Open source and Linux specialist Novell has declared a fall in both profits and sales in the third quarter of its fiscal year, ending 31 July. On a year-on-year basis, sales has declined by 8% to £129m from £140m. Profit, on the other hand, has dipped by 6%, from £10.8m to £10m. Novell had also reported a drop in profit and sales for the second quarter of 2010.

Citing customer ambiguity about the company’s possible sale as a reason, Novell had earlier corrected its revenue guidance this year from $205m to $210m to between $197m and $199m.

Novell, however, was unperturbed by its steady profitability levels despite a fall in outlook. Ron Hovsepian, President and CEO at Novell, attributed the fall in its third-quarter’s revenue to the apprehensions surrounding the Novell board of directors’ current review of various substitutes to improve stockholder value. Hovsepian added that the growth outlook of Novell’s target markets remains strong and that the firm’s focus in the future would be to achieve top-line growth through implementation of its differentiated strategy, WorkloadIQ.