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VA Linux proposes name change

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By Matt Berger
IDG News Service, 10/31/01

First it dumped Linux-based hardware from its sales channel, and now VA Linux Systems is asking shareholders to boot the open-source operating system from its corporate identity.

The Fremont, Calif., software and services company will ask shareholders to vote to change the company's name from VA Linux Systems to VA Software at its annual meeting on Dec. 5, according to a notice filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Our board of directors believes that the name VA Software better identifies us and our primary business: developing, marketing, selling and supporting the SourceForge collaborative software development platform," the company wrote in its filing. "The board . . . also believes that the name VA Linux Systems is primarily identified with our former Linux hardware systems and consulting businesses."

VA Linux said in June that it would exit the hardware business, a market that was the center of its operations from the start and responsible for its stellar initial public offering in 1999. The company was best known for selling servers that were based on Intel processors and preloaded with versions of the Linux operating system from distributors including Red Hat and SuSE Linux.

With its hardware products aimed at the dot-com start-up sector, which soon faltered, and with major hardware vendors such as Dell Computer and IBM offering competing Linux products, VA Linux saw much of its market opportunity deteriorate.

Now VA Linux is focusing on its software platform, called SourceForge - a collaborative development environment used to manage open-source projects or proprietary internal software development projects at major technology companies. The company also operates the Open Source Development Network, which includes developer community Web sites SourceForge.net, Slashdot and ThinkGeek.

If shareholders approve the name change, in addition to a new corporate identity the company also said it will change its trading symbol, which is currently listed as LNUX on the NASDAQ.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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