Author: JT Smith
alleged pressing needs for financial liquidity, recent layoffs of part of its senior management team and
planned layoffs in its Development team, MandrakeSoft Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Jacques Le
Marois explains that “former CEO Henri Poole and himself mutually agreed on the management change
over a month ago as a result of a divergence of views regarding the Company’s strategic outlook:
Henri’s vision was to establish MandrakeSoft as a leader in the e-learning and e-support arenas
without a specific focus on Linux, whereas my view is that the source of our success and very essence
of our Company is the Linux-Mandrake operating system, and that all of our online services such as
MandrakeExpert and MandrakeCampus should be geared to support it and bring value to our user
community.Furthermore, there is absolutely no foundation in the rumour that we are planning to
layoff our Development team, who represent a crucial asset for MandrakeSoft, especially in light of our
refocusing on our core Linux values.”
Le Marois further points out that “MandrakeSoft’s prospects have never looked so good: In 2000,
Linux-Mandrake took #1 slot in US Linux retail sales (Source: PC Data). The recent management
changes and refocusing of our strategy on our core distribution and related online and offline services
have allowed us to make major savings and we are on course to break even within a few months. The
announcement of the latest release of the Linux-Mandrake operating system – version 8.0 – has met
with unprecedented success, both in terms of user adoption, which is made obvious by the hundreds of
thousands of versions downloaded from our Web site since the announcement, and in terms of positive
media coverage and pre-sales to our business partners throughout the world. The imminent launch of
MandrakeStore, our online store, will create a solid new revenue stream: we’ve already pre-sold
thousands of PowerPack Editions online. In addition, there are already more than 35,000 registered
users on MandrakeExpert and MandrakeCampus, which represents massive revenue potential for us
going forward: we will shortly be introducing an online ‘tipping’ system, allowing users to reward those
Experts who provide them with useful responses to their Linux-Mandrake related questions, and
MandrakeSoft will take a commission on each transaction. Besides, a paying user registration system to
MandrakeExpert will also shortly be introduced, which represents yet another source of revenue for the
Company”. Le Marois concludes that “all these positive elements, together with the fact that we have
built a very large individual and professional user community at very little expense, and have an
experienced and highly committed management team to execute our strategy, are playing in our favour
for our plans to IPO in the coming months, so watch this space!”
About MandrakeSoft
Mandrakesoft provides a trusted interface between users of information technology and open
technologists. The Linux-Mandrake distribution received the awards for “Best Product of the Year” and
“Best Linux-Distribution/Server” at LinuxWorld Expo 99, as well as the PC Answers Platinum Award in
April 2000, the Linux Magazine Editor’s Choice Award in September 2000 and the Chip Magazine
“Best Technique and Winner of the Test” in December 2000.
MandrakeSoft established headquarters in Pasadena (US), Montreal (Quebec – Canada), London (UK),
Germany and Paris. Information on Mandrakesoft can be found on their Website:
www.mandrakesoft.com.
