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Updates On The Caldera IPO
kerskine writes,"It seems that there's strong demand for Caldera's upcoming IPO CNET reported that they've raised their strike price to $10-$12. This news is in sharp contrast to more negative appraisals such as this article from Forbes.com." I only know of a small number of Linux Developers who got "The Letter" from Caldera on their IPO. Gotta wonder about that.
... or does the Caldera logo look a lot like half of Mickey Mouse's head? I know it's suppose to be a "C" but everytime I see it the first thing I think of is Disney.
I know Michael Sinz, part of the java porting team, got the offer also (and he didn't get the RHAT or LNUX offers). Nobody in the office who got into RHAT or LNUX got into this one though.
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Andover.net did an *Open IPO* that anyone could have gotten in on at the "insiders' price." One of the big reasons the company chose this type of IPO over a traditional one was to eliminate all the "Who got the letter? Did you get the letter?" problems.
- Robin
On the other hand, their upcoming products are quite solid (I've seen the beta versions, and even the beta versions are more stable than the typical Linux distribution), and they do have the top VAR program in the Linux biz. Chances are if you buy a solution that's based on Linux, it's probably based on Caldera's Linux. The problem is that 99% of the time, you don't know that it's Caldera's Linux -- or even Linux, for that matter. All you know is that you bought a "Document Imaging And Storage Solution". Thus Caldera's low profile.
We'll have to see whether Caldera has finally settled on a strategy and will stick to it. I think their current strategy is a good one... but then, so was their 1997-vintage "Linux for Business" strategy, which doesn't seem to have turned into a pot of gold.
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
That said, it was lot of fun to administer it, but I've never been as stressed in my life.
Chris DiBona
VA Linux Systems
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
Pres, SVLUG
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
> Are you stoned, or just stupid?
I originally said bear market, but I figured that was a little bit too much industry jargon for one day.
In case you haven't noticed, confidence in an entire stock market(NASDAQ) is fluttering as people realize just how "amazing" all those companies on the Dow are, you know, with price-to-earning ratios that don't exceed the number of years this country has been in existence.
My apologies if I've caused you any distress.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
> Please explain how a market (NASDAQ) can
> continually smash into now record highs (up 2%
> today alone) and can be in a bear market. I
> haven't noticed a lack of confidence in any
> American market.
This was the other reason I didn't use the Bear term--it's not particularly "bear" in the Long Term timeline, at least not yet. However, from Caldera's perspective, the Dow had picked up some unprecedented levels of investor interest(wasn't there like a 9% jump in value of "unloved" stocks?), their entire market had *totally* missed the boat on that major stock jump, and their stock, with its (undeserved) bland image, standardly broken PE ratio, and underperforming competitors, sure didn't look like it was time to release.
So...they added in a delay, and raised the stakes for the possible reasons I outlined earlier.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.
--Dan
And what about the cost of fixing a problem with a commercial operating system? Surely that's a more meaningful comparison to make, even if sometimes it's not possible because said commercial operating system isn't open source.
When 10 people march off the same cliff because they couldn't read the tiny sign that read "Lookout, cliff ahead!" it is surely a problem. IPOs in general are damaged by the number of people hurt investing a ton of money to find they only own a fraction of a company. Legitmate companies seeking capital to grow will be damaged when the market associates IPO with ripoff. This is a legitimate securities practices complaint. And yes, I have complained to the SEC. Anal retentives that nitpick other people on spelling definitely deserve the name "Anonymous Coward".
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
When 10 people march off the same cliff because they couldn't read the tiny sign that read "Lookout, cliff ahead!" it is surely a problem. IPOs in general are damaged by the number of people hurt investing a ton of money to find they only own a fraction of a company. Legitmate companies seeking capital to grow will be damaged when the market associates IPO with ripoff. This is a legitimate securities practices complaint. And yes, I have complained to the SEC.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I somehow think we are talking about a heck more than $2.95, especiall when Palm wound up being worth more than 3COM. But then again, some people think insider trading should be lagal too. I mean, whats the big deal if a few guys make a couple of extra bucks. Or even better, stop prosecuting scams altogether. Who cares if 3 or 4 million people spend $4 for a product that doesn't work.
As far as the E*Trade thing goes, I got into an IPO offer by just clicking the mouse a bunch of times.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I think the biggest problem with the recent spat of IPOs is the way they are reported and marketed. I have yet to read a decent report that clearly states the percentage of stock that will be offered in the IPO.
Take the Palm Pilot IPO. It wasn't until a week after the IPO that the mainstream press picked up on the fact that only 5% of the company had been offered.
