VA Software

Type	Public (NASDAQ: LNUX)
Founded	1993
Location	Fremont, California
Key people	Ali Jenab, CEO Larry Augustin, Chairman
Industry	Software & Programming
Products	SourceForge
Revenue	$29.261 million USD (2004)
Employees	122 (2004)
Website	www.vasoftware.com

LNUX stock price (09-Dec-1999 through 09-Dec-2000)

VA Software Corporation (NASDAQ: LNUX), formerly VA Linux Systems, is the provider of the SourceForge Development Intelligence application. This is a copyrighted and/or trademarked logo. ... A public company is a company owned by the public rather than by a relatively few individuals. ... NASDAQ (originally an acronym for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations ) is a U.S. electronic stock exchange. ... Fremont (IPA: ) is a city in California which was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Irvington, Mission San Jose, Niles, and Warm Springs. ... A chief executive officer (CEO) or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or executive officer of a corporation, company, or agency. ... A chairman is the presiding officer of a meeting, organization, committee, or other deliberative body. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... Computer programming (often simply programming) is the craft of implementing one or more interrelated abstract algorithms using a particular programming language to produce a concrete computer program. ... SourceForge is a collaborative software development management system. ... Revenue is a US business term for the amount of money that a company can receive from its activities, mostly from sales of products and/or services to customers. ... Green up arrow for a positive change in revenue from last fiscal year. ... This article is about general United States currency. ... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... The front page of the English Wikipedia Website. ... LNUX stock price (09-Dec-1999 through 09-Dec-2000) I, the creator of this image, hereby release it into the public domain. ... LNUX stock price (09-Dec-1999 through 09-Dec-2000) I, the creator of this image, hereby release it into the public domain. ... NASDAQ (originally an acronym for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations ) is a U.S. electronic stock exchange. ... SourceForge is a collaborative software development management system. ...

VA Software is headquartered in Fremont, California. OSTG, the Open Source Technology Group, is a subsidiary of VA Software, also headquartered in Fremont. Fremont (IPA: ) is a city in California which was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Irvington, Mission San Jose, Niles, and Warm Springs. ... The Open Source Technology Group (OSTG) describes itself as a news, collaboration and distribution community for IT and Open Source development, implementation and innovation. ...

Early history

Founded in 1993 as VA Research, the company started as an operation in which Stanford graduate student Larry Augustin, along with partner James Vera (both Augustin and Vera were colleagues of Jerry Yang and David Filo at Stanford, who would go on to found Yahoo!), built and sold PC computer systems pre-installed with the Linux operating system as an alternative to much more expensive Unix workstations available at the time. At the time they started operations, they were one of the first computer vendors to offer Linux as a pre-installed OS. During the initial years of operation, the business was quite profitable and grew quickly, with over $100 million in sales and a 10% profit margin in 1998 [1] and was the largest vendor of pre-installed Linux computers, having approximately 20% of the Linux hardware market. The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University (or simply Stanford), is a private university in Stanford, California, USA. Located approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco in an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County adjacent to the city of Palo Alto, Stanford lies at the... Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang (Chinese: 楊致遠; pinyin: ) (born November 6, 1968) is the Taiwanese-American co-founder, Chief Yahoo and Director of Yahoo! Inc. ... David Filo is the somewhat media-shy co-founder of Yahoo! with Jerry Yang. ... Yahoo! Inc. ... Personal computer and peripherals. ... Tux is the official Linux mascot. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Guide to Unix Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ...

In early 1999, VA purchased their top competitor, Linux Hardware Solutions. As part of this merger, VA Research changed their name to VA Linux Systems to capitalize on their Linux products, and began to make plans for an Initial Public Offering. VA also won a business plan competition that year for the right to operate the linux.com domain, although it was rumored that Microsoft and other bidders (Compaq, Red Hat, HP) had offered more cash but less plan for the domain. In financial markets, an initial public offering (IPO) is the first sale of a companys common shares to public investors, any other issuance by the company being called a Secondary Market Offering. ...

