Press Release — Today, SuSE Linux, the
international Open Source technology leader and solutions provider,
announced the appointment of a second Executive Board member and
the completion of its management team: On December 1st 2001,
Gerhard Burtscher, an experienced IT manager, assumes the position
of Chief Executive Officer and the responsibility for the five
newly created Business Units of SuSE. After having assumed CEO
tasks during the refocusing of the company, Johannes Nussbickel
returns to his original function as CFO, heading Finance and
Administration.
“We are convinced that Gerhard Burtscher represents the ideal
reinforcement for the SuSE executive board. Following the
successful completion of our refocusing process, we are now going
to quickly guide SuSE Linux AG back to a stable course of growth”,
said SuSE Executive Board member Johannes Nussbickel, commenting
the appointment.
Heinrich D. Rodewig, J.D., Chairman of the Supervisory Board of
SuSE AG, added: “In the course of his career, Burtscher repeatedly
gained success in projects aimed at the rapid and structured
establishment of new business units, as well as the reorganization
of existing structures through extensive analysis and concentration
on results, customers, and employees. Both subjects are of utmost
importance for the further development and growth of SuSE.”
Gerhard Burtscher has been active in the IT and
telecommunication sector for more than 20 years. He began his
career in the Marketing division of Nixdorf Computer AG and
continued held executive positions at Texas Instruments, Digital
Equipment, MIPS Technologies, Silicon Graphics, and
Siemens-Nixdorf. The focal points of his activity were marketing,
sales, and controlling. Since 1995, his main field of activity has
been the establishment of European subsidiaries for international
technology providers. In his career he gained extensive national
and international experience as Managing Director and Business Unit
Manager with these companies.
Regarding his decision for SuSE Linux AG, Gerhard Burtscher
commented: “With the know-how of its staff and the high degree of
maturity of its products, SuSE is ideally positioned for the
dynamic growth of Linux in the enterprise. The high level of
acceptance of the company, which is obvious from the partnerships
with the world’s leading platform and technology providers, points
to the high degree of “presentability” of SuSE’s Linux solutions
for deployment in large international corporations. My the
challenge and one of the most attractive aspects of my tasks is to
transform each employee’s great passion for technology into a
powerful financial base, viable on a long-term basis.”
Customer-Oriented Refocusing Process Constitutes Basis for
Long-Term Growth
SuSE Linux AG has completed its refocusing process that started
in October, 2001. Under the supervision of Johannes Nussbickel, the
functional structure consisting of Sales, Marketing, Support,
Development, Finance, and Organization was dissolved. Henceforth,
five cost-transparent Business Units handle the diverse customer
segments according to the specific needs of the respective target
groups:
- The “Qualified Users” division addresses technically skilled
private users with the product lines of SuSE Linux and SuSE
Press. - The “Business Users” division offers largely pre-configured
solutions products from the complete range of “SuSE Business
Solutions” for small and medium enterprises. - The “Corporate Users” division presents a comprehensive range
of consulting, development, implementation, and training services
for large enterprises such as Lycos Europe, T-Online, and DG
Capital. - The fourth division, “Governmental and Institutional Users”,
addresses government offices and public administrations. - The business unit named “Technology Partners” focuses on
development services and technology implementations for IT
providers like AMD, Compaq, IBM, Intel, Oracle, SAP, and SGI.
Commenting the refocusing, Nussbickel says: “Our previous
functional structure served our needs very well at the time. The
changes in today’s market situation called for changes within that
structure. This is why we decided to create cost-transparent
business units with independent responsibility for their budgets.
We are convinced that this target group-oriented structure can
communicate the quality of SuSE’s products and services more
effectively through all market segments. Facing lower IT budgets
and restrained economic prospects, enterprises increasingly look
for stable, reliable and affordable IT-solutions that meet present
and future needs.”
SuSE Linux 7.3 Now Available for Sun Microsystems’ SPARC
SuSE Linux 7.3 for SPARC is now available for download on
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/sparc/7.3/iso/
By downloading the new release from SuSE’s ftp server, SPARC
users can benefit from the latest Linux developments.
SuSE provides the proven Linux Kernel 2.2.20 for deployment in
Sun4c and Sun4m series 32-bit machines and Kernel 2.4.14 for Sun4u
series 64-bit systems. Kernel 2.4.14 ensures increased performance
through improved memory management. In addition, it offers an
extended range of drivers and USB support for new UltraSPARC
models. SuSE Linux 7.3 for SPARC is based on the program library
glibc 2.2.4 and includes XFree86 4.1.0.