Slashdot Mirror
OpenIPO and Lindows
An anonymous reader writes "Lindows is using bankers WRHambrecht and their OpenIPO process when they go public. The lower end of the pricing range will net them more than 50MM. But OpenIPO is designed to let ANYONE bid on IPO shares. If Linux can keep investor's attention and Google announces their own IPO, they could raise much more which could have impact on desktop Linux. Same CEO had near perfect timing raising 300MM with MP3.com IPO." OpenIPO is the same route Andover.net took back in the day.
Mod me down if you must, but I hope that a majority of the IPO dollars are spent refining the GUI AND THE FUNCTIONALITY to be more similar to Windows.
The fact of the matter is that it will have to more closely mirror M$'s interface than you think to be accepted, perceived improvements included.
If Longhorn came out with an OSX-like GUI, it would work, but any other OS has to ingratiate itself slowly.
Not that 2008 for Longhorn isn't slow, but you get the point.
I have a plan. Using mainly spoons, we'll tunnel our way out of the city...
I suspect a big reason people use the current IPO process is not because they feel it's the best process for raising the maximum revenue, but because it raises acceptable amounts of revenue while letting people connected to the IPO profit by purchasing underpriced shares at launch. For this reason IPO shares are usually handed out as perks to people connected with either the company itself or their financial firm.
But OpenIPO is designed to let ANYONE bid on IPO shares.
Sounds to me like legal way to scam/cash in on hype and an overenthusiastic general public.
Benjamin Graham (Warren Buffets "idol") used to say that IPO stands for "It's Probably Overpriced".
Factor that in with an irrational and overenthusiastic general public lacking investment skills thinking all IPO:s are winners (they usually forget the last bubble in good times) and you have a table set for even more inflated IPO:s and ludicrous business models going public.
It is interesting that this company's management was apparently involved in previous dud tech floats. This is the latest in a long series of floatations by companies that have not gone from the stage of having a good idea to the stage of making money from it. There is an unfortunate precedent for this company: just as users of mp3 sites wanted (at that stage) something for nothing, so linux users are generally still looking at the system as a cheaper, or free, alternative to those on the market. For Lindows to make a decent profit, it will either have to change the culture of its user base, or make serious inroads into the entrenched Windows market. Either will be a formidable task.
But can someone explain what the huge appeal with Lindows still is? All of the hype building up to the release had to do with it's ability to run Windows apps.
This functionality was never above or beyond any other Linux distribution... so it's just another distro now... right or wrong? What else does it offer besides the click and play?
Oh, come on. MP3.com was sued into obscurity, it didn't fail because it was a bad idea.
So you're saying it wasn't a bad idea for them to follow a business model that was bound to piss off the major labels and get themselves sued into oblivion?
The funny thing is that if you have a stable business with stable income, you don't need to rely on venture capital and therefore would have much more clout when it comes time to whore your business to America via Nasdaq.
When you raise venture capital, you sell your business to pimps, who in turn whore it out to the world. Thats what VCs do. If they had a legitimate business model, they wouldn't need to rely on VCs nearly as much.