“A small Lincoln, Nebraska, consulting group, specializing
in a wildly popular and free computer program, is moving west with
dreams of hitting the big time.”
“Covalent Technologies is taking its $5 million first-round
venture funding and setting up headquarters in San Francisco. It
hopes to cultivate a services business for an open-source Web
server application called Apache. The free software is being
developed by a loose confederacy of programmers, in a similar
fashion as Linux. H&Q Venture Associates led the funding round.
The venture arms of graphic design software vendor Adobe Systems
(Nasdaq: ADBE) and semiconductor maker Texas Instruments (NYSE:
TXN), Adobe Ventures and Texas Instruments Ventures, also
participated in the funding round.”
“Large organizations need a support organization to call when
working with Apache, says Randy Terbush, Covalent’s founder,
president, CEO, and chief technical officer. Apache, which is
compatible with dozens of server operating systems, delivers Web
content when users enter Internet addresses into PCs using Internet
browsers. Mr. Terbush says Covalent is the only company that
provides support services totally focused on Apache, which it’s
been doing since October.Linux distributor Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT)
and Linux system maker VA Linux Systems (Nasdaq: LNUX) also provide
support for Apache. Mr. Terbush says he considers these companies
potential partners and that he’s already begun talks with them
about possible alliances.”