Clearly these IPOs are being advertised in a manner to trick unsuspecting daytraders into investing. Big name brokerages and investment groups jump on the bandwagon because they know a biname ".COM" or tech stock will jump through the roof nontheless because of investor ignorance. Trading groups should be required to clearly state what percent stake in the company is being offered when advertising IPOs. This is pure consumer ripoff. Sure the details are in the perspectus, but perspectuses (perspecti?) are often unintelligible to the common investor.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Actually, they do. They pay GNOME developers and AC. Also, Mandrake are currently paying one of the KDE developers. Sure you could argue that Redhat should pay everyone -- but not because of their large market cap. Remember -- Redhat are running at an operating loss. They are already paying too many people as it is. They are a business and ultimately, they are supposed to make money. And again, I emphasise -- raising venture capital doesn't count. Making money means maintaining a steady ( preferably growing ) operating profit.
Accually "free software" is much less about giving back and being selfless than it is about giving away the code so others can make improvments.
I wrote it becouse I want it. I give it away so others can improve it and give the improvements back to me.
So there is a greed in open sourcing...
Notice how Netscape in turn for giving away Mozilla got a bunch of programmers for free.
Also the stock isn't free... The letter offers to SELL stock at low preIPO prices.. Usually the stock shoots up after the IPO.. thats where you make a killing.
Open source companys are answerable to the open source develupers... UNLESS they are answerable to stockholders... thus the letter...
But with so few develupers getting Calderas "the letter" one worrys if Caldera has any plans to mainatin any sort of commitment to the open source community.
However Caldera also develups DrDos and as such may not rely on Linux forever. But for the moment DrDos isn't a money maker.
It still makes one wonder whats up at Caldera that they focused only on certen groups of develupers rather than going with a wider group or (as it was a big disaster with RedHat) not bother in the first place.
I don't actually exist.
Apparently Caldera only feels it should reward the developers who will make the company rich come IPO-day. Im surprised more people arent insulted by that idea. Its like, hey, you're an Apache developer--Here's a chance to get in on our stock! Meanwhile, lets suppose you're working on some equally relevant but less-popular project.. No jello for you, little boy. Youre not popular!
Does anyone know if Caldera bundles Propaganda with their distribution? If so, i'll fire off a little letter to them and ask them what the hell they're thinking, and post the results here. I think it would be rather novel for them to attempt to explain their choice of preference in handing out letters.
No, I dont expect letters, and thats not why I got into Linux in the first place. However, if some company like Red Hat, or VA, or Debian, or Mandrake starts making millions off my work (and other peoples work) I'm not going to sit back and not give a shit. I went into CompUSA the other day, and counted six boxes on the shelves which carry my work, going for anywhere from $39.95 to $99.95...Someone is making money, hand over fist, off your work, and off my work. I have a right to question why many of us remain uncompensated when theres money like that changing hands.
Red Hat is a 11 billion dollar company. Dont see them compensating the people who continue to make their distribution usable, do you?
Bowie J. Poag
Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://propaganda.themes.org)
Bowie J. Poag
As I have read through the posts I hear two things. People are upset because they didn't get in on the IPO and Caldera Systems is just another distro. that doesn't really matter to the Linux world.
I've been involved and contributing to Linux since it first came out in 1991. I never did care to put my name into the CREDITS file. I tried to get in on RHAT and LNUX but was not able to. I'll try to get in on CALD too. If I do great but if I don't I still wish them well.
Caldera, and now Caldera Systems, has done a lot for Linux over the years. Even though I don't work for them now, I did in the past.
Caldera has not been a company to blow its own horn, as have many of the others. The engineers who have worked at Caldera have made contributions, some very major, but they do so without seeking the spotlight as some in the community have done. They have worked because they want to see Linux succeed as much as anyone else in the community.
So what has Caldera done that others may not be aware of? With the benevolent backing (tens if not hundreds of millions) from Ray Noorda they have gone into areas that others did not to enable technologies that all of you have benefited from. How many of you use Netscape on Linux? Caldera paid for the privilege of porting the Netscape client and server products to Linux that you all use. They funded Star Division to port Star Office to Linux. How many of you use this product? They have worked deals with Sun to help with Java and Wabi (dead now but did allow for 16 bit windows apps. to run on Linux). They paid for and helped technically to get the original Word Perfect onto Linux. They helped bring Netware technology to Linux. They couldn't openly distribute this technology because of license terms with Novel, but never the less they helped tie these OS's together and make the world a closer place in which to compute. Linus has said for some time that Linux needs apps. to become successful. Caldera has worked with and paid many ISV's to see this happen.
