Novell touts new pricing plan

Novell is giving large businesses and government agencies a discount on its software.

Novell this week announced a new pricing plan that makes it cheaper for large Web sites to use Novell's software, such as its Web e-mail and authentication and login services.

The software maker previously charged companies and government agencies the same price for software licenses, regardless if the user was an employee, supplier, customer or citizen.

Novell charges based on the number of users accessing the software its customers have installed. Novell will now only charge 25 percent of its regular price per license for access by customers of Web sites, and 10 percent of the standard price charged to licensees for citizens accessing government Web sites, a Novell representative said.

Novell, once the leading maker of software for building local area networks, has been working hard to make a name for itself in Web services against competitors such as Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and IBM.

Last month, Novell posted a fiscal third-quarter profit of 3 cents per share, compared with its year-ago loss, on unseasonably strong sales in Europe and some big deals with corporations and government agencies in the United States.