Caldera receives $30m cash injection

Caldera Systems has received a $30 million investment from industry players, including Sun and Novell, to improve the growing acceptance of the operating system.

The Linux developer said the investment would be used to fund existing operations and accelerate the pace of acceptance and growth of Linux.Additional investors included thin client software maker Citrix, SCO and venture firms Egan-Managed Capital and Chicago Venture Partners, which all have representatives on Caldera's board.

Ransom Love, president of Caldera, said: "We went out and tried to find partners, not just investors. We weren't looking for money. We were looking for people who could help us with our Linux for e-business strategy."

Caldera is considering an initial public offering. Other Linux related companies, including Red Hat and VA Linux, have each received tens of millions of dollars from their flotations in recent months.

Rob Enderle, analyst at Giga Information Group, commented: "Red Hat can move into Caldera's space without breathing hard, but Caldera would not be able to move into Red Hat's space with any assurance of success," he said.

Caldera has been targeting the first time user market as well as enticing Vars to sell its Open Linux product line. The company competes with Red Hat, SuSE, Turbolinux and other versions of Linux.

Separately Caldera has settled its three year antitrust lawsuit with Microsoft for undisclosed terms. Caldera had claimed that Microsoft illegally tried to maintain its monopoly in operating systems.