Caldera has always supported the trade shows and organizations such as Linux International and the LSB.
Caldera stayed away from the bleeding edge of the Linux technology and worked more on putting out a release considered more stable for commercial use. Hackers for the most part may prefer the later versions of everything, but business was concerned about having stability so Caldera looked to fill that niche.
Caldera put together formal processes to produce a "Self Hosted" product. I don't know how many of you have ever had a problem getting source and having it recompile on the distribution of your choice, but any source Caldera distributed with their release was verified to be "makable" by the customer if they desired to rebuild it. I don't know of any other distribution which did this, at least until possible this last year.
I would hope that even if I don't make anything from the CALD IPO that they will do well. I for one would like to see Caldera and Ray Noorda get something back for all they have done to promote Linux and help it progress. I trust they will use the funds they receive to further promote Linux.
I also hope we can always have many choices in distributions and not have the market slimmed down to one choice. We all know what having a single choice can do!
Long Live Linux
So what if Forbes published that article, does it mean it's truth?
Caldera has a lot of nice stuff done for Linux, a lot of networking, and they published COAS and Lizard opensource. That's not nothing. Without the networking it has today, Linux wouldn't have been succesful at all.
Also, read this:
"Troll Tech would like to thank CEO Ransom Love and all the other good people at Caldera
Systems who have helped in many ways during the creation of the QPL. Their backing and
feedback have been invaluable during the process of making Qt Open Source."
Sigged!
Ok, dumb question.
How do they decide who gets the almighty letter and who doesn't?
What are you talking about?
I posted and said that new linux IPOs will not be as hot as Redhat or VA Linux due to a lack of branding. This is a similar argument to what the Forbes article says...where the fsck does anyone talk about Caldera's contributions to the linux community. In my post I do mention that Caldera is well known within the linux community don't I?
I don't get it. Do you work for Caldera or something? Are you a marketing droid or some PR flunkie that failed reading comprehension in high school?
PS: Read the fscking article.
With the recent spate of e:businesses setting up, getting and minimum operation together and filling IPO, its nice to see a company going IPO with at least a reasonable foundation behind it ie: a product and profit.
In the mean time why not visit LastMinute.com and see if you can help them break even
This company has a turnover of £600,000
This company floats the market at $700,000,000
Go figure
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Remember, these are tiny companies with no profits and little unique technology. They don't have anything that makes them valuable. Even worse, considering they have a business model that consists of putting free stuff in a box and selling it, it's embarassing that the Linux companies lose money. They're going to make it up on volume? Yeah, right.
Not that I don't think those people deserve to make a fair buck, but please don't be so naive as to think that your investment has anything intrinsic to do with open source.
As it stands, your investments in RHAT and LNUX are currently in the shithouse. You may regret putting your loan money into them (which is akin to investing on margin, which is typically a dumbass move).
Caldera, as many have pointed out here, doesn't distinguish itself from its competitors in a meaningful way. They sell themselves as being "for business" (whatever that means), but more appropriately that are just YAD (Yet Another Distro). If they wish to continue to beat the dead horse of their current marketing campaign, they need to tell me how they are more appropriate for small business than, say, Red Hat.
In the end, any race becomes a two horse race. This means two distros. This means Red Hat and a player to be named....but most likely not Caldera.
Best I can tell, there are two major reasons behind Caldera's move(beyond "they're afraid that NASDAQ is puking right now"):
1) Reverse psychology. Stocks have their prices raised in response to heavy demand. An interesting way to turn the tide on low investor demand is to *act* like there's high investor demand. Some portion of investors would believe that a company being convinced that their stock is going to be heavily demanded means their stock actually *is* going to be heavily demanded. And, gee, if investors think that a stock *is* demanded, suddenly it *is*.
2) Cash distribution, particularly if the market isn't thought to be amenable to second offerings. Caldera may not want to sell any more of its soul to venture capitalists. In order to do that, it has to make as much money--as a company--selling its shares to the market. Now, you do multiple releases when you think that your stock sale at time B is going to net more cash than a stock sale at time A. If you don't think the market will keep your stock so highly valued, or if you think you'll never "escape the gravity" of your present market position without an extensive war chest with which to market and develop with, you sell your shares off on the market once at as high a price as you can muster. Raising your IPO price, so you don't have to directly sell any more of the company to the venture capitalists, gives your company a much larger war chest, is moderately neutral to existing owners(although the lack of an initial runup to the higher price may harm momentum; see PALM), and is most painful to those lucky enough to have the right to purchase stock at the IPO price(since the delta from IPO to sale price is necessarily shrunken).
