Editing Novell (section)

====Motivations====
Unusually for the CEO of a high-tech, emerging computer company, Noorda was nearing 70 years of age by the early 1990s.<ref name="NYT_Noorda_1992"/><ref name="Fortune_battle_1993"/> Furthermore, he was known for alienating high-level executives who might someday be in position to run the company.<ref name="BW_Noorda_1991"/> Stock market analysts were expressing concern that Noorda, whose personality was the basis for much of the company's culture, had no succession plan in place.<ref name="NYT_Noorda_1993"/> At the same time, Novell faced a looming challenge from Microsoft's upcoming [[Windows NT]] operating system, which, after a huge investment of resources from Microsoft, featured bundled networking and more advanced OS capabilities and looked to be that company's first offering that could seriously challenge Novell's local area networking franchise.<ref name="NYT_Noorda_1992"/><ref name="Fortune_battle_1993"/>

Under Noorda, Novell made a series of acquisitions interpreted by many to be a direct challenge to Microsoft.<ref name="Barney_1994_Novell"/><ref name="Allchin_1992"/><ref name="Age_forsale_2000"/> Noorda was motivated in part by a realization that NetWare's technology was not suitable as the basis for a full-fledged operating system and application platform.<ref name="Fortune_battle_1993"/><ref name="CNET_Firmage_2003"/> There was also enmity between the two companies and the two CEOs, stemming in part from merger talks between Noorda and Microsoft head [[Bill Gates]] that had begun in 1989 and been on-and-off for the next couple of years before breaking down for good.<ref name="Guardian_Frankenberg_1994"/> Subsequently, Novell had played a role in keeping the [[United States v. Microsoft Corp.#History|Federal Trade Commission investigation into Microsoft]] going.<ref name="BW_Microsoft_1993"/>

Between 1991 and 1994, the Noorda-led Novell made this series of major acquisitions: [[Digital Research Inc.]], producer of [[DR-DOS]], to  compete with Microsoft's [[MS-DOS]]; [[Unix System Laboratories]], holder of [[Unix]] operating system technology, to improve Novell's technology base versus Windows NT; [[Serius Corp.]], maker of an advanced application development tool; and [[WordPerfect Corporation]] and [[Quattro Pro]] from [[Borland]] to provide personal productivity and group collaboration products.<ref name="Guardian_Frankenberg_1994"/> In all, Noorda acquired ten companies within a four-year span.<ref name="Guardian_Frankenberg_1994"/> By September 1993, ''[[BusinessWeek]]'' was writing, "Of the many rivalries in the personal-computer industry, for sheer nastiness it's hard to beat the one between Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc."<ref name="BW_Microsoft_1993"/> In November 1993, Noorda confirmed published reports that he had been suffering from some memory lapses and announced that he would be stepping down from the CEO position once a successor was found.<ref name="NYT_Noorda_1993"/>

In April 1994, former HP executive [[Robert Frankenberg]] was announced as the new CEO of Novell, with Noorda remaining as chairman of the board of directors.<ref name="Fisher_1994_Novell"/> By then the USL acquisition was already showing difficulties, while the WordPerfect acquisition was questioned even more.<ref name="Fisher_1994_Novell"/> Nonetheless, Frankenberg said he was enthusiastic about it: "For me, it was a pivotal item in my decision to join Novell because it makes possible an entirely new category of networked applications which no one else can provide."<ref name="Fisher_1994_Novell"/> When the WordPerfect and Quattro Pro acquisitions closed in June 1994, it was the largest such deal in the software industry to that time; it made Novell the third-largest software company in the world, trailing only Microsoft and [[Computer Associates]].<ref name="DH_WordPerfect_1994"/>

Noorda retired from the chairman position and left Novell completely in  November 1994, although he was still the largest shareholder of the company.<ref name="CW_Noorda_ex_chair_1994"/> At that point in time, Frankenberg became chairman as well.<ref name="NYT_Frankenberg_1996"/>