Novell Earnings Off For Quarter

Novell Inc. said Wednesday it lost $55.4 million for its second quarter due primarily to the sale of the former WordPerfect business.

The computer networking company also reduced its inventory of products sold to resellers by about $225 million.

The loss amounted to 15 cents per share for the quarter ended April 27. Novell earned $95.9 million, or 26 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

Analysts had forecast a loss of about 10 cents a share. The company’s stock was down 25 cents to $14.87-1/2 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Sales amounted to $188 million, down from $529.5 million a year ago. Novell had $149 million from WordPerfect products and other productivity software in the year-ago period.

Novell sold those product lines during the first half of fiscal 1996 to Corel Corp. The sale led to a second quarter $20 million pre-tax gain, or 4 cents per share after tax.