In return for advising affiliates, DFJ shares profits and gets access to new deals, like Utah- based EmWare, a Novell spinoff that provides Internet connection for products like vending machines and locks.

FORBES: The wild bunch

Two days later, Novell and Netscape Communications, a leading Internet-software firm, formed a joint venture called Novonyx, whose slightly improbable task is to get big companies to use both firms' (rival) technologies.

ECONOMIST: Novell

Novell's somewhat stand-offish attitude to the Internet has done it no favours with the current generation of Internet-centric customers.

ECONOMIST: Novell