I admit it. I thought South Jordan-based TenFold (OTC BB: TENF) was dead for sure, destined for the DotCom dustbin like so many other high-flying companies launched in the mid-1990s. Not so fast, Politis, as not only is the company delivering on its promise of rapid application development technology, but it's also gotten most of its financial challenges fixed during 2003. In fact, TenFold announced last week that it had closed on a $10 million round of private equity funding commonly known as a PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity). Hmmm, do I even venture where TENF will be next December? Nope.

5. Fund of Fund Legislation Passes and Is Cleaned up in November.

After a lot of hard work by a number of individuals and entities, the Utah Legislature passed H.B. 240 early this year, formally known as the Venture Capital Enhancement Act, but generally known as the Fund of Funds. Signed into law by Gov. Leavitt in April and then "cleaned up" during a special legislative session in November, H.B. 240 makes it possible for entities that typically do not invest in venture capital deals to participate in a venture fund backed by contingent tax credits. Similar arrangements in other states have been quite successful, and the expectation is that this Fund of Funds will be up and operational (with funding in place) by mid-2004, potentially providing an additional $100 million in VC dollars for Utah-based enterprises.

4. Novell's Transformation.

When a company like Merrill Lynch says a company is "back from the dead" (as it did on Dec. 15 about Novell, setting a price target of $13 per share for the firm), people tend to sit up and take notice. Novell has done so many things right this year, it's hard to keep track. Gone are the on-again, off-again marketing initiatives. Here to stay is an apparent embracing of the Open Source software movement in general and the Linux operating system specifically. Novell acquired Linux software company Ximian in August and announced it was acquiring Germany-based SUSE LINUX for $210 million in November. NOVL also got IBM to pledge a $50 million investment once the SUSE deal closes, and it's capitalizing on the spotlight focused on The SCO Group (Nasdaq: SCOX) by claiming SCO doesn't actually own certain UNIX intellectual properties. 2004 should be fun for Novell.

3. ClearOne Mess Nearly Done.