Cold Realities For Novell

摘要

In the fall of 2004, Chris Stone, then vice-chairman of Novell, took a nine-week executive education course at Harvard Business School. Stone was considered a rising star at the software company. Several Novell insiders say they thought his Harvard stint was the final step in polishing his skills before he took over as chief executive from Jack L Messman. But Stone was in for rude surprise. As the course was wrapping up, he met with Messman, and the boss forced him to resign. Neither man will talk about the incident. But former Novell executives say the two had clashed several times previously over who should take credit for the company's decision to shift its focus to selling the Linux open-source operating system. Two sources close to the company say that disagreement was the primary reason for the final split.