| Musical chairs continues at Novell |
Nov. 09, 2005
[Updated Nov. 10, 2005] -- In the latest bit of personnel-related news from beleaguered Linux software/services provider Novell Inc., Nuremburg, Germany-based SUSE Linux founder Hubert Mantel announced his resignation Tuesday via email to friends and business associates on one of the SUSE mailing lists.
Mantel, chief maintainer of the SUSE Linux kernel, simply said in the brief letter that he could no longer work for the company any longer. Novell acquired SUSE in January 2004.
"This is no longer the company I founded 13 years ago," Mantel reportedly wrote.
Novell corporate spokesman Bruce Lowry confirmed Mantel's resignation to Ziff Davis Internet Wednesday afternoon.
On Nov. 1, Novell Inc. replaced Jack Messman as company president with former VP Ron Hovsepian, although Messman retained two other titles -- CEO and chairman of the board. The next day, Novell announced its long-expected layoffs. About 600 employees will leave the company by the end of the year as a result.
Novell also may ultimately divest itself of its consulting subsidiary, Celerant, which would mean another 500 employees off the Novell payroll. Messman was CEO of Celerant's parent company, Cambridge, before Novell acquired it in 2001.
Last week, longtime Novell frontman and Linux business strategist/evangelist Matt Asay left his job to join enterprise content-management startup Alfresco Software.
Last month, Novell SUSE European channel executive Petra Heinrich resigned to take a new position at Open-Xchange, an open-source email company based in Germany.
In May, former Novell European area executive -- and former SUSE president -- Richard Seibt left the company.
Only months after the acquisition of SUSE Linux in 2004, Novell vice president Chris Stone -- then considered a rising star at the company and a chief architect of the SUSE Linux acquisition -- left the company amid speculation that he and Messman couldn't agree on strategy.
"I have been the maintainer of the SUSE kernel for more than a decade now," Mantel reportedly wrote in Tuesday's email. "I'm very confident the Novell management will find a competent successor very quickly. After all, there are lots of extremely skilled people over there in the Ximian division."
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