Intel Invests 12 Million Euro in SuSE

Bartmoss writes "Intel and the venture capital firm Apax are investing 12 million Euro in SuSE. Read the press release online. Looks like they want to open up new offices in parts of Europe, start moving into the Asian markets, and do the fashionable IPO thing. "

Comments

It is good to hear that Intel is involved.

[]Ace[]

One must remember that a big element in Red Hat's rise into repectability and brand poweress was Intel's initial investment in Red Hat. As a result of Intel's involvement, SuSE could become an European version of the American Linux powerhouse in its own industry. I see this as extremely good news for both SuSE and the linux companies at large. Any investment by Intel (i.e. Apple in the very beginning when Jobs was in his garage...) signifies instant respectability and credibility...

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interesting

[dothead]

hmmm, the EU is looking into a ban of the PIII and Intel starts investing in European companies. I guess things work the same way the world over.

This could spell doom for the Wintel alliance

[jd]

After Intel's massive investment in Red Hat, it was suspected that the Wintel alliance was getting shaky. But $12 million+ for SuSE is nothing to sneeze at, either!

If SuSE and Red Hat can get together and do strategic spending (no need for them to duplicate each other's staff & skill lists), then we could see some staggering strides towards the desktop.

On the other hand, if SuSE and Red Hat prefer bloody battle between each other, we could end up seeing a vicious fight indeed, with these kinds of resources available.

I guess we shall see.

Re:This could spell doom for the Wintel alliance

[Rexifer]

Intel's been investing in alternative OSes for a while. Be is another good example. You'll also note that Be started supporting the ia-32 architecture more than the PPC around that time.

But more importantly, it's pretty obvious that Intel is looking out for themselves... Why have all of your eggs in Microsoft's basket? ;)

Re:This could spell doom for the Wintel alliance

[CryoMax]

As others have spelled out, Intel's invested in several other OS's. It suits their interests -- they realize that if they can get everyone's OS to run on their platform, they can play both ends against the middle. At that point, they won't HAVE to care what OS gets used, they can be assured people will probably be using their processors. Then they can concentrate on what their own marketing and development.

The Microsoft fallout is probably threatening them a little, especially with AMD's resurging competition. Since Intel was almost completely "kept" by Microsoft, they had one advantage -- they could direct a lot more of their time and energy on development (albeit almost solely for Microsoft's purposes...) and the focus the Wintel alliance gave them is being eroded by new competitors and alternative OSes.

Maybe we'll see a Lintel alliance? Perhaps. But I think also perhaps Intel would like to simply promote their architecture for every OS out there. And after Microsoft, they'd probably be a little gunshy about official "alliances" with any one particular OS in the future...

--
If it's not important, you can probably find it in...

SuSE v Red Hat

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

This had to happen. SuSE and Red Hat are almost exactly the same size (SuSE makes a profit, Red Hat a small loss) and Red Hat are expanding into SuSE's 'patch' - even recruiting Alan Cox along the way.
Now SuSE are trying to expand in the same way - this money is to expand their marketing.
They still have to take the step of 'going public' (an IPO) - this is not a good time to go that way in Germany.

Re:The Value of the Euro..

[xtype]

Although, I suppose I would have been more accurate if I would have sated the exchange rate.

12,000,000 * 1.019300 = 12,231,599.81

DON'T FORGET THE 'TEL'in 'WINTEL'

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey guys don't forget that Intel has a vested
interest in the wintel hegemony.

They may be giving Redhat, VA research and Suse money. but do you really want to replace windows
with Pentium?

Look at VA linux they have stopped selling or
developing for any system but INTEL.

NO Alpha,
NO PPC,
NO AMD,

NO Nothing, except INTEL from VA Research.

They even have started spouting INTEL FUD about
how merced will take over the world.

When these linux companies get bought by big
companies with vested interests they will begin
to change.

We just don't want software choice we also
want hardware choice. don't forget that.

