Mandriva for sale?

[rolf]

Some unofficial, afaict, findings.

In the latest Distrowatch
(http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20100510#news)

Let's start this week's news section with some bad news: it appears that
Mandriva S.A., a Paris-based company that has been developing the
popular Mandriva Linux distribution for over a decade, is for sale...

Mandriva est à vendre

[viking60]

Yes - sad but expected. Obviously they have been in a desperate situation for years. I am afraid the distro is going to suffer a bit now.
I take this as a reality - they just don't have the money to pay anything anymore. Time to look for the alternative. Fedora is to much on the edge, and Suse sux and is in bed with Microsoft. Arch would be a good alternative for me in most cases. I would hate that the only Linux left in the world would be a Microsoft dominated Linux. No competition in that.

---It looks like their website is going down to - it is impossible to post in the forum now (Mysql-error). Sale must be the alternative to bankruptcy. It is sad

[dedanna1029]

I'm going to reserve judgement in waiting for who buys them, and then see what happens then. Sometimes sales are actually good things. Let's wait and see.

[dedanna1029]

viking, don't know what's up, but evidently someone's able to get into their site, at least the forum.

Mandriva looking to sell itself? - appears it's confirmed.

[rolf]

An email on cooker ml had some other perspective from Mandriva employee, Vanessa.

On 05/11/2010 04:42 AM, Gustavo Ariel Giampaoli wrote:
> ----- Mensaje reenviado ----
> De: "vwall@mandriva.com" <vwall@mandriva.com>
> Para: Gustavo Ariel Giampaoli <gustavo.giampaoli@yahoo.com.ar>
> Enviado: martes, 11 de mayo, 2010 7:10:04
> Asunto: Re: Information about rumours "Mandriva for sale"
>
> > Hi
> >
> > Could you, please, bring some light about the rumours of the sale of
> > Mandriva.
> >
> > Communities are very very concerned and there's no official news.
> >
> > Thanks in advance.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? Gustavo Giampaoli (for
> > Spanish Speaking Community BlogDRAKE.net)
> >
> Hi Gustavo,
>
> Please find below our statement about all the rumors.
>
> Mandriva, from its very beginning, has been involved in takeover talks.
> Mandriva bought Edge-IT, Connectiva Inc and Linbox FAS and has been
> attracted by other possible ventures. Mandriva has also been in talks over
> merger possibilities or an eventual buy-out by investors. These
> negotiations has been pursued throughout the life of the company and
> continue.
> Mandriva has been affected by the economic slow-down and we took advantage
> of this period to develop and improve our products -- an operating system
> dedicated to a uniquely ergonomic server (MES5.1), the most reliable free
> machine-management software on the market (Pulse2), Mandriva Smart Desktop
> to simplify the use of office desktops, education-dedicated distribution,
> all embrace the Mandriva philosophy of alternative options.
> We are beginning to harvest the results of this development work with
> hundreds of thousands of PCs using the Mandriva OS sold in South America
> and rapid sales of Pulse2 and MES5 in Europe.
> So it is unsurprising that Mandriva has once again attracted the interest
> of industry decision-makers.
>
> Kind regards,
> Vanessa
>
> ----------------------End of Vanessa's e-mail----------------------
>
> Cheers!
>
>
>
> Gustavo
>
>

[dedanna1029]

That doesn't sound right. Either Mandriva put themselves on the market for sale, or they didn't. That makes it sound like they didn't, and "someone just randomly became interested".

For a company that isn't worth much more than a dollar right now, I doubt some random company would out of the clear blue sky, up and say "we want to buy Mandriva". They've been running in the red for far too long. In this economy, no one would want to buy out a company like that; no one else can afford to bail them out.

I tend to more agree that they put themselves on the market.

[viking60]

Yes they are broke. But Vanessa has a point; they ave always been so the situation is not new. Of course Mandriva is in need of a refinancing, so a takeover would be welcome. Even if the mail above states a "business as usual" message - the situation is critical. The products are great though so a potential buyer will get a lot by taking over the Mandriva trademark (the rest is of no value - anyone can have it for free since it is open source).

[R_Head]

Honestly, if I have the money to buy Mandriva, the 1st order of business is to fire the leadership.

The developers are the bread and butter.

Whoever is steering the boat it sucks at it.

I bet money they could not even find their noses with a GPS, 8 Ball and an Ouija Board

[dedanna1029]

Honestly, if I have the money to buy Mandriva, the 1st order of business is to fire the leadership.

The developers are the bread and butter.

Whoever is steering the boat it sucks at it.

I bet money they could not even find their noses with a GPS, 8 Ball and an Ouija Board

The sad thing about it is, that it's been that way for too many years. A lot of the leadership should've been out of there years ago. IMHO now, they could start with their English moderator.

(and that doesn't even begin to mention what I've had to say on FB about this; "Up for grabs! $1 should cover it! That, and a staff who knows how the hell to run a business!")

(Addendum: After seeing things like this time and time again, I really wonder if it's even worth $1)

[dedanna1029]

http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?p=802444#802444

If you look at the donations page, tons of people have donated also. I am sure all the increased sales and donations have picked up since this news.

Which makes me wonder if this was all a marketing ploy, and they're not honestly out to sell.

If so, they're going about it the way wrong way (as usual).

[dedanna1029]

http://techie-buzz.com/foss/linagora-ac ... driva.html

Yep. Have fun with that ^^, Mandrivans. :p

I sure am glad the kool-aid is getting drunk by someone else now.

Hasta la vista, MDV. I must say it, sorry, good riddance to them, too.

[viking60]

Nothing new there really - Mandriva will go on in some form I guess.