“Lineo Inc., the embedded systems sister to Caldera Systems,
filed for its initial public offering (IPO) of stock on May 18. It
evidently plans to raise around $60 million; its planned stock
symbol is LNEO. Lineo is the first real Linux company to file to go
public since January. A lot of things have changed since then, and
the Linux stock market isn’t the wild place that it once was.
Expect there to be a lot of eyes on this offering as an indicator
of what the market’s interest in Linux stocks really is at this
point.”
“The masochistic among us can plow through the S-1
registration statement for this IPO. But it’s 2.3MB of legalese,
not for the faint of heart. We would never have started LWN if we
weren’t a bit on the masochistic side, so we’re perfect for this
job. Here, thus, is our quick summary of what Lineo is up
to.“
“Lineo is, of course, positioning itself at the center of the
embedded systems arena. They see the potential for a lot of growth
there, and they want a piece of it. Their primary customers are OEM
manufacturers; they list ast, Inc., CIS Technology, Inc., DaiShin
Information & Communications Co. and MiTAC International Corp.
They also mention “strategic relationships” with itachi, Ltd.,
Motorola Computer Group and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.
This is a very different mix of customers than we have seen with
other Linux companies that have gone public; the embedded systems
market is a different place.”