Novell confirms layoffs

The cuts took place Friday and amount to less than 3% of the company's workforce.

Open-source vendor Novell Inc. on Saturday confirmed reports that it had a layoff on Friday, though it said the layoffs were small and amounted to less than 3% of its workforce.

Novell spokesman Ian Bruce said the company laid off less than 100 out of 4,200 employees worldwide. He declined to say if the move came in response to slumping sales at the Waltham, Mass. firm.

The number of layoffs cited by Bruce is far smaller than the numbers bouncing around the Web Friday night. CNET blogger Matt Asay, for instance, reported that Novell had cut up to 1,000 employees, citing an inside source who claimed that "basically an across-the-board reduction of 25 percent" was made.