UPDATE 1-Novell Q3 results beat Street view

(Recasts; adds details, share movement)

Aug 28 (Reuters) - Business software maker Novell Inc (NOVL.O) posted quarterly results above market estimates, helped by a jump in sales of Linux business software, and also raised its outlook for 2008 adjusted operating margin.

Third-quarter net loss widened to $15.1 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with a loss of $3.7 million, or 1 cent a share, a year ago.

Excluding items, the company earned 6 cents a share for the quarter ended July 31. Revenue rose 3 percent to $245 million. Analysts on average expected the company to earn 5 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $241.3 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

Novell is the world's second-largest seller of Linux software after Red Hat Inc (RHT.N).

The company still expects 2008 revenue to be between $940 million and $970 million. Analysts were expecting $959 million. The company now expects adjusted operating margin to be between 8 percent and 10 percent, compared with its earlier outlook of 7 percent to 9 percent.

Shares of the company rose 2 percent to $6.14 in trading after the bell. They closed at $6.01 Thursday on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Purwa Naveen Raman in Bangalore; Editing by Deepak Kannan)