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Leading up to the IPO. Caldera Systems and Linuxcare, both of which
are in the IPO process, have submitted new S-1 registrations this week.
The amended registrations are a normal part of the process; they provide
some additional and updated information on the company and its offering.
- Here is Caldera's
amended S-1 filing. Details to be found in this huge legalese
document: the offering will be 5 million shares, priced at a (low)
$7-9 per share. There will be just over 38 million shares
outstanding overall. They brought in $500,000 in revenue over the last
quarter, losing over $5 million.
The amended filing continues to talk about Caldera's intended "directed
share program." Up to ten percent of the initial offering will be
reserved for this program, which will be managed by Wit Capital. Opening
a Wit account will be necessary to participate. There is also mention of
a separate program to offer shares to "international participants." It's
still not clear when this program will actually be implemented.
- Linuxcare has submitted this
amended S-1 filing (640K of legalese). Added details
include that they will be offering 4.5 million shares at $13-15
each; there will be 30 million shares outstanding overall. Thus
they are selling 1/7 of the company, a slightly larger piece than one
sometimes sees with these high-tech IPOs. The financial figures are
updated through the end of 1999; the total revenue is $1.5 million,
a threefold increase over their performance through September (which was
on the initial S-1). Their losses exceed $21 million. Their top
three customers (Motorola, Sun, SGI) provide 55% of their income.
There is still no mention of a directed share program in Linuxcare's
filing (which does not mean they do not intend to implement such a
program).
The actual IPO dates will not be known for a while yet; the offerings are
likely to take place sometime in April.
Are Linux stocks good buys? As the next round of Linux IPOs nears,
investors must surely be wondering about the quality of the investments
they represent. Consider: Red Hat has fallen to just over a third of its
peak value (in January), and VA Linux Systems is only worth a third of the
value it hit on its first day. Some of the sparkle has clearly gone out of
these stocks.
Of course, these things are all relative. Both companies still have quite
high valuations for their size and revenues. If Linux Mania hadn't
happened, and both stocks had reached their current valuations from below,
few people would probably be disappointed.
As things are, however, anybody who bought VA on its first day - or almost
any time thereafter, for that matter - is not likely to be happy about the
investment. Investors looking at the upcoming IPOs would do well to keep
that in mind. Linux stocks are not necessarily a good buy at any price, be
careful out there.
Ericsson's cordless screen phone. Ericsson has
announced
its "Screen Phone HS210" product - a Linux-based telephone with a
touchscreen that can be used for email, web browsing, etc.
TurboLinux made a number of announcements this week, including:
- This
announcement that its distribution will be offered as an option on
Dell servers and workstations in Hong Kong and China.
- A
bundling deal with Merlin Software Technologies that will get
Merlin's products shipped with the TurboLinux distribution.
- The
appointment of T. Paul Thomas as the new President and Chief
Operating Officer of the company, replacing founder Cliff Miller (who
remains CEO). Thomas was previously the President and CEO of
Artisoft. Those who are into speculation will certainly note that an
IPO is usually preceeded by the assembly of a new management team
designed to appeal to investors...
Procom to release NetBEUI stack to Linux Community. Procom
Technology has announced
that it will release its NetBEUI implementation under an open source
license. "The NetBEUI stack comprises a significant body of code and
several man-years of effort, and will be posted with the instructions and
tools necessary for integration with Samba.... 'This is our way of giving
back to the community whose technology serves as the foundation for our NAS
technology,' said Alex Razmjoo, Procom's President and CEO."
VA Linux Systems reports second quarter revenue. VA Linux Systems
has reported
that its revenues for the last quarter were $20.2 million, "up 537%
from the same quarter last year." $300,000 of that was professional
services revenue; they turned in a total loss of $8.4 million.
See also the
transcript of VA's analyst conference call on the results. Among other
things, VA claims that SourceForge now hosts one third of all known free
software development projects.
Section Editor: Jon Corbet.
Press Releases:
Open Souce Products:
-
Centura Software Corp. went live with its first open source data
management solution for Information Appliances. Centura's
db.linux is available for downloading and for collaborative
development on OpenAvenue's hosting site at
http://www.openavenue.com/db.linux.
- Corel has
announced that the development of its print services
library will be hosted on SourceForge.
