Caldera Systems Files For IPO

Well we figured it was either Caldera or LinuxCare, but I've seen the Press Release: The latest Linux Company to file for an initial public offering is Caldera Systems. (btw they need to win an award for 'Linux company CEO with name most likely to be confused with an action hero' for Ransom Love) No word on when or shares or anything, but I'm sure all will trickle out in due time. The rumors are raging that Linuxcare is due to file their S1 before the end of the week.

Caldera Systems != Caldera

They are related, but Caldera & Microsoft settled the lawsuit. Caldera system is different.

Re:"Friends and family" program looks juicy

Wit Capital is a rightious corporation. Starting from a private offering of a microbrewery to fans of their beer, to creating an online market venue for owners of those shares, they basically invented and forced the US SEC to recognize, the intersection of the `net and the stock market.

Go read their story. It's pretty fun.

Re:Caldera Systems, Inc. is a registered trademark

oops. this one [slashdot.org] is the one with (more of) the details. (See what I mean about the poofreader thing? :-)

Wrong Logo - Different Company

Slashdot needs to get a logo for Caldera Systems-- an entirely seperate company from Caldera Inc.(Yes, this also means that this is not the company that just settled a lawsuit with Microsoft.)

Just wait! (was Re:We can't)

I know how you feel. I've had my saving stuck in 4% bonds for the past few years. Now that I've turned 19, I got a self directed RRSP (Canadian term) trading account at www.tdwaterhouse.ca (.com for those in the States). I've made about 40% on my money since then. We've got our lifetimes ahead of us, and I'm sure there will be more hot Linux IPO's. Chances are you'll get stock options in your own company, so have fun.

BTW, if you are interested in learning how to invest, check out http://www.fool.com, as they are an excellent site for the newcomer. Watch for me on the M$FT board fighting FUD.

Caldera company clarifications

Ok, so I thought that "Caldera, Inc." spun off "Caldera Thin Clients" into "Lineo" and then became "Caldera Systems, Inc." but according to some of the posts under this article, "Caldera, Inc." is apparently still around? I'm confused.

What does "Caldera, Inc." do anymore, or are they just a company that exists for the express purpose of suing Microsoft since "Caldera Systems, Inc." is the "OpenLinux company" and "Lineo" is the "embedded Linux, DRDOS, etc. company" or do I have that all screwed up, despite looking on all their websites.

(FWIW, "www.caldera.com" and "www.calderasystems.com" are identical and feature Open Linux, "www.lineo.com" is what you would expect with Embeddix, Embrowser, DRDOS, etc, and "www.calderainc.com" forwards to "www.drdos.com", the only content on which is information about the "Caldera vs. Microsoft" lawsuit.)

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Buy! But, why??

First off, let me just say that while I probably won't put as much into this as I did the RedHat IPO, I'm almost certain to buy a few shares, and probably sell them when they look close to the initial peak, just like I did RedHat.

Now, the question:
WHY?!?!? I've been at this a decently long time, and while techs are the sweetie of the stock market right now, we're starting to reach a glut of tech stocks where NONE of them are profitable. Look at Caldera's figures... unless there's some catastrophic correction event, the IPO will likely skyrocket like the others in the first few days. But, c'mon here... Revenue was $3.1M, loss was $9.4M with strikingly similar behavior in the previous two years.

The stock market is not a zero-sum game, but neither is it the Great Inverter, destined to sweep all chronically red companies into the black. Eventually, something has to give, and I don't see that time being too far off at this point... tech stocks have a trial by fire in the next 2 years, or I'll eat my sock.

So, buy buy buy. I'll just be watching for the revolution, 'cause I don't care to be first against the wall when it does come... Hear the gunshots yet? ;)

What correction?

That wasn't a correction, it was a tiny little dip, the system reset itself already. I agree, there is gonna be hell to pay pretty soon. Too many internet companies are trying to grow themselves to fast. They throw out common business sense in the hope that they can either grow large enough to sustain themselves or they get bought out by some bigger company. They are betting way to much on the future. YES some of them will survive, I'm not saying we'll see a total crash of the stock market. I just believe that it's very likely that the overvalued stocks are gonna reset themselves to more sane levels. The next 2 years is the most likely timeframe, probably right after xmas season of 2000. Of course the way the New Economy seems to operate I could be totally wrong. It's very possible that the rate of growth of the internet will sustain these companies growth and they will become profitable. I don't think that's very likely though.

You are confounding Caldera and Corel

Without endorsing your comments, it is clear that you mean to refer sometimes to Corel, other times Caldera. It is Corel that based their distribution on Debian, not Caldera. It is Corel that created the Netwinder (now spun-off to Rebel.com), not Caldera. It is Caldera that sued Microsoft over DR-DOS, not Corel.

And yes, Caldera has a product, which is closer to RedHat than Debian (at least, it uses RPM). They've been around a long time, and they are very well respected by many people. So, if you're going to be critical, you'd better get a clue what you're talking about first.

Re:Caldara IPO

beware of those addressing people as 'folks' regarding stock activity.

"Friends and family" program looks juicy

From this quote in the S-1, it looks like there's going to be another friends and family program for open source developers. Kudos to them for being upfront and stating clearly that 5% is set aside for this.

Directed Share Program. At our request, the underwriters have reserved for sale, at the initial public offering price, up to ten percent of the shares of common stock offered in this offering under a directed share program. We
currently expect that approximately half of these shares will be offered to directors, officers, employees, business associates, and related persons of Caldera Systems pursuant to a directed share program being administered by FleetBoston Robertson Stephens Inc., and that approximately half of these shares, pursuant to a directed share program being administered by Wit Capital Corporation, will be offered to open source software developers and other persons that we believe have contributed to the success of the open source software community and to the growth of Caldera Systems. We cannot assure you that any of the reserved shares will be so purchased. The number of shares of common stock available for sale to the general public in this offering will be reduced by the number of reserved shares sold. Any reserved shares not purchased will be offered to the general public on the same basis as the other shares offered in this offering.