After helping Novell reinvigorate itself last year
through the endorsement of Linux and the acquisition of supplier
SuSE Linux, vice-chairman Chris Stone has left the
company.
In an announcement Novell said Stone had "left the company to
pursue other opportunities". A Novell spokesman refused to comment
further.
Stone, who was second in command at Novell to chairman and chief
executive Jack Messman, was responsible for engineering, product
management and alliances. His duties will be taken over by Messman
for now.
In a statement issued by Novell, Stone said, "It is with some
regret that I have decided to leave Novell and pursue other
professional opportunities. I am proud of my work and
accomplishments at Novell, but now is the time in my career to do
something else, and I look forward to new challenges."
Dion Cornett, a financial analyst at Decatur Jones Equity
Partners, called the departure "a negative for both [Novell] and
the industry".
"We believe that Stone was instrumental in pushing Novell toward
a strategy of capturing value from open-source software, as opposed
to other members of management maybe more inclined toward giving
away Linux to fuel demand for [Novell's] other offerings, such as
identity management and directory services," Cornett said.
"We believe that the latter is a flawed strategy in that
[Novell's] other products will eventually face commoditisation as
well, and giving away the operating system not only sets a poor
business precedent, but may even accelerate the commoditisation of
products higher in the stack."
Cornett wrote that the $2m (£1.1m) severance package, plus
health care, given to Stone "suggests that Stone was asked to
resign". The severance details were unveiled in a filing with the
US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Stone joined the company in March 2002 and has been a key leader
in moving Novell into the world of open-source software and
identity management. He had also worked at Novell previously,
joining the company as senior vice-president of strategy and
corporate development in August 1997 before leaving later for
another job.
Stone was an integral part of Novell's decision a year ago to
buy SuSE as it headed in a new business direction. After years of
watching Novell lose market share to Microsoft and other suppliers,
many Novell users and industry analysts saw it as a bold attempt to
revitalise its middle-aged NetWare line.
Before acquiring SuSE, Novell also purchased Linux
desktop supplier Ximian as it began building its open source and
Linux holdings.
Todd R Weiss writes for Computerworld