- Futureware 2001
announces KQuick. KQuick is an open translation system to
translate words between languages, resolve acronyms, lookup
numbers. KQuick is the first User-Interface of the *Quick
system. Other user interfaces, such as Gnome (GQuick), will follow.
KQuick is offered under the GPL.
- MandrakeSoft announced Linux-Mandrake 7.0 PowerPack
edition, now available at local retailers and through mail-order
in the US.
- Orasoft has officially
released version 1.0 of their Oracle ObjectManager. This is
significant because of the lack of client access software on the Linux
platform compared to that of lesser platforms. Object Manager makes
Linux a viable client in addition to it's usual role as server.
Object Manager uses the Gtk+ toolset, and is released under the GPL.
- R3vis Corporation has
announced the release of its "OpenRM Scene Graph API"
product under the LGPL; it can be downloaded via SourceForge.
-
Webb Interactive Services Inc. announced the formation of Jabber,
Inc., a subsidiary focused on the commercialization of an open source,
XML-based instant messaging platform.
Commercial Products for Linux:
-
Blue Wave Systems Inc. announced that its ComStruct line of
communications processing building blocks now supports the Linux
operating system.
-
C-bridge Internet Solutions, Inc. announced the expansion of its
company-operated C-bridge University. Four new learning centers will
open nationwide and abroad, and 14 new courses, including programs
in Linux and XML will be offered.
-
Computer I/O Corporation announced the release of the Easy I/O
Server, a Linux-based network I/O server.
-
Diversinet Corp. announced that its client Software Development
Kit has been extended to Linux and Unix formats.
- EST
announced BRU Backup & Restore Utility v.16.
-
I-Link, Inc., an enhanced voice/data service provider,
announced support for the Linux operating system.
- I-Logix
unveiled plans to launch a strategic initiative designed to drive
the advancement of the Linux market and support the growing demand for
Linux-based embedded applications. They also
announced a strategic partnership with MontaVista Software to
support MontaVista's Hard Hat Linux embedded operating system as a
target for code developed in its Rhapsody application development
platform.
-
Image Power, Inc. introduced a Linux image viewer for FaxPC
that supports JBIG2 image decoding plus a variety of other file
formats. The first version of this new viewer is available at the
FaxPC Web site and supports Red Hat, Debian, Caldera, SuSE and
Slackware versions of Linux.
-
Impera Software Corp. announced the release of the PowerBox
product, a 2U rackmount server. While this product can support
various Linux distributions, it has been specifically designed for Red
Hat Linux and is RedHat certified.
- Insignia has
announced that its "Jeode" Java platform will be
included in Lineo's Embedix SDK product.
-
Level 8 Systems, Inc. announced the availability of Geneva XIPC
for Linux, a message-oriented middleware software product
specifically designed for the Linux platform. Red Hat, Inc. will
include a demonstration version of Geneva XIPC on the next release of
the Red Hat Linux Application Library CD.
- LinuxPPC announced a Box Set for all new and current
subscription customers. The Box Set includes the LinuxPPC 2000 CD-ROM
set, a t-shirt, and printed manual.
-
Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc. announced that PacketStream's
Synchronous Packet Streaming (SPS) solution will run on the LynxOS
real-time operating system (RTOS) and BlueCat Linux operating system.
- MoJo Designs
announced that the Eyelet GUI has been ported to Motorola's
68K and Intel Corporation's x86 processors. The royalty-free embedded
graphical user interface is now available for five processors and six
operating systems. Besides Linux the the following Real Time
Operating Systems are supported: pSOSystem from Integrated Systems
Inc. (ISI), Precise/MQX from Precise Software Technologies Inc., uCOS,
eCos from Cygnus Solutions and LynxOS from Lynx Real-Time Systems,
Inc.
- NETsilicon and and their Linux development partner, WireSpeed
Communications Corporation, have
announced the availability of Net+Lx, a port of uCLinux to
the NET+ARM system-on-silicon chip.
-
Plesk, Inc. announced the release of Plesk Server Administrator
v.1.2, which features a point-and-click interface to perform
comprehensive server management tasks.
- Procom Technology put out
a press release outlining how it will push deployment of
Linux-based Network Attached Storage (NAS) technology.
