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Some answers from Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos

From:  "Xenia von Wedel" <xenia-AT-terpin.com>
To:  <lwn-AT-lwn.net>
Subject:  Xandros Acquired Linspire
Date:  Tue, 1 Jul 2008 12:11:43 -0700
Message-ID:  <20080701191149.9457F16C90F@vena>


Q&A with Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos

Q: What are you announcing today?
A: Xandros' acquisition of Linspire, a pioneer in the commercial desktop
Linux marketplace with its easy-to-use commercial Linspire operating system
and innovative Linux software delivery service CNR.

Q: How did this deal come about?
A: Xandros and Linspire have had talks at the CEO level over the years about
the possibility of a combination given their historically similar
Debian-based roots and complementary product lines. Such talks accelerated
in late 2007 and culminated in the current agreement.

Q: What are the financial terms of the deal?
A: Like many private commercial transactions, the financial terms of the
agreement are not being disclosed.

Q: Is this an acquisition or a merger?
A: An acquisition.

Q: How many Linspire employees are coming to Xandros?
A: All of the engineering, support, and key sales staff have been retained,
apart from a small number of administrative and related resources, given
redundancy with Xandros in a number of such areas. 

Q: Will Linspire CEO Larry Kettler and other Linspire managers be joining
the Xandros management team?
A: Yes, Larry Kettler will be joining our executive management team as VP of
Business Development.

Q: How many employees are on the combined payroll?
A: Xandros has been on a fast growth path for the last couple of years; has
an aggressive headcount and revenue growth plan at this time; and is
currently in heavy hiring mode. We believe that at this point Xandros is
already the third largest Linux Company in the world, and that we may
already be the largest private Linux Company in the world.

Q: Will Linspire's San Diego office remain opened?
A: Yes.

Q: Will Freespire continue to be maintained as an open source project?
A: Yes.

Q: Will Xandros maintain separate Xandros and Linspire/Freespire lines of
desktop products?
A: Pending further planning, at this point both product lines will be
maintained.

Q: What will happen to existing Linspire/Freespire users?
A: No changes are planned

Q: What, if any, desktop technologies from the two companies will be
combined?
A: No plans are developed yet in that regard.

Q: What are the total sales and profits for the combined company?
A: Since Xandros is privately held, these figures are not publicly
disclosed.

Q: What are the benefits to Xandros from this deal?
A: It provides Xandros with advanced CNR technologies and Linux expertise.
It also enlarges the Xandros customer base and support network. 

Q: Is this part of the Xandros expansion into enterprise markets?
A: Yes. This is part of Xandros' larger plan and vision for being a full
product company to service both the consumer/OEM and enterprise markets. 

Q: How is this deal related to last year's agreement between Xandros and
Microsoft?
A: It is not

Q: How is this affect your Microsoft relationship ... were they consulted on
the deal?
A: It will not affect our Microsoft relationship. Xandros has always planned
to continue increasing its product portfolio, and Microsoft understands and
respects our strategy in that regard. On whether Microsoft was consulted,
Xandros is an independent company and consults internally with its board,
management, and advisors, and not with outside parties in making decisions. 

Q: What is the organizational structure of the combined organization?
A: Linspire is an independent company, even though it's a wholly owned
subsidiary of Xandros. At this time Andreas Typaldos, the CEO of Xandros, is
also President of Linspire. Also, the VP of Engineering of Linspire will
have a reporting relationship to Ming Poon, the VP of Engineering of
Xandros. 

Q: How does this acquisition affect existing Linspire and Freespire
customers and brands?
A: We believe that it will help them, by making them part of a larger
community of Xandros users, and by providing them with the support of a
large, global, full-product Linux solutions company, with larger product and
technology footprint, and greater development, support, and financial
resources. 

Q: Will this result in new/changed product offerings?
A: No plans have been developed yet in that regard.

Q: Will this deal result in tighter integration between Xandros and Linspire
products?
A: Yes.

Q: When can we expect to see re-launched products combining the benefits of
both company's technologies?
A: Integration of CNR and the Xandros Networks on Xandros and other
platforms will be launched shortly. Additional products to follow.

Q: How will this affect Xandros' and Linspire's open source strategies and
plans?
A: It will not.

Q: What will happen to CNR customers using Ubuntu, Red Hat, SUSE, and other
Linux operating systems?
A: No changes planned at this time.

Q: When will CNR provide Xandros support? 
A: In July 2008.
###




to post comments

World Domination?

Posted Jul 2, 2008 7:32 UTC (Wed) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link]

Q: What will happen to existing Linspire/Freespire users?
A: No changes are planned

Some non-answers from Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos

Posted Jul 2, 2008 15:10 UTC (Wed) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link] (3 responses)

Asking yourself a direct question and then not answering?

"How many employees are on the combined payroll?"

"What are the total sales and profits for the combined company?"

Some non-answers from Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos

Posted Jul 2, 2008 18:07 UTC (Wed) by sbdep (subscriber, #13282) [Link] (2 responses)

Q&A or FAQ doesn't mean Andy is asking himself the questions.  This comes from the various
media questions that have been asked, and provides the answers that would otherwise have to be
repeated for every interview.


Some non-answers from Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos

Posted Jul 2, 2008 19:21 UTC (Wed) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link] (1 responses)

This is Xandros asking questions of Xandros as far as I can tell.  The answer to the first
non-answered question was just self-serving blather.  The answer to the second was just
misleading - a privately held company is not legally required to release any financial
information, but it is not disallowed from doing so.  The real answers to the two questions
are "I don't want you to know the answer."

Some non-answers from Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos

Posted Jul 3, 2008 20:36 UTC (Thu) by hingo (guest, #14792) [Link]

Actually, in the hypotethical situation that Xandros is about to go public, they are in the US prohibited from talking about any of their financial figures in the media. It is called "the quiet period" before an IPO and after that you only communicate financial information as regulated by the SEC. But I would be surprised to see Xandros going public anytime soon. So yes, you're right.


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