So VA Research, and all those companies that are
making it rich on linux. remember where it all
came from. And support linux on all hardware possible.

SuSE and RedHat

[Bartmoss]

Well I see some major differences between the way RH and SuSE conduct business. RH seem to be a "Linux freak" community moving into the business area; SuSE seems the more mature but "less cool" approach. RH makes minimal losses, SuSE is profitanle. I don't think they're going to slug it out now, as some users suggest - there's a huge market out there, and it's virtually divided by RedHat, SuSE and maybe Debian. They're not invading each other's turf, either - if one company hires, say Alan Cox to work on Linux, it benefits the competition just as much.

The battle's going to be over who converts the most new users to Linux. That's where most packages are sold, I'd wager, and also over market share in the business support area. That's where the money lies with Linux.

I'd also like to point out that SuSE is a general distributor of (Linux) software and even hardware.. For example, I bought Civ:CTP from them.

I'd say RH is firmly entrenched in the US, while SuSE holds much of the EU. SuSE is now doing the sensible thing - instead of trying to compete overly much with RH, they're grabbing market shares in other, more "linux virgin" markets.

We'll see what happens... I'd also like to see how well SuSE stock performs at an IPO - Certainly not as spectacular as redhat, but I'd predict growth nonetheless... Afterall SuSE does make profits in addition to beingon the top of the Linux wave .. ;)

Good And Bad

[z84976]

This is good because it will help a lot of R&D happen a lot faster than it otherwise would have, but at what cost?

I use SuSE pretty much exclusively, and I love it. When the Athlon first came out, the SuSE boot disk wouldn't work with it. SuSE very quickly posted an Athlon-compatible boot disk on their web site. Do you think Intel's investment will prod SuSE to ignore AMD? I think Intel makes fine products, but if these investments are just their way of discouraging software support for their competitors' products... well, they will have to be stopped. They've proven beyond any doubt this year that they no longer hold their #1 Chip Company position by superior products; strongarm tactics and (semi-)empty threats are their new modus operandi. I'm buying an Athlon soon because I want the best for my next x86 PC, and if SuSE backs down on support for it I'll be cancelling my subscription and going back to Slackware...

I'm not so sure

[DanaL]

It seems to me that Intel investing in other OSes is almost old hat. Not only did then send money RedHat's way, the sent Intel engineers over to Be Inc. in order to help them with the port of BeOS to x86 platform.

Mind you, that was also before Linux was generally considered a serious threat to Windows.

Dana

Re:SuSE IPO ?

[mha]

SuSE AG is a holding. It contains several sub-companies (as "GmbH"s), one of the SuSE Press, another one is SuSE Inc. (SuSE Oakland, California), and so on. Shares of a company that is based on stock don't have to be traded publically. You can found your own "AG" and own 100% of the stock. Only some "AG"s are traded publically. Should be the same in the US.
--
Michael Hasenstein
http://www.csn.tu-chemnitz.de/~mha/

Let's look at WHY they're doing this!

[ComStar]

Ok, I look at these posts and I see a problem. It seems everyone is all happy that suse is getting money, etc. However, I would like to point out that Intel is possibly going to be under an embargo to Europe - this very story was posted earlier today. Doesn't that seem a little strange?

If you don't see the connection, then think about how many hihg-tech jobs would be created if Intel were to open multiple software offices in Europe. These jobs would be filled by Europeans (not tiny green men, against popular belief). Goverments LIKE high-tech jobs because they pay well (more taxes for the government to collect), very low pollution (less for the government to spend), and make people happier as well. SO, how inclined do you think Intel would be to actually open these offices if their own product was unable to be sold in Europe?

They say the world is run by money. They're right. I don't like the PIII serial number. All my systems will not have PIIIs in them - besides, the athlons are proving themselves to be better. And I can't wait till the upgradeable ones come out! To be able to upgrade my own L1 cache - and up to 8MB! Woohoo!