including POSIX,
- IEEE, X/Open's Portability Guide Issue 3, the System V Interface
- Definition, the Intel SVR4 Application Binary Interface and the Intel
- Binary Compatibility Specification, Edition 2. Univel's initial products
- will be announced and begin shipping to computer users in 1992. They will
- be available through computer product distributors, systems integrators and
- resellers worldwide. They will also be made available from computer
- manufacturers under OEM agreements. The new company will be headquartered
- in San Jose, Calif.
-
- The appointment of three key Univel executives was announced. Joel A.
- Appelbaum has been named president and chief executive officer of Univel.
- Grover P. Righter has been named vice president product group. Gregory R.
- Fallon has been named vice president sales and channel management.
-
- Appelbaum previously had been executive vice president, Open Solution
- Software, at USL. Before joining USL in 1990, he was vice president for
- AT&T's network computing product line and director, Venture Technologies at
- AT&T Corporate. He served at Bell Laboratories for more than 16 years in
- both research and management positions, including director, Strategic
- Planning.
-
- Righter formerly headed UNIX system efforts within Novell's
- Interoperability Systems Group. He joined Novell in 1988 and has held
- software engineering and product development management positions at the
- company, including director of NetWare development and director UNIX system
- products.
-
- Fallon was formerly channel marketing director for International Operations
- at Novell. He joined Novell in 1989 through the Novell/Excelan merger. He
- had been business development group manager at Kinetics, a wholly owned
- subsidiary of Excelan. Prior to joining Kinetics, Fallon had fifteen years
- of sales experience in the computer industry.
-
- Univel will be overseen by a five person board that includes Appelbaum, two
- additional nominees from Novell and two nominees from USL. UNIX System
- Laboratories, Inc., headquartered in Summit, N.J., develops and markets the
- UNIX System V operating system and other Open Systems software, including
- the TUXEDO(R) Enterprise Transaction Processing System, Open Networking
- Platform(R) OSI technology, and the C++ Programming Language System, to the
- worldwide computer industry.
-
- Novell, Inc., (NASDAQ:NOVL) is an operating system software company, the
- developer of network-services and specialized and general purpose operating
- system software products including NetWare, DR DOS, DR Multiuser DOS, and
- Flex OS.
-
- Novell's NetWare network computing products manage and control the sharing
- of services, data and applications among computer workgroups, departmental
- networks and business-wide information systems.
-
- NetWare is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. UNIX, TUXEDO and Open
- Networking Platform are registered trademarks of UNIX System Laboratories,
- Inc.
-