SHORT TAKES

MOTOROLA PLACES BIG BET ON LINUX DEVELOPER LINEO

Schaumburg, ILL. — Motorola Inc. is the latest company to embrace the establishment of open-source Linux technology as an embedded operating environment. The Schaumburg, Ill., company announced it plans to buy 3 million shares of Lineo Inc., an embedded Linux solution developer, for $22.5 million. Its acquisition of 8 percent of the Lindon, Utah, company’s issued shares will take place through Motorola’s wholly owned subsidiary Metrowerks. A company spokesman said Motorola was committed to establishing Linux as the open platform choice for embedded development, particularly as its customers require increasingly more complex capabilities in embedded devices. Al Gillan, an analyst for International data Corp. in Framingham, Mass., welcomed the announcement, saying the ongoing commitment by the big players was further good news for the embedded Linux community. “This deal will allow Motorola to influence Lineo [through Metrowerks] to cooperate and work on projects that are beneficial to it,” Gillan said. “As Motorola doesn’t sell its own operating system, this deal will help boost the sale of its chips and products.”

As a result of the investment and strategic partnership, Lineo and Metrowerks will work on combining Lineo’s embedded Linux solution Embedix with Metrowerk’s CodeWarrior Integrated Development Environment. CodeWarrior for Embedix will support Motorola processor architectures including PowerPC, ColdFire, M-CORE and 68K. Bryan Sparks, Lineo’s CEO, said the deal strengthened its commitment to the use of Linux in the embedded market and would provide embedded device manufacturers with more choice, flexibility and solutions in the future. Lineo will announce at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, Calif., a joint venture with Samsung of Korea to embed Linux in a range of Samsung products. It will also give details of an alliance with Access Japan to produce Internet appliances and reseller partnerships in Japan with Dia Semicon Systems and Kanematsu Semiconductor Corp.

HEWLETT-PACKARD SAYS IT WILL MEET PROFIT TARGETS

New York, N.Y. — Hewlett-Packard shares avoided the huge tech selloff last Friday after it said it will meet profit targets for the upcoming quarter and buy back $1 billion in stock. Hewlett-Packard said it’s on track to meet fourth quarter consensus estimates. A survey of analysts by First Call is forecasting earnings of $1.03 per share. Shares rose $4.13 to $99.13 on strong volume of 1.3 million shares in morning trades.

The Palo Alto, Calif. maker of printers and computers also named Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina as chairman of the board. She remains president and chief executive officer. She succeeds Dick A. Hackborn, a former H-P executive and current member of the board, who had been serving as non-executive chairman. He will remain on the board. The company said its $1 billion share buyback will “enable us to repurchase additional shares at attractive prices.” Hewlett-Packard reiterated that it remains confident of meeting its 15 percent revenue growth targets and is comfortable that it will meet consensus analyst earnings estimates of $1.03 per share for the fourth quarter.

CODEWEAVERS ANNOUNCES $1.8 MILLION IN FUNDING

Minneapolis, MINN. — CodeWeavers, Inc., a leading Linux porting company, has announced a private investment deal worth $1.8 million to fund the continued development of its applications which allow users to run Windows software on the Linux operating system. CodeWeavers was founded by Jeremy White, who also works extensively with the Wine Project, a consortium of programmers working on a universal “Windows-to-Linux” application that will enable many Windows applications to be run using the Linux operating system. “This investment will help us take Wine to the next level, and make the transition from Windows to Linux a much less painful one,” said Alexandre Julliard, Wine Development Lead at CodeWeavers. “More importantly it shows the recognition and confidence of the investment community in this explosive porting technology – that speaks volumes.” The funding deal is being led by a $1.3 million investment by Linux Global Partners, a New York City-based holding company, which focuses solely on investments in the Linux sector. John Gilmore, a California-based programming luminary, provided additional funding.

“When we saw the work being done at CodeWeavers it was clear that Jeremy White and his team were a group that we wanted to be involved with,” said William J. Roseman, co-chairman of Linux Global Partners. “What the Justice Department and Microsoft have debated for months is irrelevant because of this technology. Users can now have the unequaled stability of the Linux operating system, and the familiarity of the Windows applications that they have come to be dependent on – it’s the best of both worlds.” In addition to the porting aspect, CodeWeavers provides an outsourced option to help companies remain focused on current product strategies and support requirements in the wake of emerging trends and technology. In addition, CodeWeavers provides training, support and consulting services to developers looking to bring their applications to Linux.

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