The Linux and networking software company, which employs about 1,500 people in Utah, announced in August that it had hired an outside law firm to check into its options. The Waltham, Mass., company's third-quarter earnings report to the Securities and Exchange Committee also was delayed.

"Obviously, this is taking a long time, but we want to do this right," Novell spokesman Bruce Lowry said Wednesday. "And people need to remember this is an independent [audit]; the timing is out of our hands."

Along with computer industry giants such as Dell and Apple, Novell is one of many corporations conducting reviews in the wake of recent SEC investigations into stock-option grants. For some, like Novell, the task is proving daunting.

"It's a pretty long list" of companies doing reviews, Lowry said. "In our case, we're going back at least 10 years, looking at all the options granted to understand how these things need to be accounted for."

While urging stockholders to remain patient, Lowry noted the company has released preliminary earning results "as a gauge how current business is doing." Those releases have warned that results of the options probe could mean restatement of some income figures.

For the fiscal year ending Oct. 31, 2006, the company reported an unofficial $967 million in revenue and $21 million of net income, compared with 2005's $1 billion in sales and $373 million income (the latter reflecting proceeds from a Microsoft court settlement).

If the delay of official earnings for 2006 concerned investors, it appeared other news countered the gloom. Novell stock appeared to be basking Wednesday in the aftermath of a positive assessment from J.M.P. Securities analyst Denny Fish Jr.

Suggesting the company's current stock prices were a bargain after retreating about 30 percent in 2006, Fish upgraded Novell to "market outperform."

"We believe the time is right to begin accumulating shares ahead of what we believe may be improving fundamentals," he wrote in a note to investors on Tuesday.

The company, which recently announced a Linux development collaboration with Microsoft, also begins the new year with improved sales for its version of the freely distributed operating system. At $13 million, preliminary fourth-quarter results for Novell's Suse Linux line was up 32 percent from the same time a year prior.

Novell stock closed Wednesday at $6.80 per share, up 14 cents, or 2 percent.

bmims@sltrib.com