[ Thanks to j_clark and Xunil00 for the tip ]
MandrakeSoft has issued a statement explaining the release of
CEO Henri Poole and denying that the company has any plans to
release any members of its development team.
According to the company, Poole was released as a result of “a
divergence of views” over MandrakeSoft’s overall direction,
claiming that Poole sought to lessen the emphasis on Linux. The
statement doesn’t address the reported release of CTO Jean-Loup
Gailly or rumors that other employees have taken voluntary paycuts
to keep their jobs.
Gael Duval of Mandrake answered an e-mail inquiring about that
pair of unanswered questions, namely: was Jean-Loup Gailly released
from the company:
“Jean-Loup himself decided to leave two months ago
because of a disagreement with the past management team (who left
one month ago). It was before the change in the senior
management.”
and whether there’s any truth to reports that others have taken
paycuts or been laid off as well:
“The past situation was that it was easy to raise
funding and raise money with a long term target in term of
profitability. It is not anymore the case. So we are reducing a lot
the expenses and are refocusing the company by switching to the
mode “go fast to break even and profitability”. To help this
achievement, a part of the employees agreed to lower their salary,
on a voluntary basis and with attractive compensations. It’s only
on a temporary basis (6 months period) and this will help to go
faster to the break even point.The truth is that Mandrake-Linux sells are going extremely well
(according to PC Data, we are #1 retail seller in the USA for Q1
2001), that growth perspectives in Europe are huge, that according
to Netcraft survey Apache-Advanced ExtranetServer (the version of
Apache provided with Mandrake-Linux) is #15 most used web server on
the Net, that we have many deals in the pipe and that we’re
planning an IPO process.We are not an Internet company, we are not running out of cash,
and we do have revenues.”
Press Release–In order to quell further
rumours regarding MandrakeSoft’s alleged pressing needs for
financial liquidity, recent layoffs of part of its senior
management team and planned layoffs in its Development team,
MandrakeSoft Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Jacques Le Marois
explains that “former CEO Henri Poole and himself mutually agreed
on the management change over a month ago as a result of a
divergence of views regarding the Company’s strategic outlook:
Henri’s vision was to establish MandrakeSoft as a leader in the
e-learning and e-support arenas without a specific focus on Linux,
whereas my view is that the source of our success and very essence
of our Company is the Linux-Mandrake operating system, and that all
of our online services such as MandrakeExpert and MandrakeCampus
should be geared to support it and bring value to our user
community (…) Furthermore, there is absolutely no foundation in
the rumour that we are planning to layoff our Development team, who
represent a crucial asset for MandrakeSoft, especially in light of
our refocusing on our core Linux values.”Le Marois further points out that “MandrakeSoft’s prospects have
never looked so good: In 2000, Linux-Mandrake took #1 slot in US
Linux retail sales (Source: PC Data). The recent management changes
and refocusing of our strategy on our core distribution and related
online and offline services have allowed us to make major savings
and we are on course to break even within a few months. The
announcement of the latest release of the Linux-Mandrake operating
system – version 8.0 – has met with unprecendeted success, both in
terms of user adoption, which is made obvious by the hundreds of
thousands of versions downloaded from our Web site since the
announcement, and in terms of positive media coverage and pre-sales
to our business partners throughout the world. The imminent launch
of MandrakeStore, our online store, will create a solid new revenue
stream: we’ve already pre-sold thousands of PowerPack Editions
online. In addition, there are already more than 35,000 registered
users on MandrakeExpert and MandrakeCampus, which represents
massive revenue potential for us going forward: we will shortly be
introducing an online ‘tipping’ system, allowing users to reward
those Experts who provide them with useful responses to their
Linux-Mandrake related questions, and MandrakeSoft will take a
commission on each transaction. Besides, a paying user registration
system to MandrakeExpert will also shortly be introduced, which
represents yet another source of revenue for the Company”. Le
Marois concludes that “all these positive elements, together with
the fact that we have build a very large individual and
professional user community at very little expense, and have an
experienced and highly committed management team to execute our
strategy, are playing in our favour for our plans to IPO in the
coming months, so watch this space!”