Initial Public Offering

VA Software is notable because of its Initial Public Offering on December 9, 1999. The shares for the IPO were offered at $30, but the traders held back the opening trade until the offerors hit $299. LNUX later popped up to $320, and closed their first day of trading at $239.25, a 698% return. However, this high-flying success was short-lived, and within a year the stock was selling at well below the initial offer price, in a classic example of the dot-com stock market bubble. As of 2005, this is still the most "successful" IPO of all time. In financial markets, an initial public offering (IPO) is the first sale of a companys common shares to public investors, any other issuance by the company being called a Secondary Market Offering. ... December 9 is the 343rd day (344th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... LNUX stock price (09-Dec-1999 through 09-Dec-2000) VA Software Corporation (NASDAQ: LNUX), formerly VA Linux Systems, is the provider of the SourceForge Development Intelligence application. ... Dot-com (also dotcom or redundantly dot. ... A stock market bubble is a type of economic bubble taking place in stock markets, in which a wave of public enthusiasm, evolving into herd behavior, causes an exaggerated bull market . ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Many authors of free software were invited to buy shares at the initial price offering as part of a friends and family deal. Free software, as defined by the Free Software Foundation, is software which can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed without restriction. ...

Using the stock symbol LNUX caused confusion; some day traders bought shares because they thought the company owned the rights to Linux. Day trading most commonly refers to the practice of buying and selling stocks during the day such that at the end of the day there has been no net change in position: for every share of stock bought an equivalent share is sold. ... Tux is the official Linux mascot. ...

Due to the immense difference between the IPO offering price and the opening price, VA Linux did not actually raise much capital in the offering, and the stock price sagged as investors realized that the company's revenue and profitability were not likely to justify the share price. However, on February 3, 2000, the company announced that it was acquiring Andover.net (itself a recent IPO company, later known as the Open Source Developers Network and then the Open Source Technology Group). This gave them Slashdot and other software development news resources, a move that shifted much of VA Linux's business model to software development. February 3 is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... The Open Source Technology Group (OSTG) describes itself as a news, collaboration and distribution community for IT and Open Source development, implementation and innovation. ... Slashdot (often abbreviated to /.) is a popular technology-related website, updated many times daily with articles that are short summaries of stories on other websites with links to the stories, and provisions for readers to comment on each story. ...

The company also faced increased competition from other hardware vendors offering Linux as a pre-installed operating system (Dell, in particular), and the company began to experience operating losses. Eventually, on June 26, 2001, VA Linux decided that they would leave the systems hardware business and focus on software development[2]. Dell Inc. ... June 26 is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 188 days remaining. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

On December 6, 2001, the company formally changed its name to VA Software in recognition that the majority of their business was now software development. However, the company's Japanese subsidiary still goes by the name of "VA Linux Systems Japan K.K." after the parent company changed its name. On January, 2002, Sumitomo Corporation became the largest shareholder in VA Linux Systems Japan, and the Japanese subsidiary became independent of VA Software. December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Sumitomo Corporation (住友商事, Sumitomo Shōji) TYO: 8053 is a highly built worldwide trading company (Sogo shosha), and is a diversified corporation based in Tokyo, Japan. ...

VA Software Today

VA Software's Open Source Technology Group (OSTG) operates SourceForge.net, Slashdot, Linux.com, IT Managers Journal, NewsForge, and Freshmeat. VA licenses SourceForge Enterprise Edition (as of January 2006 at version 4.3) to enterprise organizations. VA Software also runs SourceForge on Demand -- an instance of SourceForge for private development (unlike SourceForge.net where all projects must be open, and code developed must be released under an Open Source license). Thinkgeek.com -- an ecommerce site -- is also under the VA Software banner. VA Software sold Animation Factory in late December 2005. Tue, Feb 21 2006, VA Software reported its first ever profitable quarter. Net income for the second quarter stands at $10.5 million, or 17 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $702,000, or a penny a share, in last year’s second quarter. LNUX stock rose 60% before the announcement and 40% afterwards. A complaint for possible insider trading has been filled to SEC. The Open Source Technology Group (OSTG) describes itself as a news, collaboration and distribution community for IT and Open Source development, implementation and innovation. ... SourceForge is a collaborative software development management system. ... Slashdot (often abbreviated to /.) is a popular technology-related website, updated many times daily with articles that are short summaries of stories on other websites with links to the stories, and provisions for readers to comment on each story. ... Freshmeat is a website that allows computer users to keep track of the latest software releases and updates as well as write/read reviews and articles, send or receive comments to or from the author, and many other features. ...

External links

• VA Software
• CNET: VA Linux files IPO plans (9 October 1999)
• Salon: Dissecting the VA Linux IPO (10 December 1999)
• CNET: VA Linux leaves hardware, lays off workers (27 June 2001)
• Wordpress: Va Software reports first profits ever. 60% stock rise before the report and 40% after. (23 February 2006)
• VA Linux Systems Japan K.K.