TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Novell Agrees to Sell Unix System: The Provo, Utah-based firm reached an agreement to give control of the Unix computer network operating system to Santa Cruz Operation Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., allowing it to concentrate on its more successful businesses. Novell Inc., the second-biggest personal computer software company after Microsoft Corp., will sell its Unix business for about $60 million in Santa Cruz Operation stock--equal to a 17% stake--and a portion of Unix revenue, expected to be about $84 million. The move ends Novell’s efforts to develop an operating system for controlling corporate computer networks that would compete with Microsoft; it will now concentrate on its core NetWare PC network program. Santa Cruz-based Santa Cruz Operation, with backing from Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, will improve the widely used Unix operating system.