Ray Noorda, 82, the network computing pioneer who revived Novell Corp. and led it to international dominance, then engaged in a long battle with Microsoft Corp., died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Oct. 9 at his home in Orem, Utah.
Mr. Noorda, as the chief executive of the Utah-based Novell Corp., took over the foundering company in 1982 and focused its efforts on software. Novell soon dominated the market for products that tie clusters of corporate computers together and let individual computers share files and printers.
Mr. Noorda, who was sometimes called the father of network computing, was a generation older than the whiz kids who came to fame on business magazine covers in the 1990s. He coined the term "coopetition," meaning competitors could cooperate to make sure their products worked together.
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His willingness to strike deals did not extend to Microsoft, however. He pressured the Federal Trade Commission to take action against the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant for what he considered unfair competition. When FTC commissioners deadlocked on the case's merits and dropped the investigation, Novell and its allies had the file turned over to the Justice Department's antitrust division. And when he wasn't satisfied with Microsoft's settlement with the Justice Department, he sued the company. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates reportedly dubbed him the "grumpy grandfather" of technology.
PC Week magazine in 1994 asked Mr. Noorda why he couldn't settle his differences with Microsoft. Mr. Noorda replied: "To have a heart-to-heart, you have to have two hearts."
Before Microsoft released Windows NT, Novell software ran two out of every three PC networks in the United States. By the mid-1990s, however, Microsoft had overtaken Novell.
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Mr. Noorda attempted to compete with Microsoft's operating system, which is loaded into virtually every new computer on the market, by buying a Unix operating system from AT&T. He also bought the WordPerfect office productivity software in a failed try to overtake Microsoft's Office. He almost merged his company with the Lotus software firm in 1990, which would have posed a major challenge to his nemesis, but at the last minute, Mr. Noorda demanded an equal number of board seats for Novell, and the deal fell apart.
His memory became erratic, preventing him from working some days, so he resigned in 1995 and opened a venture capital firm. The company, Canopy Group, invested in 100 technology start-ups, mostly in Utah.
In the past two years, Canopy has been locked in lawsuits between the Noorda family and a deposed chief executive. A settlement was reached, but two officials involved with the business, including one of Mr. Noorda's daughters, committed suicide, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
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Mr. Noorda, the son of a janitor, was born in Ogden, Utah, and attended Weber State University. He picked cherries, set pins in a bowling alley, herded sheep and loaded railroad cars to pay the bills. He left school to join the Navy as a radar technician during World War II. After the war, he graduated from the University of Utah, where he received an engineering degree in 1949.
Those early lessons of the virtues of frugality stayed with him. He was known for working in a tiny, windowless office decorated with Norman Rockwell prints and uplifting mottoes, driving a pickup to work, flying coach and taking advantage of senior citizen discounts.
Mr. Noorda worked for General Electric for 21 years, until he set up a consulting business and became known as a corporate turnaround artist in California. He joined Novell almost by accident. Novell programmers, unable to afford a booth at the Las Vegas computer show Comdex, rented a nearby hotel room to show off their prototype software. Mr. Noorda wandered by, saw the demo and learned the company was near collapse. He signed up to be its chief executive.
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Instead of hiring a costly sales force, Mr. Noorda had Novell sell its software through 13,000 independent resellers, promoting the growth of the industry and trusting that Novell would get its fair share of the business. Novell grew from 17 employees to 12,000 under Mr. Noorda's direction, and the firm helped establish the state as one of the nation's technology hubs.
Survivors include his wife of 56 years, Lewena Tye Taylor Noorda of Orem; four sons; 13 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
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