“With all the recent stories about dot com companies closing
down, it would be easy simply to toss the news about technical
support company Linuxgruven’s layoffs and financial woes in the
“been there, seen that” file. But this case seems to be
different.“
“On March 8, 2001, the same day that then CEO Matthew Porter
announcement a brand new management team for Linuxgruven, that same
CEO and his executive staff resigned their positions and announced
their intentions to form a competing company. When students showed
up for class at the St. Louis headquarters the next day, they found
darkened rooms and empty desks. A news story in the St. Louis
Business Journal confirmed the scenario: 100 employees had been
asked not to return, and the students were left without
teachers.”
“Linuxgruven described itself as a technical support and
services company for Linux and Open Source. The company’s strategy
purportedly was to help companies migrate to Linux IT by providing
engineers to install and configure networks and provide ongoing
support.”