Novell provides leadership support to Interactive Multimedia Association initiatives through organization sponsorship; Darl McBride to address DAVIC meeting September 12th on behalf of world's largest network software provider.

ANNAPOLIS, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 8, 1995--The Interactive Multimedia Association (IMA) announced today that Novell, Inc., Provo, UT, the world's largest network software provider and the second largest software vendor overall, has become an IMA Sponsor, joining the alliance of leading worldwide corporations who are already IMA Sponsors, including Andersen Consulting, Apple, AT&T, Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM and Intel.

Novell's recent growth has afforded expansion of its core business into consumer-oriented markets including broadband media, thus enlarging its overall responsibility and role in the future of interactive media.

Darl McBride, Vice President and General Manager for Novell's Extended Networks Division, will provide details of the announcement on Tuesday, September 12, 1995, when he delivers the keynote address at the joint meeting of the IMA and the Digital Audio-Visual Council (DAVIC). The meeting will take place at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, CA, beginning at 8:30 a.m. with introductory remarks by Mike Braun, President of Kaleida Labs, Inc., Mountain View, CA, and IMA Chairman. Mr. McBride's remarks will begin at 9:00 a.m. and he will be available briefly for media inquiries immediately following.

"We have been working in the background in support of the IMA's efforts in cross-platform compatibility and network interoperability for the past few years," said Darl McBride at Novell. "It has recently become an imperative for the industry and especially our customers that we work some of the larger issues in a cross-industry manner, and the IMA is the leading organization spearheading these kinds of programs." Novell will formally join the IMA Board of Directors at its September 15th meeting.

"The philosophy of the IMA has always been open standards to expand all of the markets for interactive media, and this is also the philosophy at Novell," added Philip Dodds, IMA President. "Novell is kind of a Switzerland for open industry-driven standards. They help entire industries grow around such standards."

One of the reasons for Novell's increased involvement with the IMA is its expanded business in networked intelligent devices, primarily through its NEST(TM) (Novell Embedded Systems Technology) products. Embedded systems, which consist of operating system and application software, enable intelligent devices such as fax machines, video recorders, factory robotics and telephones, to share information and resources not only with each other, but with computers on both local and wide area networks. NEST(TM) affords a host of integrated product solutions and is in keeping with the IMA's efforts to enable data exchange and delivery of multimedia services over networks.

"With recent acquisitions and initiatives such as NEST(TM) and NetWare(TM) Connect Service, we have placed our company in the middle of the information superhighway marketplace," noted Chris Sontag, Director of Marketing for Novell. "Working with the leading multimedia organization will help us to maintain Novell's leadership in software and networking."

"We're very pleased to have Novell join the distinguished IMA leadership," concluded Mike Braun, President of Kaleida Labs and IMA Chairman. "The addition of Novell provides us with a strong foundation to continue driving cross-industry standards into the 21st century." Braun noted that the IMA has grown its membership by over 25% since the beginning of 1995, including new member organizations from the telecommunications and cable sectors and expanded international participation.

Novell Background

The business of Novell is connecting people with other people and the information they need, enabling them to act on it anytime, anyplace. Novell is the world's leading network software provider. The company's products provide the distributed infrastructure, network services, advanced network access and network applications required to make networked information and pervasive computing an integral part of everyone's daily life.

IMA Background

Organized in 1987, the IMA is the oldest, largest and most active trade association devoted to multimedia. Its mission is to promote the growth of its member companies through a variety of programs and services designed to foster the development of robust multimedia markets. IMA initiatives and activities serve to:

o bring buyers and sellers of multimedia products together,

o simplify technology for the end user, thereby assuring buyer

confidence and excitement, and

o provide information and context on legislative and market

developments affecting its member companies.

For IMA membership information, please contact Kathy Mitchell, Manager of Member Services, at [phone]. To utilize the IMA FAXBack System, dial [phone] from a fax machine handset. To access the IMA Home Page on the World Wide Web, point your browser software to http://www.ima.org. -0-

Note to Editors: Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks and Novell Embedded Systems Technology and NEST, are trademarks of Novell, Inc. The IMA logo is a trademark of the Interactive Multimedia Association.

NOTE: In the World Wide Web address above, there is a double slash between ``http:'' and ``www.ima.org''. In the e-mail address below, there is an ``at symbol'' between ``kchristie'' and ``ima.org''. These symbols may not appear properly in some systems.

CONTACT: Interactive Multimedia Association

Ken Christie, 317/823-5073

Fax: [phone]

[e-mail]