-
Progress Software Corporation announced the Developer Edition of
its Progress SonicMQ Internet messaging server will support the
Linux operating system.
-
Rainfinity announced the introduction of a Linux version of its
high availability Rainwall clustering solution for the Secure
Virtual Network (SVN) architecture.
- TimeSys Corporation
announced the TimeSys Linux Real Time System. "TimeSys
Linux/RT actually extends the Linux kernel, rather than adding a
proprietary non-Linux RTOS as an abstraction layer between Linux and
the system hardware."
- TRISIGNAL Communications announced the availability of its
Phantom Embedded Modem reference design for the Linux operating
system.
- VariCAD, developer of one of the few professional CAD systems
running under Linux. released VariCAD version 7. 3. - 0. 0
Products Using Linux:
-
ATEC Group, Inc. announced they are now authorized OEM reseller
for Red Hat Linux. ATEC will offer its Nexar Empower series,
with a choice of processors, including the Intel Pentium III, Intel
Celeron, AMD-K6-2 and AMD Athlon, and Red Hat Linux.
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Microtest Inc. introduced FileZerver, a network appliance
designed to meet the growing file storage and management needs of
departments and workgroups, at the CeBIT.
-
NETsilicon, Inc. announced the introduction of NET+Lx, a
comprehensive embedded network connectivity system using the Linux
operating system.
-
Splash Technology, Inc. announced its first color servers for
Canon digital color copiers. The Splash T200e, T200, and T240
are part of the new Splash T200 product line, which features a
Splash-Linux architecture based on Splash's advanced compression and
color technologies, combined with the Linux operating system and
standard Intel processors.
-
Splash Technology, Inc. announced the ColorPort for the
DocuColor 2000 Series. The Xerox ColorPort was developed by
Splash Technology and is part of a product line featuring a
Splash-Linux architecture.
-
uniView Technologies Corp. announced the introduction of its new
entry level set top box, model uniView 110, which runs on the
Linux operating system.
Java Products:
-
Espial announced Espial Architect 2.0. They claim to be
"the industry's only rapid application development environment for
PersonalJava".
-
VSI (V-Systems Inc.) announced the immediate availability of
Breeze XML Studio, a commercially available development
environment that binds XML to JavaBeans.
-
VSI (V-Systems Inc.) and Software AG announced a strategic alliance to
integrate and distribute VSI's Breeze XML Studio with Software AG's
X-Studio, which is the developer part of Software AG's XENON
architecture for XML based applications.
Products with Linux Versions:
-
8x8 Inc. announced the immediate availability of its Veracity
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Software.
-
Advanced Digital Information Corporation announced Linux support
for their CentraVision File-sharing System.
-
Argus Systems Group, Inc. announced its plans to develop a version
of its PitBull security product line on the Linux platform.
Products should be ready by the 4th quarter of 2000.
-
BLAST, a supplier of automated file transfer solutions, has been
chosen by software point-of-sale developer Synchronics as the
communications engine for its CounterPoint V7.3 software.
-
CodeGen, Inc. announced the availability of its
SmartFirmware product on all Cogent Computer Systems
development platforms.
-
The Computer Systems Group (CSG) of Toshiba America Information
Systems Inc. announced the M500D, the next-generation,
entry-level server featuring dual-processor capability. Its
compatible with most small to medium business networks, including Red
Hat Linux 6.0.
-
Cyclone Commerce, Inc. announced the newest release of its
Cyclone Interchange Trading Engine. Version 2.3 expands
platform support to provide Linux and AS/400 users with trading
community development and management solutions.
- Easy Software Products announced the ESP Print Pro v4.0.4,
a complete printing solution.
-
eRedi, Inc. announced the release of expandable Network Attached
Storage (NAS) Towers and Racks called ScalarRAID.
-
FOCUS Enhancements, Inc. announced today that CoCom International,
Ltd., is launching an Internet set-top box utilizing FOCUS' FS450 as
its TV display technology. CoCom's Internet set-top box design is
called Netmine.
-
IBM announced the IBM WebSphere Transcoding Publisher,
software that dynamically translates, or "transcodes," Web
information, text and images, to a format readable on a variety of
Internet appliances.
- Interstar Technologies offers free beta version of LightningFAX
6.5 for Red Hat Linux.