At least that's how I see it.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
Linux IPOs are destined to slow down for a variety of reasons. The most important of which is branding. Since the source is available and everyone can make a distro the only thing that counts (to the market) is brand recognition. That's why RedHat and VA Linux made all those deals and attached themselves to many websites so as to get brand recognition. After all to random investor X, who is Debian? But such people know Redhat and a lot of people actually believe that they own Linux or at least that Linus works for them or owns the company. Even supposed techies on ZDNet's talkbacks make comments like that just make my jaw drop in awe.
Anyway back to Caldera, it has no branding outside of the linux crowd except for being the company that sued MSFT and then settled for chump change. As Forbes eloquently put it
Although its tie-in to the free Linux operating system will secure a strong opening, Caldera's lack of fresh perspective and obscure branding leave little to inspire any ongoing enthusiasm.
In addition to striving after a dubious market, Caldera has failed to differentiate itself from the competition. The company has dabbled in both Linux software and hardware but has failed to make itself a market leader in any one area, says Dan Kusnetzky of IDC.
which is completely true and finally
This, says Yates, is the company's only chance if it hopes to define itself in an increasingly crowded marketplace. But Caldera will need to act fast, given that stock prices of Linux companies tend to come spiraling back to earth a few months after the IPO. Both VA Linux and Cobalt, for example, have lost more than half their value since their stellar debuts.
The way I see it besides SuSE and maybe Penguin Computing I can't see any Linux company IPO being as hot as VA Linux or Redhat's due to the lack of branding and distinguishment from the competition. Then again the Dow rose 499 points yesterday against all expectations when everyone and their mother said we were beginning to experience a long overdue correction, so who knows?
The Forbes article makes what seems to be a very reasonable criticism of Caldera, which is that it is an uninspiring company with a bland public imgae, that does little of worth to set it apart from its competitors.
This point of view presumably is not in any way in keeping with the feeling of most investors however, who seem to be keeping the company's shares in high demand.
It seems to me therefore that this company is being buoyed up solely by the fact that it does 'something with linux'. Given its lack of branding and strong competitors like RedHat and VA, I am assuming that investors don't care what exactly it does with linux, and that the mere mention of the OS that has become the daytrader's best friend is enough to drive share prices to inexplicable and unsustainable levels
The market for tech stocks is getting ridiculous at the moment, and what better example could there be than this; an uninspiring company, in an already crowded field, with an uncertain future business model, and people can't get enough.
Caldera will be remembered as an also ran. A company whose sole claim to fame (apart from 'doing linux') is that they failed to win a court case against the evil empire and settlesd for about $42 dollars and a field full of goats. Long live market stupidity!
gypsumfantastic
+++ The meaning of a statement is the method of its resolution
ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,,ø`ø,ø`ø
According to this advogato article, mostly kernel hackers (including Alan Cox) got offers. Seems some apache folks ago got it.
--
see shy jo
From lwn:
We have just received information that Caldera indeed has made their directed shares program available to international developers, particularly in Europe but including other areas of the globe. In order to do so, they are working with multiple investment firms. Wit Capital is handling only domestic US accounts, which is correct, but Bank of America Security, LLC is handling International accounts. Bank of America can be contacted at 415 627 3115, 600 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA. Account forms are due to them via FAX (415 913 5530) no later than Friday, March 10th, so move quickly if you have this opportunity. We have confirmed participation in Australia as well.
This is just a bunch of biased personal opinions, expecially the Forbes article.
They (and you) claim that Caldera has not contributed anything to the community. This is not true: they contributed and continue to do so, a lot of neat networking stuff in IP and IPX protocols. Also, they made NetWare for Linux (which is not like mars, but has a fully functional NDS v 4.x), an NDS client for Linux, ported Netscape FastTrack server to Linux, made Lizard and COAS available opensource...
I think these are important things. Caldera has contributed to the Linux community quite a lot, actually.
Sigged!
Why do you 'wonder' about that? I thought that originally getting into Linux wasn't about cashing in at some later date, but rather producing something for free. Redhat opened a real can of worms with it's little 'letter' campaign, and it really brought out the greed in people (the common mantra being "I work on package X...why didn't I get a 'letter'?").
Since you didn't get 'the letter', what then? No one is obligated to get free stock...since when did the free software movement turn to greed?