P. M. BRIEFING : Lotus and Utah Firm to Merge

Lotus Development Corp. and Novell Inc. have agreed to merge their computer software companies, with Novell becoming a subsidiary of Lotus, both companies announced today.

The pact is subject to the approval of the boards of directors and stockholders of both companies, in addition to standard regulatory approvals, the companies said in a statement. Closing is expected to be complete by July.

Lotus had $556 million in revenues for fiscal year 1989, while Novell posted $422 million in revenues.

Cambridge-based Lotus is a leading producer of business software, based primarily on its popular 1-2-3 spreadsheet program. In recent years it has expanded 1-2-3 from its original version for International Business Machine Corp.’s personal computers to versions for computers made by other manufacturers.

Novell, based in Provo, Utah, makes software used to link computers in networks for business-related tasks.