MandrakeSoft financial position improves SCOOPED!

According to MandrakeSoft’s latest annual financial statement, which covers the company’s fiscal year that ended September 30, 2003, gross revenues are down but profit margins are up. Retail sales now make up less than 25% of the company’s total income picture, down from 44% last year, while MandrakeClub membership fees now produce 66% of the company’s revenue, up from 42% last year.Total revenue decreased by 16%, compared to last year, to 3.90M?, but 2003 losses were cut to 2.17M? — 0.59? per share — from 5.73 M? — 1.58? per share — in MandrakeSoft’s 2002 fiscal year. Some of the decline in revenue is attributed to currency value fluctuations; MandrakeSoft’s dollar revenues are now worth less in euros than they were a year ago, a result of the U.S. dollar’s recent softness in the international currency marketplace.

While revenue decreased by 16%, MandrakeSoft says operational expenses have been reduced by 39%, and that while the company is still not profitable, it has lost less money in the last year than ever before.

This, though, is the most telling statement in the report:

The company entered redressement judiciaire (a Chapter 11 like process) on January 27, 2003. It was granted an initial six month “observation period”, which was renewed in July 2003. Throughout this process, the company is assisted by a court appointed administrator. The company has exploited this opportunity to eliminate a number of long term contracts unnecessary for current or planned operations.

The company is now preparing a plan to exit the redressement judiciaire and resume normal trading.

This is good news not only for MandrakeSoft investors, but for anyone who values MandrakeSoft’s many contributions to the Linux and free software communities, and hopes to see Mandrake remain one of the world’s premier Linux distributions for many years to come.