-
Legato Systems, Inc. announced Legato GEMS Storage Resource
Manager (SRM) and Legato GEMS SRM for Exchange, Web-based storage
resource management solutions.
-
Mylex, a subsidiary of IBM, announced the company showcased its
latest Fibre Channel and Ultra 160 SCSI products at CeBIT.
-
NetMorf, Inc. introduced SiteMorfer 2.0, a wireless
e-business product that transforms e-commerce sites to wireless
devices by integrating directly with a company's back-end data
sources.
-
OpenConnect announced the launch of its new Voodoo Engine
Web server.
-
Perle Systems Limited announced the addition of the new SX+
host card to the Perle Specialix "Direct Connect" product range.
-
Platform Computing Corp. unveiled its newest version of the
resource management solution, LSF 4.0.
-
Quantum Corporation's DLT and Storage Systems Group's Snap
Division announced the Snap Server 4000, a 120GB RAID 5 capable
workgroup file server.
-
Rogue Wave Software announced major upgrades for two of its top
selling software packages: Threads.h++ and DBTools.h++.
-
Sane Solutions, LLC announced the release of NetTracker 4.5, a
new version of the NetTracker line of web site traffic analysis software.
-
Secant Technologies, Inc. announced Extreme Internet
Server, an application hosting environment for Internet and
Application Service Providers.
-
V-ONE Corporation announced that it has released SmartGate
version 4.0. SmartGate client versions are available for Linux.
-
Xybernaut Corporation announced it has been issued a U.S.
patent for a "transferable core," which the company believes will
radically change mobile computing.
Books:
- O'Reilly & Associates announced the 2nd Edition of Volume 6B,
Motif Reference Manual", a complete programmer's reference for the
Motif toolkit.
- O'Reilly published a new book on The Perl Database Interface, better known as
the Perl DBI, called "Programming the Perl DBI", by Alligator
Descartes & Tim Bunce.
- Prentice Hall PTR announced the launch of its Open Source series. Titles
include:
Partnerships, Investments and Acquisitions:
- Computer I/O and Montavista Software have
announced a partnership to produce easily-programmed embedded I/O
systems, based on Montavista's real-time distribution.
-
EarthWeb's dice.com announced that it has signed an agreement
with Go2Net to exclusively provide the dice.com job search engine
and other content throughout Go2Net's computer and career channels.
dice.com already powers the job
areas of fourteen Web sites including RedHat.com, UserFriendly.org,
32BitsOnline and PenguinApps.
- EBIZ has
announced a deal with Corel that will result in Corel Linux
being bundled on systems sold at TheLinuxStore.com.
-
eConnect has entered into a strategic alliance with Empire
Financial Group Inc. to offer the Instant Cash Trading Account
system that utilizes an ATM card with PIN. Customers will get an
eCashPad+ which attaches to their PC keyboard. Then triple encrypted
transactions can be routed from the user's PC to a regional ATM card
bank system for approval via an eConnect/RGTecq Linux Transaction
Server.
-
Fujitsu Siemens Computers announced that it is to partner with
Argus Systems Group. One part of the partnership has Argus
working with Intel and Fujitsu Siemens Computers on the implementation
of security products for Fujitsu Siemens Computers' forthcoming
IA-64-based Primergy servers running under Linux.
-
IKON Office Solutions announced an agreement with Splash
Technology for exclusive North American distribution rights to the
Splash T Series color server line.
-
Lineo Inc. announced that it joined the Extend the Internet (ETI)
Alliance, founded by emWare Inc.
-
Maxspeed Corp. announced it has received $14.2 million in
mezzanine venture financing from Westbury Equity Partners, Walden
International Investment Group, Champion Consulting Group, and other
investors.
-
Midnight Cafe's Gamers Depot has signed on as the first gaming
affiliate for the Maximum PC Network.
- Opera Software and Ericsson have
announced that Ericsson's (Linux-based) HS210 "Screen Phone" will
incorporate the Opera web browser.
-
Perle Systems Limited released details of plans for the
distribution of its enlarged range of network and server
connectivity products, following its acquisition of Chase Research
Limited. Perle's product support UNIX/Linux and Windows NT.
