Novell Inc. and Digital Research Inc., a developer of advanced operating system software, have agreed to merge.
Digital Research, with headquarters in Monterey, Calif., will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Novell under terms of the merger agreement announced Wednesday. Digital Research developed the CP/M, the precursor of today's disk operating systems and DR DOS.Digital Research, with 273 employees, had revenue of $40.9 million in its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1990, up from $36.2 million in fiscal 1989.
"Our strategy is to provide computer users and industry partners with easier to use, more powerful, software products to support tight integration between desktop computers, computer networks and host computer systems," said Ray Noorda, Novell's president and chief executive officer. "Digital Research is an important part of this strategy. Novell is welcoming a talented organization with technology leadership not only in DOS operating system products, but also forward-looking expertise in multitasking and graphical user interface technology."
Novell Inc. is the leading provider of network server operating system software that integrates desktop computers, servers and minicomputer and mainframe hosts for information sharing.
Dick Williams, president and chief executive officer of Digital Research, said the merger gives Digital Research significant new market reach through Novell's relations with leading computer vendors, its presence in the systems integration market and far reaching distribution, marketing, education and customer support resources.
"Tightly integrated products from Novell and Digital Research will simplify network use and better support our mutual customers and industry partners," Williams said. "With Novell, we see ourselves as suppliers of total operating system solutions for the enterprise computing environment, from banking to industrial automation real-time requirements, to advanced graphical user interface technology."
Novell said it is responding to customer demand for tightly coupling network operating system software with desktop and host computer operating systems.