“Ten months ago, when San Francisco Bay Area companies Linuxcare
and TurboLinux were vying for Next Big Thing status in the Linux
world, both companies made sure to pay one last visit to the
Silicon Valley pre-IPO cash machine.”
“I would be surprised if something didn’t happen by the end of
the month. Their respective $32.5 million and $57 million secondary
funding rounds attained at the height of December and January’s
Linux hysteria were viewed as merely a prelude to bigger and better
things. With blockbuster IPOs such as VA Linux (LNUX) and Red Hat
(RHAT) fresh in investors’ minds, both companies cheerfully waited
for their riches to arrive.”
“Ten months later, the companies are still waiting. As most
Linux investors are painfully aware, stock performance in the Linux
sector has been extremely rocky. April’s market slump put a damper
on both companies’ IPO plans. To get themselves through the tough
times, both have cut staff, hired new management and survived on
what little money remained in their corporate war chests.“