-
Red Hat, Inc. and ODS Networks, Inc. announced that they will work
together to complete Red Hat certification and the design of a
hardened Linux operating system for use with ODS' SecureCom family
of Internet Security products.
- SGI and SuSE have
announced their intention to work together to bring SGI's
clustering technology to Linux.
-
ThePlanet.com announced that they have received $2.35 million
in venture capital funding from Interfase Investments, LP, an
Austin, Texas-based venture capital firm. ThePlanet provides managed
dedicated hosting on leading hosting platforms, including Sun Solaris,
Linux, and FreeBSD and hosts over 1,000 Web sites on its proprietary
ServerMatrix architecture.
-
VA Linux Systems, Inc. announced the launch of its Linux
Solutions Partner Program for independent software vendors and
independent hardware vendors.
Who is using What:
-
Advanced Management Solutions announced that iPool has selected
the AMS REALTIME suite of enterprise project and resource
management software to help manage its development programs. AMS
REALTIME will run on Red Hat Linux Version 6.0 at iPool.
-
Digital Island, Inc. announced that Tripwire, Inc. is using
its global network services to sell enterprise security solutions over
the Internet.
- GameCom and AMD have
announced the "Net GameLink" entertainment system. You have to
look fairly far down in the press release to see that it is a
Linux-based system.
-
National Semiconductor Corporation announced that it has licensed
Citrix Systems, Inc.'s Independent Computing Architecture (ICA)
client software for the Linux operating system.
- Sumisho Datacom and Internet Pro Corporation have chosen RAS (Remote Access Server) products from Digi
International Inc. to help build Linux-based Internet
point-of-presence (POP) servers for Japan's fast-growing community of
Internet service providers (ISPs).
-
TurboLinux, Inc. announced that one of Japan's largest consumer
e-commerce web sites is running on TurboLinux Server and a cluster of
IBM Netfinity 5000 Servers.
-
Unify Corporation announced that Nortel Networks has
selected Unify's application development platform for the Linux
operating system.
-
VMware, Inc. announced that Informatica has deployed VMware
software to support multi-platform application development.
New Personnel:
-
EBIZ Enterprises Inc. announced that Jean L. Francois has
joined their management team as chief technology officer.
-
Maxspeed Corp. announced the election of Joseph G. Fogg III to
its board of directors.
-
MontaVista Software Inc. announced the appointment of David
Warner as chief financial officer.
- O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. announced that Jon Orwant is the new
Chief Technology Officer.
- Terra Soft Solutions, Inc., developer of PowerPC Linux solutions,
announced that Dave Herres will join Terra Soft as the Liaison to
Federal Sales as well as serve as Chief Financial Officer.
-
Terra Soft Solutions, Inc. announced their year 2000 Board of
Directors: Chris Gulker, VP Marketing Montclare Technologies and a
former Director for Apple Computer; Janet Logothetti, former market
analyst for US West International; and Joel E. Allen, President
Site-View.com.
Other:
- EBIZ Enterprises Inc., owner of TheLinuxStore.com and other Linux
sites,
announced that information on their stock is now available on
Linux Weekly News' (LWN) Linux Stocks Page http://lwn.net/stocks/. In addition
to the LWN Linux Stocks Page, EBIZ stock information is also available
on the Linux Quotes section of the recently launched
CNET Linux Center.
-
Evans Marketing Service announced that the expectation of
deploying Linux apps by Development and IT Managers in large
corporations increased by 75% during the last six months of 1999 and
that the percent of companies running Linux increased by 95%.
-
Hypermedia Communications Inc. announced the first wave of
sponsors and advertisers for newmedia.com, a new site specifically
for
Internet architects. The site is divided into three information
centers: business, design, and technology. Content is further indexed
under topic centers, where content is catalogued under hot topic
headings such as e-commerce, media distribution, Linux, and
convergence.
- Linuxcare has
announced the opening of its Japanese office (Linuxcare
Kabushuki Kaisha) in Tokyo.
-
NETsilicon, Inc. reported that revenue for the fourth quarter
of fiscal 2000 ended January 31, 2000 rose 68 percent. The
company has decided to invest in a new business initiative to develop
and launch embedded networking system products based on Linux and Java
operating environments.
Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol.
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March 2, 2000
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