Novell

Novell, Inc. (/noʊˈvɛl/) was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi-platform network operating system known as NetWare. Novell technology contributed to the emergence of local area networks, which displaced the dominant mainframe computing model and changed computing worldwide.

Under the leadership of chief executive Ray Noorda, NetWare became the dominant form of personal computer networking during the second half of the 1980s and first half of the 1990s. At its high point, NetWare had a 63 percent share of the market for network operating systems and by the early 1990s there were over half a million NetWare-based networks installed worldwide encompassing more than 50 million users. Novell was the second-largest maker of software for personal computers, trailing only Microsoft Corporation, and became instrumental in making Utah Valley a focus for technology and software development.

During the early to mid-1990s, Noorda attempted to compete directly with Microsoft by acquiring Digital Research, Unix System Laboratories, WordPerfect, and the Quattro Pro division of Borland. These moves did not work out, due to new technologies not fitting well with Novell's existing user base or being too late to compete with equivalent Microsoft products. NetWare began losing market share once Microsoft bundled network services with the Windows NT operating system and its successors. Despite new products such as Novell Directory Services and GroupWise, Novell entered a long period of decline. Eventually Novell acquired SUSE Linux and attempted to refocus its technology base. Despite building or acquiring several new kinds of products, Novell failed to find consistent success and never regained its past dominance.

The company was an independent corporate entity until it was acquired as a wholly owned subsidiary by The Attachmate Group in 2011. Attachmate was subsequently acquired in 2014 by Micro Focus International which was acquired in turn by OpenText in 2023. Novell products and technologies are now integrated within various OpenText divisions.

The company began as Novell Data Systems Inc. (NDSI), a computer systems company located in Orem, Utah that intended to manufacture and market small business computers, computer terminals, and other peripherals. It was co-founded by George Canova and Jack Davis, two experienced computer industry executives. While some later sources place the creation of Novell Data Systems as having happened in 1979, more contemporaneous sources are in accordance with it happening in August 1980. Canova became president of the new company and Davis was in charge of sales and marketing. The suggestion for the company's name came from Canova's wife, who thought it meant "new" in French (in fact the French word is either the masculine nouveau or the feminine nouvelle). While future Brigham Young University professor and Eyring Research Institute (ERI) figure Dennis Fairclough was not a founder of Novell Data Systems, he did work with the company from its early days.

A funding proposal was brought to Pete Musser, chairman of the board of Safeguard Scientifics, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based, technology-focused venture capital firm that was an offshoot of the older Safeguard Business Systems. Safeguard Scientifics believed that a new computer systems company could help the Business Systems company automate their accounting systems. Accordingly, Safeguard Scientifics provided over $2 million in seed funding, and they became the majority owner of Novell Data Systems. Canova also owned a significant portion of the new company.

Novell Data Systems set up offices in a former carpet warehouse located in an obscure industrial park down the road from the largely vacant Geneva Steel works. By November 1980, they were placing display ads in the classifieds pages of Utah Valley newspapers, seeking to hire hardware and software engineers and other staff.

At first the company began to grow rapidly. By mid-1981 the company was selling two products, the Nexus Series microcomputer and the Image 800 dot matrix printer. Orders began shipping during the second half of 1981. The computer product was based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor and the CP/M operating system.