Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Levanta--the comeback kid of Linux?

June 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Levanta--the comeback kid of Linux?

TAGS: Linux

I have written about Levanta before, both in relation to their technology and the story of the decline of LinuxCare. Clearly Sarah Lacy is taking her editorial cues from us with a great piece on the rebirth of Levanta. Personally I would have gone with some kind of zombie angle on LinuxCare's resistance to death.

Fresh off VA's December, 1999 IPO-which set a record for the biggest one-day pop, shooting up nearly 700%-Linuxcare filed to go public in January, 2000, despite some $20 million in annual losses. But it was a little too late. By the spring of that year it had pulled its offering amid a softening market and the abrupt resignation of its Chief Executive Fernand Sarrat and Chief Financial Officer Doug Nassaur.

That's where most people stopped hearing about Linuxcare, but the company didn't go under. Now it's back, renamed Levanta in 2004, and positioning itself as a Linux system administrator's best friend. And, in a sign that Levanta has returned to the land of the living, BusinessWeek.com has learned that the company is announcing a new round of venture capital of between $13 million and $15 million in the coming weeks that management expects will bring it back to profitability. That's almost triple the average size deal for an open-source company these days.

Previously:
Advice for Open Source Startups: Remember LinuxCare

Posted by Dave Rosenberg on June 21, 2006 10:21 AM

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