“Some readers may recall the sudden appearance of Mountain View,
California startup LinuxOne, Inc. on 2 September, with the
announcement that that firm had helped MandrakeSoft open
development centres in Beijing and Shanghai….”
“LinuxOne’s IPO offering has no underwriters: according to the
filing, shares “will be offered for sale by our management” for 180
days with a possible extension for 90 more days. The filing
projected 9.2 million shares outstanding after IPO, representing 33
per cent equity of a $73 million market value, assuming an $8 share
price. The $8 figure was said to have been “arbitrarily established
by us” to raise about $23 million after expenses and “bears no
relationship whatsoever to our assets, earnings, book value, or
other criteria of value.”
“Commentators soon pronounced LinuxOne’s S1 filing virtually
identical to Red Hat Software’s (except for the lack of securities
underwriters). At least one of the Web site’s employment
opportunities listings is word-for-word identical to a job listing
at Red Hat’s ‘situations vacant’ page. Asked about this, LinuxOne
declined to return calls.“